By Anadolu Staff
ANKARA (AA) – Rivers are responsible for transporting plastic waste to the marine environment, according to a study.
A research paper published in April 2021 studied how rivers polluted the oceans.
"Our results indicate that countries with a relatively small land surface area compared to the length of their coastline and with high precipitation rates are more likely to emit ocean plastics," according to the research.
Given the results, the Philippines was the largest contributing country transferring 356,371 metric tons of plastic waste into oceans every year, through 4,820 rivers.
India followed with 126,513 metric tons, and Malaysia ranked third with 73,098 metric tons.
China ranked fourth with 70,707 metric tons, and Indonesia followed it with 56,333 metric tons.
Myanmar, Brazil and Vietnam generated 40,000, 37,799 and 28,221 metric tons, respectively.
Bangladesh (24,640 metric tons) and Thailand (22,806 metric tons) were the two whose rivers transported the least plastic waste to oceans.