River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans
Open accessAbstract
Plastics in the marine environment have become a major concern because of their persistence at sea, and adverse consequences to marine life and potentially human health. Implementing mitigation strategies requires an understanding and quantification of marine plastic sources, taking spatial and temporal variability into account. Here we present a global model of plastic inputs from rivers into oceans based on waste management, population density and hydrological information. Our model is calibrated against measurements available in the literature. We estimate that between 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic waste currently enters the ocean every year from rivers, with over 74% of emissions occurring between May and October. The top 20 polluting rivers, mostly located in Asia, account for 67% of the global total. The findings of this study provide baseline data for ocean plastic mass balance exercises, and assist in prioritizing future plastic debris monitoring and mitigation strategies.
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Microplastics are now ubiquitous in soil, rivers and lakes, and oceans.
“now ubiquitous in soil (Rillig, 2012), rivers and lakes (Lebreton et al., 2017) as well as in the oceans (Barnes et al., 2009).”
From Future Scenarios of Global Plastic Waste Generation and Disposal (2019) · cites this paper as Lebreton et al., 2017
Predicted accumulation of plastic waste on land can be distributed into watersheds.
“Predicted accumulation of plastic waste on land can be distributed into watersheds (Lebreton et al., 2017).”
From Future Scenarios of Global Plastic Waste Generation and Disposal (2019) · cites this paper as Lebreton et al., 2017
Considering physical boundaries may help in understanding the generation of plastic waste in watersheds and indirectly sources of plastic to the ocean.
“The analysis of our results may not only be constrained to political boundaries as in this study, we show how considering physical boundaries may help in understanding the generation of plastic waste in watersheds and indirectly sources of plastic to the ocean (Lebreton et al., 2017;Schmidt et al., 2017).”
From Future Scenarios of Global Plastic Waste Generation and Disposal (2019) · cites this paper as Lebreton et al., 2017
Through runoff, winds, and gravity, plastic debris slowly makes its way downhill and enters the sea from coastal environments and through rivers.
“Through runoff, winds, and gravity, plastic debris slowly makes its way downhill and enters the sea from coastal environments (Jambeck et al., 2015) and through rivers (Lebreton et al., 2017).”
From Future Scenarios of Global Plastic Waste Generation and Disposal (2019) · cites this paper as Lebreton et al., 2017
River plastic discharge alone has been estimated at 0.4 to 4 Mt per year and >2/3 of the global total of riverine plastic in the ocean stems from the top 10-20 polluting rivers.
“However, river plastic discharge alone has been estimated with 0.4 to 4 Mt per year and > 2 3 rd of the global total of riverine plastic in the ocean stems from the top 10-20 polluting rivers.49,50”
From The fate of plastic in the ocean environment – a minireview (2021) · cites this paper as [49]
Land-based, mostly coastal sources account for 80% of PMD, transported via natural waterways, sewage/drainage systems, wind or human neglect.
“Land based, mostly coastal sources account for 80% of PMD, which is transported via natural waterways, sewage/drainage systems, wind or human neglect.[48][49][50]”
From The fate of plastic in the ocean environment – a minireview (2021) · cites this paper as [49]
Rivers carry a huge load of plastic pollution, which might also include nanoplastics.
“Rivers carry a huge load of plastic pollution, 49 which might also include nanoplastics.142”
From The fate of plastic in the ocean environment – a minireview (2021) · cites this paper as [49]
A total of 4.8 to 12.7 Mt of mismanaged plastic waste entered the ocean in 2010, 80% from land-based sources and 20% from fishing industry or accidental losses at sea.
“a total of 4.8 to 12.7 Mt 6 (1.15-2.41Mt from rivers)49 of mismanaged plastics waste has entered the ocean in 2010, 80% from land-based sources, 20% from fishing industry or accidental losses at sea.4”
From The fate of plastic in the ocean environment – a minireview (2021) · cites this paper as [49]
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Zeng, T., You, W., Chen, G., Nie, X., Zhang, Z., Xia, L., Hong, C., Chen, C., & You, Y. (2020) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.100904 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Polyethylene degradation and assimilation by the marine yeast <i>Rhodotorula mucilaginosa</i>
Vaksmaa, A., Polerecky, L., Dombrowski, N., Kienhuis, M. V. M., Posthuma, I., Gerritse, J., Boekhout, T., & Niemann, H. (2023) · ISME Communications · doi:10.1038/s43705-023-00267-z · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Ita-Nagy, D., Vázquez-Rowe, I., Kahhat, R., Chinga-Carrasco, G., & Quispe, I. (2020) · The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment · doi:10.1007/s11367-020-01829-2 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Schäfer, P. M., & Herres‐Pawlis, S. (2020) · ChemPlusChem · doi:10.1002/cplu.202000252 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Sustainable management of plastic wastes in COVID-19 pandemic: The biochar solution
Igalavithana, A. D., Yuan, X., Attanayake, C. P., Wang, S., You, S., Tsang, D. C. W., Nzihou, A., & Ok, Y. S. (2022) · Environmental Research · doi:10.1016/j.envres.2022.113495 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Sinha, R. K., Kumar, R., Phartyal, S. S., & Sharma, P. (2024) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176621 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Microplastics in brown trout (Salmo trutta Linnaeus, 1758) from an Irish riverine system
O’Connor, J. D., Murphy, S., Lally, H. T., O’Connor, I., Nash, R., O’Sullivan, J., Bruen, M., Heerey, L., Koelmans, A. A., Cullagh, A., et al. (2020) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115572 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Wu, P., Zhang, H., Singh, N., Tang, Y., & Cai, Z. (2022) · Chemical Engineering Journal · doi:10.1016/j.cej.2021.132351 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Mycobacteriaceae Mineralizes Micropolyethylene in Riverine Ecosystems.
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Mechanical, physical and microstructural properties of a mortar with melted plastic waste binder
Thiam, M., & Fall, M. (2021) · Construction and Building Materials · doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.124190 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Bitalac, J. M. S., Lantican, N. B., Gomez, N. C. F., & Onda, D. F. L. (2023) · Journal of Hazardous Materials · doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131124 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
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Plastic roads: Not all they’re paved up to be
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Yadav, D. K., Samantaray, B. P., & Kumar, R. (2024) · Science of the Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174999 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Plastic biodegradation by sediment microbial populations under denitrifying conditions
Sun, X., Wang, S., Lin, Z., Chen, Z., Huang, W., Kong, T., Huang, D., Li, B., Zhang, H., & Sun, W. (2025) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.4c12187 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lebreton, L. C. M., van der Zwet, J., Damsteeg, J.-W., Slat, B., Andrady, A., & Reisser, J.
- Affiliations
- The Ocean Cleanup (NL)
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lebreton, Laurent C. M.
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2017-06-07
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 15611-15611
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5467230
- OpenAlex
- W2604316091
- Cited by
- 4,011
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 416 · 2025: 580 · 2024: 556 · 2023: 589 · 2022: 591 · 2021: 504 · 2020: 382 · 2019: 248 · 2018: 121 · 2017: 23
- FWCI
- 95.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Waste Management and Recycling
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Oil Spill Detection and Mitigation
- Keywords
- marine plastic pollution, waste management, population density, hydrology
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