There are about 165 major rivers in the world. These rivers are long and wide enough to be classified as major rivers with large volumes of water flowing through them every day. Of this 165, just 10 rivers are responsible for 90% of plastic trash flowing into the world's oceans.
Eight are in Asia and two are in Africa. Ranked from the highest amount of plastic waste to the lowest, they are:
1.) Yangtze River, China
2.) Indus River, China / Pakistan / India
3.) Yellow River, China
4.) Hai He River, China
5.) Nile River, Egypt / Sudan / Ethiopia / Uganda
6.) Ganges River, India / Bangladesh
7.) Pearl River, China
8.) Amur River, China
9.) Niger River, Nigeria / Mali / Niger
10.) Mekong River, Vietnam / China / Myanmar / Thailand / Laos / Cambodia
These 10 river systems have several common characteristics. They run adjacent to large concentrations of people, where public awareness about proper waste disposal and recycling is lacking.
By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans
According to the World Economic Forum, if we keep producing (and failing to properly dispose of) plastics at predicted rates, plastics in the ocean will outweigh fish pound for pound in 2050.
The study shows that the worldwide use of plastic has increased 20-fold in the past 50 years, and it is expected to double again in the next 20 years. By 2050, we will be making more than three times as much plastic stuff as we did in 2014.
Cleanup Effort Does not Solve the Problem
While the various ocean cleanup initiatives happening around the world are laudable, this is just a scratch on the surface. Fixing the symptoms and not the root cause will not solve the problem.
Prevention of plastics entering the major rivers would be the right way to go and the effort is not herculean if we focus our effort on these 10 major rivers.
Sources:
https://www.reference.com/geography/many-rivers-world-9f5453a632ec8d1a
https://www.seeker.com/earth/conservation/these-ten-rivers-are-responsible-for-90-percent-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/20/by-2050-there-will-be-more-plastic-than-fish-in-the-worlds-oceans-study-says/?utm_term=.64631b2c77f0
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We must not forget that the populations along these rivers are producing all the cheap crap western countries buy at Walmart. Watch Ethos. Vote with your dollar. We are all responsible.
Couldn't agree more. Part of the problem is that American and EU consumers don't see the devastation in the products that we buy. The only thing that's visible to consumers is the "cheap" price tag which discounts the irreversible ecological damage made to produce the products.
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the worst is yet to come if this behavior does not change for the better. there's more than we can & should do but I know its easy said than done.
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Wow, it's shocking that most of these are in China. I think it would be important to raise people's awareness of what they're doing to Earth by throwing so much plastic in their rivers