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A Recent Study Show 95% of Plastic in the Sea Comes From Just 10 Rivers

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

MrPlow writes:

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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Original Submission

• Re:FILTHY SUBHUMANS Re:FILTHY SUBHUMANS (Score: 2, Informative) by choose another one on Friday November 10 2017, @11:06PM (1 child)

  by choose another one (515) on Friday November 10 2017, @11:06PM (#595394)

  Yeah, weird isn't it, the nations of filthy subhumans ask China to make all their plastic shite cheaply, then send they the trash (er sorry the "recycling") back to China and then blame China for the pollution problem.

  Those nations would get real upset if China cottoned on and tried to do something like, oh I dunno let's say "ban all imports of shit for recycling", probably accuse them of not playing fair in trade or something...

  Parent

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• Re:FILTHY SUBHUMANS (Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:53AM

  by frojack (1554) on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:53AM (#595424) Journal

  Been asleep for a few years?

  Way back in 2013 China started cutting off inbound shipments of recycled plastics.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/05/09/chinas-crackdown-on-trash-could-make-it-harder-for-u-s-cities-to-recycle/ [washingtonpost.com]

  This year China decided to end all imports of solid waste.
  https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-07-20/china-s-war-on-foreign-garbage [bloomberg.com]

  But guess what... They have to import more oil and cut more forests to make up. See above article)

  The stuff in China's rivers is put there by China's consumers, NOT by western recyclers.
  The recycled stuff came pre-sorted, separated, bailed, bundled, and mostly clean. The stuff pickup up at curbside in china is way more expensive to use.

  Los Angeles Times: “China has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest trash producer, churning out more than 260 million tons a year. Beijing's 20 million residents generate about 18,000 tons a day, most of which goes to landfills. With household trash volume rising at least 5 percent annually, according to the city, authorities are building new incinerators, though that's caused concern about further dirtying the capital's already smoggy skies. [Source: Julie Makinen, Los Angeles Times, September 29, 2012 \=\]

  Probably the best and most complete treatment of the subject:
  http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat10/sub66/item1111.html [factsanddetails.com]

  --
  No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

  Parent