Floating macrolitter leaked from Europe into the ocean
New study published, with ISPRA cooperation, in Nature Sustainability reveals that Rivers are the main conduits for human litter transferred from land to the ocean. A new study shows that European
countries release more than 600 million floating macrolitter items (> 2.5 cm) to the ocean in a single year. Plastic is the principal litter material observed in rivers across Europe. Eight out of 10 litter items are made of plastic, including single-use plastics such as bottles, packaging (like food wrappers), and bags. Almost 40% of the floating litter are pieces of plastic (fragments of larger items), meaning many plastic items begin to fragment in the river basins before
reaching the ocean.
The study published reveals that high-income economies are among the top contributors to plastic litter emitted from Europe to the ocean. Most of the land-sourced plastic is routed through numerous small rivers, streams, and surface run-off along populated coasts. The collaborative monitoring of 42 rivers in 11 countries across Europe provides the largest database of riverine floating macrolitter input to the ocean.