Which Countries Create the Most Ocean Trash?

2/12/2015 7:53PM     

A new study has found out which countries are the largest contributors of plastic waste entering oceans. WSJ's Robert Lee Hotz reports. Photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/AP

Transcript

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the girls ate cheese all are being increasingly filled ... with ... garbage scientists ocean activists have warned three years of the magnitude of plastic bottles bags and other floating debris found in all five of the world's ... major oceans ... a team of researchers from the US in Australia has no analyzed data on consumer habits and waste management ... to find out how much plastic waste ends up in the ocean worldwide and where ... it comes from ... in particular ... as they took a look at what cheered each of one hundred and ninety two countries with coastal borders ... could have contributed to this pollution problem ... the study ... lit by Janet Jem back at the University of Georgia ... ships that people living within fifty km of the coast in these countries ... have generated about two hundred and seventy five million metric tons of plastic waste ... in two thousand and ten ... in between four point eight million and twelve point seven million metric tons of the ... walk out to see states ... China ... is the largest contributor of plastic waste in three oceans according to the study ... of the eight point eight million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste the country produced in two thousand ten ... between one point three million and three point five million metric tons ... ended up in the sea ... the second biggest polluter ... was Indonesia ... was up to one point three million metric tons of mismanaged waste ending up its marine debris ... other Asian countries were also among the nations with the largest in ... the U S ranks twentieth and was responsible for just under one percent of the ocean plastic study shows ... overall the scientists found that the top twenty countries accounted for eighty three percent of the mismanaged quest to waste ... available to enter the world's oceans ... and checked ... the amount of plastic waste ... reaching the scene could ... double by two thousand twenty five equal to roughly ten bags full of past equates to a foot of coastline ...