An inshore–offshore sorting system revealed from global classification of ocean litter

The surge of research on marine litter is generating important information its inputs, distribution and impacts, but data the nature origin remain scattered. Here, we harmonize worldwide litter-type inventories across seven major aquatic environments find that a set plastic items from take-out food beverages largely dominates global litter, followed by those resulting fishing activities. Compositional differences between point to trend for be trapped in nearshore areas so land-sourced released open ocean, predominantly as small fragments. world composition sink reflected socioeconomic drivers, with reduced relative weight single-use high-income countries. Overall, this study helps inform urgently needed actions manage production, use fate most polluting human-made our planet, challenge remains substantial. Data are Harmonizing inventories, finds dominated plastics food, fishing, being reaching ocean mostly