R ES E A RC H | R E PO R TS
1. Z. Kielan-Jaworowska, R. L. Cifelli, Z.-X. Luo, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 2004). 2. J. A. Lillegraven, G. Krusat, Rocky Mount. Geol. 28, 39–138 (1991). 3. D. Sigogneau-Russell, Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 48, 357–374 (2003). 4. Q. Ji, Z. X. Luo, C. X. Yuan, A. R. Tabrum, Science 311, 1123–1127 (2006). 5. Z.-X. Luo, T. Martin, Bull. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist. 39, 27–47 (2007). 6. A. O. Averianov, A. V. Lopatin, S. A. Krasnolutskii, S. V. Ivantsov, Proc. Zool. Inst. Russian Acad. Sci. 314, 121–148 (2010). 7. Y.-M. Hu, J. Meng, J. M. Clark, Vertebr. Palasiat. 45, 173–194 (2007). 8. T. Martin, A. O. Averianov, H.-U. Pfretzschner, Palaeobiodivers. Palaeoenviron. 90, 295–319 (2010). 9. G. W. Rougier, A. S. Sheth, K. Carpenter, L. Appella-Guiscafre, B. M. Davis, J. Mamm. Evol. (2014). 10. C.-F. Zhou, S. Wu, T. Martin, Z. X. Luo, Nature 500, 163–167 (2013). 11. T. B. Rowe, T. E. Macrini, Z. X. Luo, Science 332, 955–957 (2011). 12. Z.-X. Luo, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 42, 355–380 (2011).
13. J. Meng, Y. Hu, Y. Wang, X. Wang, C. Li, Nature 444, 889–893 (2006). 14. Z.-X. Luo, Nature 450, 1011–1019 (2007). 15. G. W. Rougier, S. Apesteguía, L. C. Gaetano, Nature 479, 98–102 (2011). 16. P. G. Gill et al., Nature 512, 303–305 (2014). 17. M. Chen, Z.-X. Luo, J. Mamm. Evol. 20, 159–189 (2012). 18. Materials and methods and supplementary text are available as supplementary materials on Science Online. 19. P. Hershkovitz, New World Monkeys (Platyrrhini) (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977). 20. G. P. Wilson et al., Nature 483, 457–460 (2012). 21. T. Martin, Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 145, 219–248 (2005). 22. Z.-X. Luo, Q. Ji, C. X. Yuan, Nature 450, 93–97 (2007). 23. V. Weisbecker, D. I. Warton, J. Morphol. 267, 1469–1485 (2006). 24. E. C. Kirk, P. Lemelin, M. W. Hamrick, D. M. Boyer, J. I. Bloch, J. Hum. Evol. 55, 278–299 (2008). 25. N. MacLeod, K. D. Rose, Am. J. Sci. 293 (A), 300–355 (1993). 26. Z. Kielan-Jaworowska, P. P. Gambaryan, Fossils Strata 36, 1–92 (1994). 27. F. A. Jenkins Jr., F. R. Parrington, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 273, 387–431 (1976). 28. C. Argot, J. Morphol. 247, 51–79 (2001).
MARINE POLLUTION
Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean Jenna R. Jambeck,1* Roland Geyer,2 Chris Wilcox,3 Theodore R. Siegler,4 Miriam Perryman,1 Anthony Andrady,5 Ramani Narayan,6 Kara Lavender Law7 Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.
R
eports of plastic pollution in the ocean first appeared in the scientific literature in the early 1970s, yet more than 40 years later, no rigorous estimates exist of the amount and origin of plastic debris entering the marine environment. In 1975, the estimated annual flux of litter of all materials to the ocean was 6.4 million tons [5.8 million metric
1
College of Engineering, University of Georgia, 412 Driftmier Engineering Center, Athens, GA 30602, USA. 2Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. 3Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tasmania 7000, Australia. 4DSM Environmental Services, Windsor, VT 05089, USA. 5Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. 6Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. 7Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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tons (MT)], based only on discharges from ocean vessels, military operations, and ship casualties (1). The discharge of plastic from at-sea vessels has since been banned (2), but losses still occur. It is widely cited that 80% of marine debris originates from land; however, this figure is not well substantiated and does not inform the total mass of debris entering the marine environment from land-based sources. Plastics have become increasingly dominant in the consumer marketplace since their commercial development in the 1930s and 1940s. Global plastic resin production reached 288 million MT in 2012 (3), a 620% increase since 1975. The largest market sector for plastic resins is packaging (3); that is, materials designed for immediate disposal. In 1960, plastics made up less than 1% of municipal solid waste by mass in the United States (4); by 2000, this proportion increased by an order of magnitude. By 2005, plastic made up at least 10% of solid waste by
29. E. J. Sargis, Evol. Anthropol. 13, 56–66 (2004). 30. J. Lessertisseur, R. Saban, in Traité de Zoologie. Tome XVI (Fascicule I). Mammifères: Téguments et Squelette, P.-P. Grassé, Ed. (Masson, Paris, 1967), pp. 587-675. AC KNOWLED GME NTS
Research supported by Beijing Science and Technology Commission Grant, 2014 First-Class Award in Science and Technology to Q.-J.M., Ministry of Science and Technology of China 973 Project funding and Chinese Academy of Geological Science funding to Q.J., and the University of Chicago to Z.-X.L. We thank A. I. Neander for her superb graphics work. Full acknowledgment to colleagues for supporting our research is in SM (18). Full datasets are in SM (18). SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/764/suppl/DC1 Materials and Methods Supplementary Text Figs. S1 to S8 Tables S1 to S3 References (31–80) 5 September 2014; accepted 16 January 2015 10.1126/science.1260879
mass in 58% (61 out of 105) of countries with available data (5). Plastics in the marine environment are of increasing concern because of their persistence and effects on the oceans, wildlife, and, potentially, humans (6). Plastic debris occurs on coastlines, in Arctic sea ice, at the sea surface, and on the sea floor (7, 8). Weathering of plastic debris causes fragmentation into particles that even small marine invertebrates may ingest (9). Its small size also renders this debris untraceable to its source and extremely difficult to remove from open ocean environments, suggesting that the most effective mitigation strategies must reduce inputs. We estimated the annual input of plastic to the ocean from waste generated by coastal populations worldwide. We defined mismanaged waste as material that is either littered or inadequately disposed. Inadequately disposed waste is not formally managed and includes disposal in dumps or open, uncontrolled landfills, where it is not fully contained. Mismanaged waste could eventually enter the ocean via inland waterways, wastewater outflows, and transport by wind or tides. Estimates of the mass of plastic waste carried by particular waterways range from
1. Z. Kielan-Jaworowska, R. L. Cifelli, Z.-X. Luo, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 2004). 2. J. A. Lillegraven, G. Krusat, Rocky Mount. Geol. 28, 39–138 (1991). 3. D. Sigogneau-Russell, Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 48, 357–374 (2003). 4. Q. Ji, Z. X. Luo, C. X. Yuan, A. R. Tabrum, Science 311, 1123–1127 (2006). 5. Z.-X. Luo, T. Martin, Bull. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist. 39, 27–47 (2007). 6. A. O. Averianov, A. V. Lopatin, S. A. Krasnolutskii, S. V. Ivantsov, Proc. Zool. Inst. Russian Acad. Sci. 314, 121–148 (2010). 7. Y.-M. Hu, J. Meng, J. M. Clark, Vertebr. Palasiat. 45, 173–194 (2007). 8. T. Martin, A. O. Averianov, H.-U. Pfretzschner, Palaeobiodivers. Palaeoenviron. 90, 295–319 (2010). 9. G. W. Rougier, A. S. Sheth, K. Carpenter, L. Appella-Guiscafre, B. M. Davis, J. Mamm. Evol. (2014). 10. C.-F. Zhou, S. Wu, T. Martin, Z. X. Luo, Nature 500, 163–167 (2013). 11. T. B. Rowe, T. E. Macrini, Z. X. Luo, Science 332, 955–957 (2011). 12. Z.-X. Luo, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 42, 355–380 (2011).
13. J. Meng, Y. Hu, Y. Wang, X. Wang, C. Li, Nature 444, 889–893 (2006). 14. Z.-X. Luo, Nature 450, 1011–1019 (2007). 15. G. W. Rougier, S. Apesteguía, L. C. Gaetano, Nature 479, 98–102 (2011). 16. P. G. Gill et al., Nature 512, 303–305 (2014). 17. M. Chen, Z.-X. Luo, J. Mamm. Evol. 20, 159–189 (2012). 18. Materials and methods and supplementary text are available as supplementary materials on Science Online. 19. P. Hershkovitz, New World Monkeys (Platyrrhini) (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977). 20. G. P. Wilson et al., Nature 483, 457–460 (2012). 21. T. Martin, Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 145, 219–248 (2005). 22. Z.-X. Luo, Q. Ji, C. X. Yuan, Nature 450, 93–97 (2007). 23. V. Weisbecker, D. I. Warton, J. Morphol. 267, 1469–1485 (2006). 24. E. C. Kirk, P. Lemelin, M. W. Hamrick, D. M. Boyer, J. I. Bloch, J. Hum. Evol. 55, 278–299 (2008). 25. N. MacLeod, K. D. Rose, Am. J. Sci. 293 (A), 300–355 (1993). 26. Z. Kielan-Jaworowska, P. P. Gambaryan, Fossils Strata 36, 1–92 (1994). 27. F. A. Jenkins Jr., F. R. Parrington, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 273, 387–431 (1976). 28. C. Argot, J. Morphol. 247, 51–79 (2001).
MARINE POLLUTION
Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean Jenna R. Jambeck,1* Roland Geyer,2 Chris Wilcox,3 Theodore R. Siegler,4 Miriam Perryman,1 Anthony Andrady,5 Ramani Narayan,6 Kara Lavender Law7 Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.
R
eports of plastic pollution in the ocean first appeared in the scientific literature in the early 1970s, yet more than 40 years later, no rigorous estimates exist of the amount and origin of plastic debris entering the marine environment. In 1975, the estimated annual flux of litter of all materials to the ocean was 6.4 million tons [5.8 million metric
1
College of Engineering, University of Georgia, 412 Driftmier Engineering Center, Athens, GA 30602, USA. 2Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. 3Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tasmania 7000, Australia. 4DSM Environmental Services, Windsor, VT 05089, USA. 5Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. 6Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. 7Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
768
13 FEBRUARY 2015 • VOL 347 ISSUE 6223
tons (MT)], based only on discharges from ocean vessels, military operations, and ship casualties (1). The discharge of plastic from at-sea vessels has since been banned (2), but losses still occur. It is widely cited that 80% of marine debris originates from land; however, this figure is not well substantiated and does not inform the total mass of debris entering the marine environment from land-based sources. Plastics have become increasingly dominant in the consumer marketplace since their commercial development in the 1930s and 1940s. Global plastic resin production reached 288 million MT in 2012 (3), a 620% increase since 1975. The largest market sector for plastic resins is packaging (3); that is, materials designed for immediate disposal. In 1960, plastics made up less than 1% of municipal solid waste by mass in the United States (4); by 2000, this proportion increased by an order of magnitude. By 2005, plastic made up at least 10% of solid waste by
29. E. J. Sargis, Evol. Anthropol. 13, 56–66 (2004). 30. J. Lessertisseur, R. Saban, in Traité de Zoologie. Tome XVI (Fascicule I). Mammifères: Téguments et Squelette, P.-P. Grassé, Ed. (Masson, Paris, 1967), pp. 587-675. AC KNOWLED GME NTS
Research supported by Beijing Science and Technology Commission Grant, 2014 First-Class Award in Science and Technology to Q.-J.M., Ministry of Science and Technology of China 973 Project funding and Chinese Academy of Geological Science funding to Q.J., and the University of Chicago to Z.-X.L. We thank A. I. Neander for her superb graphics work. Full acknowledgment to colleagues for supporting our research is in SM (18). Full datasets are in SM (18). SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/764/suppl/DC1 Materials and Methods Supplementary Text Figs. S1 to S8 Tables S1 to S3 References (31–80) 5 September 2014; accepted 16 January 2015 10.1126/science.1260879
mass in 58% (61 out of 105) of countries with available data (5). Plastics in the marine environment are of increasing concern because of their persistence and effects on the oceans, wildlife, and, potentially, humans (6). Plastic debris occurs on coastlines, in Arctic sea ice, at the sea surface, and on the sea floor (7, 8). Weathering of plastic debris causes fragmentation into particles that even small marine invertebrates may ingest (9). Its small size also renders this debris untraceable to its source and extremely difficult to remove from open ocean environments, suggesting that the most effective mitigation strategies must reduce inputs. We estimated the annual input of plastic to the ocean from waste generated by coastal populations worldwide. We defined mismanaged waste as material that is either littered or inadequately disposed. Inadequately disposed waste is not formally managed and includes disposal in dumps or open, uncontrolled landfills, where it is not fully contained. Mismanaged waste could eventually enter the ocean via inland waterways, wastewater outflows, and transport by wind or tides. Estimates of the mass of plastic waste carried by particular waterways range from
