Ninety percent of plastic waste that enters the water comes from rivers in Asia and Africa:

As governments around the world rush to address the global problem of plastic pollution in the oceans, researchers have now pinpointed the river systems that carry the majority of it out to sea…

One thing is certain: this situation cannot continue,’ Dr. Christian Schmidt, a hydrogeologist at the Germany’s Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research said when the study was first published…

His team analysed data on debris from 79 sampling sites along 57 rivers – both microplastic particles measuring less than 5 mm and macroplastic above this size.

China’s Yangtze River was the worst polluter, and ferries some 1.5 million tonnes of plastic into the Yellow Sea every year, the study found…

The rivers with the highest estimated plastic loads are characterised by high population…

‘These rivers are also in countries with a high rate of mismanaged plastic waste (MMPW) production per capita as a result of a not fully implemented municipal waste management including waste collection, dumping and recycling.

Somehow none of this is surprising.

[NOTE: This post was originally on my older blog and had comments, but unfortunately the comments didn’t transfer over here.]