Plastic food packaging dominates global coastal litter study

Plastic food wrappers, bottles, lids and caps are by far the most common items of litter found on the world’s shorelines, a study has found.

Researchers looked at data from more than 5,300 surveys of coastal litter to produce the first global analysis of its kind, drawing from 355 existing studies.

“It’s the everyday stuff that we’re using,” said Richard Thompson, founder of the University of Plymouth’s international marine litter research unit. “Even in countries with fairly advanced waste management, those are the dominant items on the shoreline.”

Thompson said he was not surprised to see lots of single-use plastics in the data, but the fact those items turned up so consistently along coastlines across all seven continents had taken him aback.

To produce the analysis, published in the journal One Earth, researchers examined data from hundreds of studies and sources, searching for surveys with similar methodology that provided data on the type of litter recorded. Confidence in figures for each country was based on the number of studies found and other factors.

Information collected spanned 94 countries, and the team extrapolated from that data to include estimates for another 18 countries. Food and drink-related plastics appeared in coastal litter in 93% of those places, with no other form of litter as prevalent.

Plastic bags appeared in data from 39% of countries and cigarettes in data from 38% of countries.

There were, however, some regional variations. Plastic bags, for example, were consistently prevalent in Asia.

The study also noted that a ban on plastic bags did not necessarily mean a country had less of such waste – poor policy enforcement or other countries exporting their waste was suggested as a reason.

The study did not include microplastics or unidentifiable plastics, but the authors noted these tended to originate from larger, identifiable plastic litter.

Efforts to establish an international treaty to tackle plastic pollution are in turmoil. The chair of the treaty talks stepped down in October after allegations of behind-the-scenes pressure from the UN’s environment programme, which oversees the talks.

It also emerged this month that the programme’s largest donor, Norway, was reviewing its funding for the body.

The next round of discussions may not take place until late 2026 or 2027.

Thompson said policymakers could address plastic pollution by ensuring plastics were only used for essential purposes, and that people could increasingly opt for refillable food and drink containers. He added that the study’s global overview could guide mitigation efforts.

Tamara Galloway, a professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Exeter who was not involved in the study, noted that current economic models treat many forms of plastic as disposable. “If we reframed it as ‘plastic-lost-value’, we might get on better with the policymakers. We’ve got this hugely valuable material and we’re just throwing it away all over the place,” she said.