More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 7; no. 18
• Main Authors: Meijer, Lourens J. J., van Emmerik, Tim, van der Ent, Ruud, Schmidt, Christian, Lebreton, Laurent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 01.04.2021
• Subjects: Applied Sciences and Engineering; Environmental Studies; SciAdv r-articles
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz5803

More than 1000 rivers account for most plastic emissions, ranging from small urban drains to large rivers. Plastic waste increasingly accumulates in the marine environment, but data on the distribution and quantification of riverine sources required for development of effective mitigation are limited. Our model approach includes geographically distributed data on plastic waste, land use, wind, precipitation, and rivers and calculates the probability for plastic waste to reach a river and subsequently the ocean. This probabilistic approach highlights regions that are likely to emit plastic into the ocean. We calibrated our model using recent field observations and show that emissions are distributed over more rivers than previously thought by up to two orders of magnitude. We estimate that more than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global annual emissions, which range between 0.8 million and 2.7 million metric tons per year, with small urban rivers among the most polluting. These high-resolution data allow for the focused development of mitigation strategies and technologies to reduce riverine plastic emissions.