Ocean plastic pollution set to double within 30 years – and clean-up technology won’t solve problem, study shows

‘[W]e can’t keep polluting the oceans and hoping that technology will tidy up the mess,’ researcher says

Surface pollution could reach more than 860,000 metric tonnes by 2052, paper says (Making Oceans Plastic Free)

Devices that collect floating waste from the surface of the ocean will not solve the problem of plastic pollution, a study shows.

Researchers found river barriers could be a more effective method of reducing pollution “significantly” if used in tandem with surface clean-up technology.

They compared estimates of current and future plastic waste with the ability of floating clean-up devices to collect it, and discovered the impact of such devices was “very modest”.