A sweeping new study spanning four continents and eight countries has amassed one of the largest datasets ever collected on plastic pollution in rivers. The new research offers insights that the researchers responsible believe are key to helping turn off the tap of plastic waste and stopping plastic pollution.

Between 2020 and 2023, researchers worked with local partners to collect data from river sites in Mexico, Jamaica, Panama, Ecuador, Kenya, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. But the study, published in the Journal of Environmental Management, was much more than data gathering.

“What’s really exciting about this effort is that we were able to answer the same question—what does plastic pollution actually look like in rivers—across many different contexts, geographies, and cultures,” says lead author Chase Brewster, a project scientist in UC Santa Barbara’s Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory.

Unique among many global pollution studies, the project took a community-led approach that emphasized local autonomy. Local nonprofits and social enterprises led the work in their own communities, sorting plastic waste by item type and polymer category over three years.

“Each site was an independent project,” Brewster explains, regarding the efforts to stop plastic pollution. “They weren’t just collecting data. They were implementing technology to remove plastic from rivers, engaging governments, empowering communities, and improving local conditions.”

Together, these local teams form the Clean Currents Coalition, a global initiative directed by the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory to intercept plastic before it reaches the ocean while fostering education, local engagement, and systemic change.

Over the three-year period, teams collectively removed and analyzed 3.8 million kilograms of river debris (equivalent to 380,000,000 single-use plastic water bottles), with 66% classified as macroplastic. This large-scale, synchronous effort—rare in its scope and level of coordination—enabled researchers to compare data across diverse social, economic, and environmental settings.

Researchers found substantial variation in the amount of plastic pollution intercepted in rivers studied—but all had plastic. Scaling up average plastic collection rates documented in this study would generate a preliminary estimate of 1.95 million metric tonnes (Mt) of plastic traveling down rivers worldwide every year.

Read the full article about ending plastic pollution by Debra Herrick at Futurity.