Cleaning up just 40% of global plastic pollution would take 1 billion people a year

There would have to be a 25-40 per cent reduction in plastic production across the 173 countries included in the study, writes Louise Boyle

It would take a billion people each year to clean up less than half the world’s plastic pollution, a new study has found. 

Ecologists from the University of Toronto are warning of the monumental scale of action needed to curb plastic waste entering the world’s rivers, lakes and oceans.

Because there are no environmentally acceptable thresholds set for plastic pollution, the team came up with a target scenario of 8 million metric tons (Mt), based on the estimated amount of waste entering oceans in 2010.