ArticleScience advances2021
More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean.
Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 129 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
129 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Global microplastic pollution at levels harmful to marine life.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2025Pooled it
- Microbial synthesis and degradation of bio-based biodegradable plastics.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- The exposome and inflammatory bowel disease: a framework for primary and primordial prevention.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Assessing Seafloor Litter Classification: Lessons from an Online Proficiency Test.Environmental management · 2026Article
- Photoreforming and Photoelectroreforming of Waste-Derived Feedstocks for Solar-Driven Production of Fuels and Chemicals.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Review
- The influence of rivers on seabird foraging ecology.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Food waste recycling in the USA can reduce climate and nutrient pollution impacts yet risks plastic accumulation in soils.Nature food · 2026Article
- Predicting the plastic biodegradation potential within microbial lineages and across global ecosystems.Microbial genomics · 2026Article
- Exploring transferability of plastic-water hyacinth interaction and detection in rivers.iScience · 2026Article
- Ocean inspiration for a sustainable future: Rivers to Seas engagement and a UN Ocean Agency?Ambio · 2026Article
- Mapping mismanaged plastic waste in Indonesia: subdistrict-level analysis through material flow from sources to the environment.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- River plastic hotspot detection from space.iScience · 2026Article
- Plastics as vectors for pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes in aquatic systems.Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research · 2026Review
- Long-Range Transport of Oil by Marine Plastic Debris: Evidence from an 8500 km Journey.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- From Enrichment to Fate: Transport, Transformation, and Fate of Micro- and Nanoplastics in Marine Environments.Toxics · 2026Review
- Bioplastic biodegradability shapes microbial communities in a coastal brackish environment.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Frontiers in plastic biodegradation: unraveling the mechanisms and impacts of macro- and microplastic pollution.Biodegradation · 2026Review
- Frontiers in plastic biodegradation: unraveling the mechanisms and impacts of macro- and microplastic pollution.Biodegradation · 2026Review
- The river Rhine transports around 4,000 tonnes of macrolitter towards the North Sea each year.Communications sustainability · 2026Article
- Environmental evaluation of plastic waste end-of-life pathways in Malang District, Indonesia: a life cycle approach.The international journal of life cycle assessment · 2026Article
69 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plastic waste increasingly accumulates in the marine environment, but data on the distribution and quantification of riverine sources required for development of effective mitigation are limited. Our model approach includes geographically distributed data on plastic waste, land use, wind, precipitation, and rivers and calculates the probability for plastic waste to reach a river and subsequently the ocean. This probabilistic approach highlights regions that are likely to emit plastic into the ocean. We calibrated our model using recent field observations and show that emissions are distributed over more rivers than previously thought by up to two orders of magnitude. We estimate that more than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global annual emissions, which range between 0.8 million and 2.7 million metric tons per year, with small urban rivers among the most polluting. These high-resolution data allow for the focused development of mitigation strategies and technologies to reduce riverine plastic emissions.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.