An analysis of global plastic data over the past four decades, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that there’s now an estimated 170 trillion plastic particles—more than 2.2 million tons—floating in the world’s oceans. That number saw a sharp increase in the past 15 years, dovetailing, the researchers found, with ineffective global policies to reduce plastic waste. If we don’t act, the amount of plastic that’s there now could more than double by 2040. Click through for a view of what all that plastic actually looks like.
Conservation
For Every Person on Earth, There Are 21,000 Pieces of Plastic in the Ocean
A new analysis puts some scary numbers on our global plastic problem.
By
Molly Taft
Reading time 1 minute
