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Planet's Ocean-Plastics Problem Detailed In 60-Year Data Set (nature.com)
Scientists have uncovered the first strong evidence that the amount of plastic polluting the oceans has risen vastly in recent decades -- by analyzing 60 years of log books for plankton-tracking vessels. Nature reports: Data recorded by instruments known as continuous plankton recorders (CPRs) -- which ships have collectively towed millions of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean -- show that the trackers have become entangled in large plastic objects, such as bags and fishing lines, roughly three times more often since 2000 than in preceding decades. This is the first time that researchers have demonstrated the rise in ocean plastics using a single, long-term data set, says Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. "I'm excited that this has been finally done," he says. The analysis was published on 16 April in Nature Communications.
Van Sebille says that because the study focused on large plastic items, it doesn't reveal much about the quantity of microplastics -- fragments fewer than 5 millimetres long -- in the oceans. These tiny contaminants come from sources such as disposable plastic packaging, rather than from fishing gear. Nevertheless, he adds, the study demonstrates that fisheries play a major part in plastic pollution, and will provide useful baseline data for tracking whether policy changes affect the levels of plastic in the oceans. "As fisheries become more professional, especially in the North Sea, hopefully we might see a decrease," he says.
Van Sebille says that because the study focused on large plastic items, it doesn't reveal much about the quantity of microplastics -- fragments fewer than 5 millimetres long -- in the oceans. These tiny contaminants come from sources such as disposable plastic packaging, rather than from fishing gear. Nevertheless, he adds, the study demonstrates that fisheries play a major part in plastic pollution, and will provide useful baseline data for tracking whether policy changes affect the levels of plastic in the oceans. "As fisheries become more professional, especially in the North Sea, hopefully we might see a decrease," he says.
You need to get better sources. Less than 2% of the US waste stream ends up "unmanaged", i.e. litter. 14% ... please. Even if you really, really want to believe in the great evil that is the US, just look around you. That number is not remotely plausible. It is like the made-up number for plastic straws that played such a big role in the original push for straw bans. All you had to do was pause and think for 5 seconds to realize that every man, woman and child in the US isn't using multiple straws per day. But that doesn't happen when your reasoning is motivated by other beliefs.
This is one way to tell if you are dealing with "fake news". If Fox News tells you that illegal immigrants are raping and murdering people by the millions, just look around... is the crime rate up, or is it down? Just a quick sanity check.. in science they call it "prior plausibility".
I love your paragraph on paper bags and paper straws. So much revealed so quickly. First is a notion that "you get to decide" for other people. Whether it makes a difference or not, your attitude is "it is only a small burden" for others. Where do you suppose you get the right to tell other people what they can and cannot buy. Making your argument and recommendations is great. Using the government to force other people to go with your woke hunches is not OK.
Straws in the US is not a measurable part of the problem That was the entire point. Plastic straws from the US do not make up 1% of 1% of the plastic waste in the great Pacific gyre. It isn't attacking the problem in any way. It is virtue signalling by forcing your opinions off on other people in some power-play that signifies nothing.
Paper bags are far worse than plastic single use bags - they use far more energy, release far more carbon and eat up far more landfill space. The only thing they are better on is biodegradability if they don't get disposed of properly. ( You did hit on the true better answer though - reusable bags - but you have to re-use them hundreds of times to break even. So if you go grocery shopping once per week, you'd need to use your bags every trip for 4-6 years to break even. That's a long time.)
The US creating enough plastic waste that is mismanaged to be in the top 20 by mass is not terribly surprising - since we use about a quarter of the earth's resources. But if you look at that chart it is all suppositions - reasonable suppositions, to be sure - but they are extrapolating from "mismanaged waste" numbers and "amount of plastic bought" to get to "plastic pollution".
The real number that matters is "where is the waste in the Ocean coming from". The answer to that is China, Indonesia, the Philippines, .. basically all of southeast Asia and Africa. South America makes a decent contribution as well. We know this not via some extrapolation, but by actually collecting piles of ocean garbage and asking "where did this crap come from".
Just because your impulse is virtuous (that we should protect the environment), that doesn't give you a pass on the rest of it. Being an authoritarian leftie is no better than being an authoritarian right-winger. And coming up with solutions that don't solve the problem merely diverts resources and attention from things that actually would help solve the problem.