Finally, A Study on Plastic From Rivers to Gyres!

It's been a while since I have posted. Life gets busy. I still try to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink, and Refuse Plastic.

I ran across an Article titled

These 10 Rivers Are Responsible for 90 Percent of the Plastic in the Oceans

https://www.seeker.com/earth/conservation/these-ten-rivers-are-responsible-for-90-percent-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans 

Finally there is a study out there that concludes what I have been saying for years! #FromRiver2Gyre.  This article discusses a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Titled 

Export of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea

 The study claims that "The 10 top-ranked rivers transport 88–95% of the global load into the sea."

They go on to say "Using MMPW (mismanaged plastic waste) as a predictor we calculate the global plastic debris inputs form rivers into the sea to range between 0.41 and 4 × 10⁶ t/y."

The Top Ten Rivers are the Yangtze River, Indus River, Yellow River, Hai He River, Nile River, Ganges River, Pearl River, Amur River, Niger River, and the Mekong River.

Neither article mentions anything about plastic from rivers in North or South America because they did not make the top ten list of Rivers. The U.S. has better waste management, but a lot more slips through than we would think. 

The predictors used in the study, or the lack of data to study I think under estimates how much plastic actually flows from rivers in developed countries like the United States.

The article in admits, "Due to the limited amount of data high uncertainties were expected and ultimately confirmed." but then says "The empirical analysis to quantify plastic loads in rivers can be extended easily by additional potential predictors other than MMPW, for example, hydrological conditions."Thus cuncluding more research needs to be done and other factors need to be considered. For example;
 We also need to consider plastic flowing down rivers because of flooding caused by climate change.