Plastic Pollution Shoots Up After 2005
For this research, the scientists analyzed available datasets between 1979 and 2019, taken from locations around the world, to get an estimate of just how much trash is floating around in the top layer of the ocean—known as the ocean surface layer, a region around 650 feet (200 meters) deep. They found that the 1990s to the late 2010s gave the best sample coverage and that, until 2005, “concentrations of plastic fluctuate[d].”
However, there was an observed steep increase in the concentration of plastic in the ocean after 2005; this corresponds, the researchers note, to separate data taken on plastic trash on beaches. The possible reasoning for this increase, the authors say, is probably due to “policy interventions, plastic production, fragmentation of existing floating plastic, and/or waste management and trade.”
