These 10 Countries Are Responsible for More Than 80% of Plastic Waste in the Ocean

Discarded plastic bottle on a Malaysian beach, highlighting environmental pollution.

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In a recent paper, researchers found that just 10 countries account for more than 80% of all plastic waste that ends up in the ocean. The Philippines alone accounts for 36% of all plastic that reaches the ocean every year, the most of any country.

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Different countries have different pollution mitigation strategies, varying the degree of plastic emissions around the world. While less than 1% of plastic waste generated in the United States ends up in the ocean, in some countries more than 10% of plastic waste reaches the world’s oceans. A closer look at the data reveals which countries are most responsible for global plastic emissions.

To determine the countries dumping the most plastic waste into the ocean, Climate Crisis 247 reviewed data on plastic waste emissions from the April 2021 paper “More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean.” Countries were ranked based on the total annual amount of plastic waste that ends up in the ocean emitted from each country. Supplemental data on total population is from the World Bank.