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The Transition | March 2025
People and progress in solving the ocean plastic crisis
About OpenOceans Global. Our work centers on mapping ocean plastic, curating the best solutions, and linking together a community of ocean plastic experts and leaders. Learn more on the Weather Channel's Pattrn interview, NBC7/39's Down to Earth segment, Reslilient Earth Radio, and ArcNews.
Past issues of The Transition
International Plastic Treaty Update
The next round of negotiations for the United Nations International Plastic Treaty will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, August 5-14, 2025. For additional information, contact: unep-incplastic.secretariat@un.org.
OpenOceans on Resilient Earth Radio
 We were pleased to be interviewed on Resilient Earth Radio, a program produced by Leigh Anne Lindsey and Sea Storm Studios. The interview first aired on March 7, 2025, on KGUA public radio in Northern California. It is also available on YouTube and audio only on most podcast platforms, including Amazon, Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and SoundCloud.
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In This Issue: (links to articles below)
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Did you know?
75% of all plastic in the ocean ends up on a shoreline.
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Taking a Deeper Dive
GPML’s Digital Platform – a UN site with a depth of resources
Image credit: GPML
The GPML Digital Platform is “an open-source, crowdsourced, multi-stakeholder platform that compiles different resources, connects stakeholders, and integrates data to guide action. It is intended to offer a single point of access for accurate, up-to-date information on marine litter, plastic pollution and related topics, as well as a virtual forum in which stakeholders can come together.” The GPML (Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter) was launched at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012 and consolidated all data and content into the Digital Platform in September 2024.
The GPML Digital Platform is organized into three key components:
- Knowledge Hub - Crowdsourcing a vast repository/library of 2,651 curated knowledge products and materials. Elements include technical resources, events, technologies, capacity development, initiatives, action plans, policies, and financing resources.
- Data Hub - Visualizing an extensive array of 85 data layers across the plastic lifecycle, providing in-depth insights. It includes a dashboard for each country and data on trade, waste management, legacy plastics, and governance. In the map view, each category chosen creates a multicolored map and a place to find the data behind the map view.
- Community Hub - Harnessing the expertise of Four Communities of Practice (CoPs) comprised of leading experts and scientists to bridge critical knowledge and data gaps. The Communities of Practice include: data harmonization, modeling and monitoring methodologies, monitoring and assessment of plastic pollution, and informing action.
The Digital Platform also contains a Workspace for forums about marine plastic pollution issues and a Learning Center.
OpenOceans Global is a member of the GPML.
How much plastic goes into the ocean by country?
This map shows mismanaged plastic waste escaping to oceans and coasts by country. Image credit: GPML
The data GPML uses and that OpenOceans Global consistently uses to understand plastic in the ocean comes from Florida State University’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies and is included in the GPML Digital Platform. The data is reported in the journal Frontiers published in April 22, 2021, titled: Tracking Marine Litter With a Global Ocean Model: Where Does It Go? Where Does It Come From? According to that data, compiled from 2010 to 2019, 75% of mismanaged plastic waste that reached the ocean ended up beached at the end of the 2019 study period, 25% remained at sea. The top five countries contribute 55% of all ocean plastic to the ocean, and the top ten countries contribute 71%. Here are the top ten countries and their contributions of plastic to the ocean in percentages.
- 19% - China
- 16% - Philippines
- 9% - India
- 6% - Brazil
- 6% - Indonesia
- 4% - Vietnam
- 3% - Malaysia
- 3% - Turkey
- 3% - Nigeria
- 3% - Bangladesh
It is important to note that these numbers do not take into account the production of plastic, which is led by China and the U.S. The data above define the countries where the most plastic reaches the coast and the ocean.
What is the source of plastic emissions by region?
This map shows the plastic waste (emissions) created by each country. Image credit: GPML
Another data set found on the GPML Data Portal shows which countries and regions emit the most plastic waste. Emissions are defined as “materials that have moved from the managed or mismanaged system (controlled or contained state) to the unmanaged system (uncontrolled or uncontained state—the environment).” Emissions do not necessarily reach the ocean, but they do get into the environment, so it is useful to know where the potential sources of plastic to the ocean might reside.
This data set was generated from a September 4, 2024, article in the journal Nature titled: A local-to-global emissions inventory of macroplastic pollution. The study was conducted by the School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, and was based on 2020 data.
The authors classified the emissions according to two categories: (1) debris (physical particles >5mm) and (2) open burning (mass combusted in open uncontrolled fires). Some findings:
- 52.1million metric tons (Mt/year) of macroplastic waste were emitted into the unmanaged system in 2020, representing 21%(by weight) of all the municipal plastic waste generated (251.7 Mt/year) globally.
- Approximately 43% (22.2Mt/year) is unburned ‘debris’, meaning that it is no longer subject to any form of management or direct control and is at risk of transport across land and into the aquatic environment.
Image credit: Cottom, J.W., Cook, E. & Velis, C.A.
As you can see from the chart on the left (above), the report identifies the regions of the world emitting the most macro plastic and how much comes from a city, town, or rural areas. The chart on the right indicates how much is debris and how much is burned in the open. The report indicates that:
- India, the world’s largest absolute emitter, is ranked 127 on a per-capita basis.
- China, the world’s fourth-largest absolute emitter, is one of the least polluting Upper Middle Income countries on a per capita basis, ranked 153.
- Russia, the world’s fifth-largest emitter on an absolute basis, also has high emissions on a per-capita basis (because it is reported to have very low levels of controlled disposal).
- Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that show low absolute plastic emissions are hotspots on a per-capita basis. Given the anticipated population boom in the region, it is conceivable that Sub-Saharan Africa will become the world’s largest absolute source of plastic pollution within the next few decades.
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Image credit: Plastics News/SC Johnson
Zuzu the crab lends a claw to aid in recycling
Zuzu the hermit crab is featured in a three-minute short film as it attempts to recycle a PET bottle that was accidentally left behind during a Plastic Bank beach cleanup. SC Johnson, which manufactures Windex, Glade, and Ziploc, is one of the groups behind joinzuzu.com, along with Plastic Bank, Conservation International, and EarthEcho International. These groups are working together to establish cleanup efforts in regions that lack recycling and waste infrastructure.
- Pellets washing ashore following cargo ship, tanker collision, Plastics News, March 20, 2025
- Aluminum Beverage Can Moves from Recycling Bin to Newly Formed Can in Less Than 60 Days, Waste Advantage, March 19, 2025
- Machine learning enables customized plastics that could reduce environmental impact, PHYS.ORG, March 17, 2025
- Scientists break down plastic using a simple, inexpensive catalyst and air, PHYS.ORG, March 11, 2025
- Microplastics may threaten global food supply by disrupting photosynthesis, PHYS.ORG, March 11, 2025
- Airborne microplastics: Where do they come from, where do they go? PHYS.ORG, March 7, 2025
- Scientists urge inclusion of plastics in climate action plans, PHYS.ORG , March 7, 2025
- Recycling products from the inside out: Scientists tackle plastic pollution, PHYS.ORG, March 6, 2025
- What's that microplastic? Advances in machine learning make identifying plastics in the environment more reliable, PHYS.ORG, March 6, 2025
- These Common Fishing Devices Cause Major Problems, But Researchers Are Working to Make Them Better, Triple Pundit, February 20, 2025
- Burning plastic for cooking and heating: An emerging environmental crisis, PHYS.ORG, February 18, 2025
- Filter feeders transform microplastics into a bigger threat, Earth.com, January 22, 2025
- Durable supramolecular plastic is fully ocean-degradable and doesn't generate microplastics, PHYS.ORG, November 21, 2024
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Help Locate Plastic-Fouled Coastlines
Each month we share an image of a beach fouled by plastic. To report a shoreline pervasively fouled by significant amounts of plastic debris, use our online plastic trash reporting app. Thank you!
This Month’s Coastal Hotspot: Hann Bay Beach, Dakar, Senegal
Image credit: Al Jazeera/John Wessels/AFP
“Once considered one of the most beautiful coves in all of Africa, the former idyllic stretch of fine sand around 20km (12 miles) long, adjacent to the port of Dakar, has become the dumping ground for an increasing population and ever-expanding industry.” That’s how a January 17, 2024, story in AlJazeera described Hann Bay Beach in Dakar, Senegal. The local industry discharges its waste directly into the bay. An international cleanup effort failed. As you can see in the image above, “in some places, it is almost impossible to see the sand beneath the rubbish.”
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Solutions to the Ocean Plastic Crisis
See more solutions on our ocean plastic solutions page. Have a solution we should know about? Submit it here.
This Month's Featured Solution: TONTOTON
Image credit: TONTOTON
TONTOTON is a community-based solution for collecting and treating post-consumer non-recyclable plastic with programs in Vietnam and Cambodia. Material recovery facilities sort waste into three categories: recyclables sent to recyclers, hard-to-recycle plastic processed at TONTOTON factories, and non-recyclables used as waste to energy. Hard-to-recycle materials are cleaned, shredded, and transformed into strong plastic boards used to build classrooms and furniture. TONTOTON’s program includes a certified plastic credit process in which one plastic credit represents one ton of non-recyclable ocean-bound plastic. Corporations can buy credits to support clean-up activities of mismanaged plastic. Waste pickers are financially compensated for every kilogram they collect. TONTOTON reports that over 3 million kg of plastic waste have been collected.
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Meet the Experts and Leaders
OpenOceans Global is identifying ocean plastic experts from around the world. Here is an expert leading efforts to reduce plastic pollution that you should know about.
Erin Simon, Vice President and Head, Plastic Waste and Business, World Wildlife Fund
Image credit: WWF
Erin Simon is the Vice President and Head of Plastic Waste and Business for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Simon is one of WWF’s leading experts on plastics and packaging and a key member of the WWF delegation advocating for a global plastics treaty. Her mandate is to drive positive change across industries in packaging and material sustainability. In addition to helping spearhead WWF’s No Plastic in Nature initiative, Erin has led the development of programs to transform the way business fights the plastic waste crisis. In 2019, her team launched ReSource: Plastic, a corporate action hub to tackle the plastic pollution crisis and help companies take meaningful, ambitious steps towards circularity. In March 2024, she presented the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It was the first time the committee heard how EPR shifts the financial responsibility of material waste management from consumers and municipalities to plastic producers. “Where we have common ground from more players than ever before is on Extended Producer Responsibility,” Simon told the committee. “We may have different reasons for why we want it, but ultimately, we all need better, more harmonized standards." Before WWF, Erin was a packaging engineer at HP for 10 years, responsible for the design and implementation of laser jet printer and media packaging.
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