America still the first…

The United States is the largest contributor to plastic pollution in the world. This is shown by a new report released on Wednesday. It calls for a national strategy to tackle the problem.

In total, the United States produced around 42 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2016. That is more than double that of China and more than the countries of the European Union combined, according to the analysis of the American National Academies of Science, Engineering and medicine. However, less than 5 percent of the world’s population lives in the US.

Each American produces an average of 130 pounds of plastic waste per year in the United Kingdom is in second place with 98 kilograms per person per year. In France, the average is 43 kilos.

Every year, at least 8.8 million tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean worldwide, the equivalent of a garbage truck being dumped into the sea every minute, the report says.

At the current rate, the amount of plastic dumped into the ocean could reach 53 million tonnes per year by 2030, half the total weight of fish caught in the ocean each year.