Summary
Plastic winds up everywhere—from the top of Mount Everest to remote Antarctica. And every year, millions of tons of discarded plastic also wash into the ocean. Research about ocean plastic is swelling, too, from 46 papers in 2011 to 853 in 2019, according to a UNESCO science report published last week. The report found that ocean plastic research grew much faster than any of the other 55 development-related topics it tracked. But gaps remain in the research. Journals get many papers describing the presence of plastic, but not as many about sources and solutions. And the possible ecotoxicological effects of plastic are poorly understood, too.
