THE GUARDIAN: Coastal populations put about 8m tonnes of plastic rubbish into the oceans in 2010, an annual figure that could double over the next decade without major improvements in waste management efforts, scientists warn.
The mountain of plastic litter, including bags, food packaging and toys, was equivalent to five full shopping bags of debris for every foot of coastline bordering nearly 200 countries the team studied…
The figures suggest that about 10 to 30 times more plastic debris ends up in the oceans than surveys have found floating about on the surface. In one recent survey, an international team reported more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic are floating in the world’s oceans, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes… (more)
EDITOR: Earlier in the week we viewed from our cruise ship strings of barges being towed down the river from Bangkok to be dumped at sea. One of the largest cities in the world, greater Bangkok has a population approaching fifteen million.
