All at sea cleaning up the pacific garbage

Most ocean-cleaning initiatives target `turning off the taps', i.e. stopping the flow of plastic litter - over eight million tonnes a year - from the land. Packaging is the main culprit. Without such measures, plastic in the sea will outweigh fish by 2050, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's January 2016 report, 'The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics'. Even by 2025, projected increases in plastic production indicate the plastic-to-fish ratio will reach one-to-three, as plastic stocks in the sea grow from 150 million tonnes today to 250 million. While the USA, Europe and Asia jointly manufacture 85 per cent of plastic, the report says Asia is responsible for 80 per cent of leakage into the sea.