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Nature Sustainability papers on ocean plastic.

Three studies on ocean plastic waste newly were published in the Nature Sustainability journal last month, providing a greater understanding of the type and source of plastic in our oceans.

The findings from these papers are discussed in our recent Ocean Protect Podcast episode “Ocean trash with Jeremy & Brad”, including:

  • Approximately 79% of ocean plastic is from land-based sources (and stormwater would be the key transport mechanism for this plastic entering our oceans)
  • Single-use plastics are the key items found in near-shore environments

This further highlights the need for urgent action on stopping plastic pollution and preventing it from flowing into downstream waterways and oceans via stormwater.  Stormwater NSW and Ocean Protect’s Zero Litter to Ocean strategy provides a highly scalable, shovel ready, job-creating and effective plan on how this can be done in Australia.

The aforementioned studies are:

Daniel González-Fernández et al, Floating macrolitter leaked from Europe into the ocean, 10 June 2021, Nature sustainability, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00722-6

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