Where The World’s Ocean Plastic Waste Comes From In the past decade, plastic pollution has become one of the most visible environmental issues worldwide. Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic enter the ocean, affecting marine life, coastal communities, and ecosystems. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, ranks the countries responsible for the highest cumulative leakage of mismanaged plastic waste that escaped and washed up on other countriesโ beaches from 2010 to 2019. The data for this visualization comes from theย Global Plastic Hub. Asia Leads in Ocean Plastic Leakage China is the largest contributor, responsible for over 2.6 million tonnes of plastic waste that ended up on foreign beaches. Itโs followed by the Philippines (1.7 million tonnes), and India (966,000 tonnes). Rapid economic growth, urbanization, and inadequate waste management systems contribute to these high figures. Seven of the top 10 countries on the list are in Asia, underlining the regionโs central role in the global ocean plastic crisis. Rank Country Tonnes (2010-2019) 1 ๐จ๐ณ China 2,683,631 2 ๐ต๐ญ Philippines 1,695,260 3 ๐ฎ๐ณ India 966,447 4 ๐ง๐ท Brazil 639,665 5 ๐ฎ๐ฉ Indonesia 599,020 6 ๐ณ๐ฌ Nigeria 496,841 7 ๐ป๐ณ Viet Nam 484,457 8 ๐น๐ท Turkey 354,441 9 ๐น๐ญ Thailand 338,685 10 ๐ฒ๐พ Malaysia 332,756 11 ๐ง๐ฉ Bangladesh 315,755 12 ๐ป๐ช Venezuela 231,132 13 ๐๏ธ Bird Island 231,132 14 ๐ฒ๐ฒ Myanmar 209,495 15 ๐ช๐ฌ Egypt 208,321 16 ๐ฉ๐ฟ Algeria 157,952 17 ๐น๐ฟ Tanzania 114,737 18 ๐ฌ๐ญ Ghana 107,907 19 ๐น๐ผ Taiwan, Province of China 97,418 20 ๐บ๐พ Uruguay 94,544 21 ๐น๐ณ Tunisia 89,176 22 ๐ญ๐น Haiti 84,238 23 ๐ฉ๐ด Dominican Republic 83,121 24 ๐ฑ๐พ Libya 73,477 25 ๐ฒ๐ฟ Mozambique 72,578 26 ๐จ๐ฒ Cameroon 67,709 27 ๐จ๐ฎ Cรดte d’Ivoire 57,394 28 ๐ต๐ฐ Pakistan 53,641 29 ๐ฆ๐ด Angola 52,877 30 ๐จ๐ด Colombia 47,506 31 ๐ฒ๐ฆ Morocco 44,087 32 ๐ฑ๐ฐ Sri Lanka 41,648 33 ๐ต๐ช Peru 39,863 34 ๐ต๐ฌ Papua New Guinea 36,165 35 ๐พ๐ช Yemen 35,625 36 ๐น๐น Trinidad and Tobago 35,244 37 ๐ง๐ฏ Benin 32,298 38 ๐น๐ฌ Togo 31,773 39 ๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexico 31,004 40 ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa 30,352 41 ๐ช๐จ Ecuador 29,678 42 ๐ธ๐ง Solomon Islands 27,939 43 ๐ญ๐ณ Honduras 26,859 44 ๐ฌ๐ท Greece 25,983 45 ๐บ๐ฆ Ukraine 25,859 46 ๐ฌ๐ณ Guinea 25,167 47 ๐ฐ๐ฒ Comoros 24,691 48 ๐ธ๐ฑ Sierra Leone 23,826 49 ๐ญ๐ฐ Hong Kong, China 23,471 50 ๐ท๐บ Russian Federation 20,770 51 ๐ธ๐ณ Senegal 19,569 52 ๐ฑ๐ง Lebanon 19,420 53 ๐ฌ๐น Guatemala 19,015 54 ๐ฆ๐ฑ Albania 18,501 55 ๐บ๐ธ U.S. 16,910 56 ๐ต๐ฆ Panama 16,346 57 ๐ฏ๐ฒ Jamaica 16,260 58 ๐ง๐ฟ Belize 15,383 59 ๐ฌ๐พ Guyana 15,235 60 ๐ณ๐ฎ Nicaragua 15,199 61 ๐ฑ๐ท Liberia 14,220 62 ๐ฐ๐ผ Kuwait 12,740 63 ๐ฌ๐ฒ Gambia 12,178 64 ๐ธ๐ท Suriname 11,589 65 ๐ธ๐ฉ Sudan 11,308 66 ๐ฌ๐ผ Guinea-Bissau 10,819 67 ๐ฎ๐ท Iran 10,750 68 ๐จ๐ฌ Congo 9,476 69 ๐ฐ๐ต Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 8,873 70 ๐ฐ๐ช Kenya 7,941 71 ๐ธ๐ป El Salvador 7,504 72 ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands 6,488 73 ๐ฌ๐ง UK 6,242 74 ๐น๐ฑ Timor-Leste 6,238 75 ๐ฎ๐น Italy 5,930 76 ๐ช๐ธ Spain 5,708 77 ๐ช๐ธ Canary Islands (Sp.) 5,708 78 ๐ช๐ท Eritrea 5,677 79 ๐ฌ๐ถ Equatorial Guinea 5,328 80 ๐ฆ๐ท Argentina 4,847 81 ๐จ๐ท Costa Rica 4,384 82 ๐ธ๐ฆ Saudi Arabia 4,099 83 ๐ญ๐ท Croatia 3,964 84 ๐ฉ๐ฏ Djibouti 3,401 85 ๐ฏ๐ต Japan 3,208 86 ๐ธ๐พ Syrian Arab Republic 3,019 87 ๐ฆ๐บ Australia 2,920 88 ๐ฆ๐บ Ashmore & Cartier Is. 2,920 89 ๐ฐ๐ท Republic of Korea 2,865 90 ๐ฒ๐ท Mauritania 2,845 91 ๐ฆ๐ช United Arab Emirates 2,659 92 ๐ธ๐ด Somalia 2,371 93 ๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel 2,368 94 ๐ซ๐ฏ Fiji 2,340 95 ๐ฐ๐ญ Cambodia 2,212 96 ๐ฌ๐ฆ Gabon 2,199 97 ๐ฒ๐ฌ Madagascar 2,132 98 ๐ฉ๐ช Germany 1,899 99 ๐ท๐ด Romania 1,825 100 ๐ฒ๐ช Montenegro 1,804 101 ๐ฑ๐จ Saint Lucia 1,591 102 ๐จ๐ฑ Chile 1,447 103 ๐ธ๐น Sao Tome and Principe 1,255 104 ๐ซ๐ท France 1,105 105 ๐ป๐บ Vanuatu 997 106 ๐จ๐ป Cape Verde 975 107 ๐ถ๐ฆ Qatar 868 108 ๐ผ๐ธ Samoa 809 109 ๐ง๐ณ Brunei Darussalam 797 110 ๐ต๐น Portugal 702 111 ๐ต๐น Azores Islands (Port.) 702 112 ๐ต๐น Madeira Islands (Port.) 702 113 ๐ฌ๐ฉ Grenada 553 114 ๐ธ๐ช Sweden 514 115 ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland 508 116 ๐ป๐จ Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 466 117 ๐ต๐ฑ Poland 439 118 ๐ฌ๐ช Georgia 424 119 ๐จ๐ฆ Canada 421 120 ๐ฉ๐ฒ Dominica 408 121 ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland 397 122 ๐ณ๐ฆ Namibia 387 123 ๐ง๐ง Barbados 302 124 ๐บ๐ธ Puerto Rico (USA) 287 125 ๐ด๐ฒ Oman 258 126 ๐น๐ด Tonga 246 127 ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia 211 128 ๐ง๐ญ Bahrain 204 129 ๐ง๐ธ Bahamas 179 130 ๐ฆ๐ฌ Antigua and Barbuda 172 131 ๐ซ๐ฒ Micronesia 167 132 ๐จ๐ฉ DRC 149 133 ๐ณ๐ด Norway 130 Plastic Waste Doesnโt Stay Local Plastic debris often travel thousands of kilometers across oceans, carried solely by currents, wind, tides, and time. For example, theย Great Pacific Garbage Patchโa massive swirling zone between California and Hawaiiโaccumulates plastic from as far as Asia, North America, and South America. The patch spans around 1.6 million kmยฒ, comparable to twice the size of Texas. The annual economic costs due to marine plastic pollution are estimated to be between $6-19 billion. According to theย OECD, preventing land-based plastic leakage into the ocean across 38 member countries and 10 major plastic waste emitters in Asia and Africa could cost more than $86 billion. If you enjoyed todayโs post, check outย Ranked: The Most Expensive U.S. Wildfires, So Farย onย Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist. Tyler Durden Tue, 09/09/2025 – 04:15
Where The World’s Ocean Plastic Waste Comes From
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