Plastics: What countries are the biggest ocean polluters?

UPDATE: Here's a UN article on India's pledge to combat plastics pollution – India sets pace in global race to beat plastic pollution

Having posted several times in the last few months about plastics pollution – the latest here: Off Philippines; scuba diver in a sea of plastic – I decided to do some research. No surprise who the biggest ones are – I had recently read that 90% of plastics pollution comes from the four countries of China, India, Indonesia, and The Philippines.

Here is what seems to be the most recent (2015) study with figures from a reputable research group – the figures refer to millions of metric tons. I think the graph tells the story. Note that India isn't even on the list – perhaps they were unable to get data from India? The graph does say it's from "selected countries".

The Countries Polluting The Oceans The Most

A team of researchers in the United States and Australia led by Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia, analyzed plastic waste levels in the world's oceans. They found that China and Indonesia are the top sources of plastic bottles, bags and other rubbish clogging up global sea lanes. Together, both nations account for more than a third of plastic detritus in global waters, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The original source data can be found here.

In 2010, 8.8 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste came from China with an estimated 3.53 million metric tons of it ending up in the ocean. A total of 3.2 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste came from Indonesia and it is estimated that 1.29 million metric tons became plastic marine debris. The United States is also guilty of polluting oceans with plastic, but at a much lower level than China. Annually, 0.11 million metric tons of waterborne plastic garbage comes from the United States.

Originally this infographic incorrectly labeled the total amount of mismanaged plastic waste as the amount found in the water. It is now been updated to show the total amount of mismanaged plastic waste and the total amount of plastic marine debris.