Americans May Add Five Times More Plastic to the Oceans Than Thought

| November 23, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Item Link: Access the Resource

Date of Publication: October 30

Year of Publication: 2020

Publication City: New York, N.Y.

Publisher: The New York Times Company

Author(s): Veronica Penney

The United States is using more plastic than ever, and waste exported for recycling is often mishandled, according to a new study.

The United States contribution to coastal plastic pollution worldwide is significantly larger than previously thought, possibly by as much as five times, according to a study published Friday.

The research, published in Science Advances, is the sequel to a 2015 paper by the same authors. Two factors contributed to the sharp increase: Americans are using more plastic than ever and the current study included pollution generated by United States exports of plastic waste, while the earlier one did not.

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