Looking at the other continents, around 8% of plastics come from African rivers, 5% from South America, 5% from North America. Europe and Oceania combined contribute less than 1%. It’s hard to accept these figures. It tells a story that we don’t really want to hear. As a European, I want to think that we can play a big role in fixing this problem by cutting back on our plastic wrappers, ditching our single-use shopping bags, and recycling our used milk cartons. Sadly, this isn’t true. If everyone in Europe stopped using plastics tomorrow the world’s oceans would hardly notice the difference.
