Most of the plastic debris floating in the oceans is brought there by ten of the world’s largest rivers, including the Mekong, Yangtze, Indus and Brahmaputra in Asia, and the Nile and Niger in Africa. These river basins include some of the world’s most populous areas. The Yangtze River (1,808,500 km2) alone supplies about 1.5 million tonnes of plastic debris to the Yellow Sea each year. Ocean currents transport these riverine inputs great distances and have produced five gigantic zones of floating plastic in the sub-tropical gyres.
Who should take responsibility for cleaning up these parts of the global commons? Or should we focus efforts on tackling the problem at source?
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