Where does the plastic in oceans come from?

Re:Where does the plastic in oceans come from? by burlesona on Saturday August 14, 2021 @05:47PM (#28184190)

Your comment mistakenly conflates North America with the United States. The US is only 0.25%. North America includes Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Of those, Guatemala appears to be the “leader” at 0.73%, approx 3 times more waste than the US despite having about 1/20 the population.

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Re:Where does the plastic in oceans come from? by akomtu on Saturday August 14, 2021 @06:53PM (#28184635)

NA could make a heavy duty zero maintenance plastic disposal box. Powered by solar panels, ideally. Then give them for free to countries that don't have recycling facilities.

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Re:Where does the plastic in oceans come from? by lhorie on Saturday August 14, 2021 @06:39PM (#28184552)

One thing to be aware of though is all these numbers are in the 0.x% range per country, making it easy to draw "eh we're not so bad" type of conclusions.

But consider visualizing it like this: if the entire amount of ocean pollution was represented by a 10x10x10 pile of tires, 2.5 tires would be of American origin. So while not completely embarrassing, it's not exactly great either.

Considering there are some 200 countries in world, 0.x% contribution is within the same order of magnitude to the average contribution.

So although some countries have more slack to pick up, I think the alarmist tone about US isn't necessarily unwarranted.

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