Also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%27s_waste_import_ban
A not insignificant part of the plastic thrown in rivers in South East Asia is consumed in Europe and the USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%27s_waste_import_ban
A not insignificant part of the plastic thrown in rivers in South East Asia is consumed in Europe and the USA
I've heard this repeated many times, but every time I go searching for details I always come back with the same results: This is not true.
The garbage in rivers is local.
No one is shipping waste from Europe or USA, but some countries do buy recycling. But of course since they paid for the recycling, they have no interest in then dumping it.
If you have some source showing different I'd be interested in seeing it.
Obviously any amount is bad, but this isn't a significant source of river plastic.
And to really drive the point home: According to the article the plastic ends up in rivers because of bad local trash management!! (As opposed to deliberate dumping.)
So the solution is exactly as others have said: These countries need modern municipal trash pickup. The problem does not originate in Europe or USA.
BTW: This is a very poor study, for example they use numbers for San Fransisco Bay watershed to estimate numbers for India.