There are likely hundreds of trillions of pieces of plastic floating around the world’s oceans – and one country has been named the worst polluter.
Millions of tons of plastic end up in Earth’s water bodies every year, and less than 10 percent of the world’s annual plastic production is recycled, according to the World Health Organization. Ocean plastic pollution can carry disease, harm wildlife, and alter the ocean’s critical role taking in carbon dioxide and helping to regulate the planet’s climate.
While China and the US are the world’s largest plastic producers, as well as the countries with the largest emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases, a new list has named the Philippines as the country that produces the most plastic pollution found in ocean waters.
The Southeast Asian country produces 7.27 pounds (3.30 kilograms) of mismanaged plastic waste per person each year, according to a new report from business energy consulting group Utility Bidder. The group used the research and data-sharing publication Our World in Data.
The US produces fewer than 0.02 pounds (0.01 kilograms) per person.
However, when looking at countries with the highest number of waste exports per person, the Philippines is ranked 42nd.
South America’s Suriname ranked second, producing 6.37 pounds (2.89 kilograms) per person. Other island nations around the world rank within the top five, including Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Lucia, which came in third and fourth, respectively. Malaysia rounded out the top five, with about 5 pounds (2.29 kilograms) per person each year.
However, Utility Bidder also found that the likelihood plastic will be emitted into the ocean is higher in Oceania’s Palau than in any other country, at a 13.74 percent chance. Although, the small oceanic country produces just 15,000 pounds, or seven tons, of plastic each year.
The Central European country of Slovenia exported about 139 pounds (63 kilograms) of plastic waste per person: more than any other country in the world.
The group said last year that around 0.5 percent of plastic waste ends up in the ocean, and that nearly a quarter of the world’s plastic waste is mismanaged or littered.
Other major countries produced much fewer plastic pollution per person each year. Canada and the UK were both in line with the US. However, India produced nearly 0.2 pounds (0.09 kilograms) and China produced about 0.11 pounds 0.05 kilograms). Brazil, the site of next year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, produced 0.39 pounds (0.18 kilograms).
