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posted by Fnord666 on Friday November 10 2017, @09:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-river-runs-through-it dept.

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

A recent study paints a sobering picture about the state of our oceans.

According to the paper, published last month in Environmental Science and Technology, rivers deposit up to 4 million metric tonnes of plastic into the sea -- and about 95 per cent of that comes from just 10 waterways.

Previous studies suggested about 67 per cent of plastic in the oceans came from 20 rivers. For this study, researchers out of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Science used a larger data set to reach their findings, sampling from 79 sites along 57 rivers around the world.

Eight of the 10 rivers are in Asia. [...]

  • Yangtze River, Yellow Sea, Asia
  • Indus River, Arabian Sea, Asia
  • Yellow River (Huang He), Yellow Sea, Asia
  • Hai River, Yellow Sea, Asia
  • Nile, Mediterranean Sea, Africa
  • Meghna/Bramaputra/Ganges, Bay of Bengal, Asia
  • Pearl River (Zhujiang), South China Sea, Asia
  • Amur River (Heilong Jiang), Sea of Okhotsk, Asia
  • Niger River, Gulf of Guinea, Africa
  • Mekong River, South China Sea, Asia

Source: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/ninety-five-percent-of-plastic-in-sea-comes-from-just-ten-rivers/89034/


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday November 10 2017, @11:18PM (4 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 10 2017, @11:18PM (#595400) Journal

    Too little to late. It's easier/cheaper to collect this plastic before it gets into the river.

    Note that both of the solution don't address the question: "Then, what?"
    In fact, this is the root of the problem - if you can answer to "What do you do with the plastic once you collect it, no matter when/from where?", then you have a solution which will cause the plastic pollution problem to go away.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:50AM (#595421)

    You can change the culture (no more dumping!) of a billion people who live in an area of ten million square miles, or you can build a single large facility to deal with the problem.

    There is no question that cleaning the output of a huge river would be costly, but perhaps it is still cheaper and easier than the alternative. You'll never get full compliance from a billion poor people who really don't give a damn.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:41AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:41AM (#595457)

    Incinerate it.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:58AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:58AM (#595460) Journal

      Not all plastic burn.
      Many plastics burn releasing toxic fumes.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:06PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:06PM (#595578)

      Incinerate it

      But modern people have developed a phobia about fire. There are younger people who have never lit or managed a fire in their life. Myself, I burn an average of about 1 cwt of stuff* every week. i'd rather do that than have the council (local authority) collect it as they have become so fussy about what they will and will not take that I cannot be bothered and I burn what is burnable.

      * Mostly vegetation. The paper stuff helps get it going. Also old clothes, boots etc