Historical and future trends of plastic pollution in the global ocean

It seems that the efforts to combat marine plastic pollution have been unsuccessful, and the progressive increase in global plastic production suggests that it is a difficult problem that will have large-scale consequences. However, the historical series available in water and stomachs of birds do not find clear trends of increase in the degree of contamination in recent years, a result that has not been explored in depth by the scientific community. In fact, there are large unknowns in relation to what has been the historical evolution of plastic pollution and how effective have been the measures applied to reduce generation and improve waste management.

In PLASTREND we intend to evaluate the historical dynamics of the plastic pollution, and the future trends for different scenarios of management and consumption of plastic. The results aim to provide a comprehensive vision of how management measures applied internationally have driven the input of litter to the ocean, and what are the most efficient ways to mitigate and prevent the worrying problem of the global plastic pollution.