About eighty percent of the plastic waste washed up by the oceans ends up on beaches or floats in coastal waters. The proportion of trapped plastic is particularly high in coastal areas of Southeast Asia and around the Mediterranean Sea.

An international research team led by the University of Bern reports in the specialist journal “Environmental Research Letters”. Scientists developed a model based on ocean currents and estimated the amount of plastic waste negligently dumped in the oceans.

Antarctic continent without plastic

Assuming that no plastic is collected from beaches or the ocean surface, 77% of floating waste will flow to beaches or coastal waters within five years.

Where the most plastic goes into the oceans, the highest proportion is also found on the coasts, calculated by researchers working with Victor Onik, a doctoral student in physics at the University of Bern. This particularly affects regions of Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean, where a lot of plastic is carried in the waters of the Nile. Concentrations are lowest in less populated areas such as the polar regions, the Chilean coast and parts of the Australian coast. ET: In the simulation, mainland Antarctica remained plastic-free.

collect

Additionally, models show that registered plastics are more likely to end up on the high seas than elsewhere in the United States, eastern Japan, and Indonesia, among others. “It would be particularly effective in these places to collect plastic waste before it is discharged on the high seas,” Onik said in a communication from the University of Bern.

The authors note that mixtures from marine sources should also be considered in subsequent studies. Because shipping, for example, also plays a role in plastic pollution.