Mostly plastic
Between 60 and 90 per cent – sometimes as much as 100 per cent – of the litter that accumulates on shorelines, the sea surface and the sea floor is made up of one or a combination of different plastic polymers. The most common items, constituting over 80 per cent of the litter stranded on beaches (Andrady, 2015) are cigarette butts, bags, remains of fishing gear, and food and beverage containers. Likewise, 90 per cent of the litter collected from sea floor trawls is made up of plastic (Derraik, 2002 and Galgani et al., 2015).
Year: 2018
From collection: Marine Litter Vital Graphics
Cartographer: Maphoto/Riccardo Pravettoni