What are the most common items of waste found in rivers and oceans?

Shown is each item's share of total litter in aquatic environments, including rivers, shorelines and offshore waters. This is shown for the 10 most common items globally,based on the counts/number of items found.

Bags14.1%Plastic bottles11.9%Food containers / cutlery9.4%Wrappers9.1%Synthetic rope7.9%Fishing related7.6%Plastic lids6.1%Industrial packaging3.4%Glass bottles3.4%Cans (drinks)3.2%

Source: Morales-Caselles et al. (2021). An inshore–offshore sorting system revealed from global classification of ocean litter.

Note: Data comes from global samples of more than 12 million litter items in major aquatic environments.