Solopos.com, JAKARTA – Plastic waste is still one of the greatest environmental problems on earth in the 21st century. There are still many people who throw plastic garbage in the ocean, which threatens the lives of the creatures in it. So which country throws the most rubbish into the sea?

A report from a packaging company called RAJA reveals the top culprits in the world who produce the most plastic.

As quoted by Liputan6 on the Euronews page on Tuesday (14/12/2021), India is the worst country in 2020 for the problem of plastic litter in the oceans, with around 126.5 million kg dumped annually.

The weight of plastic waste dumped by India is equivalent to the weight of more than 250,000 bottlenose dolphins, one of the most abundant species of dolphin in the oceans. Although the US produces twice as much plastic waste annually as India (42 billion kg), only 2.4 million kg ends up in the oceans.

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This may be because the US is known to export its waste to other countries including countries with poor waste management systems like India or places in Africa, as well as countries with good waste management systems.

In 2018 the Plastic Pollution Coalition reported that United States of America exported 157,000 shipping containers filled with plastic waste, this corresponds to around 1.07 million kg of plastic.

The plastic is sent to several high quality waste disposal countries such as Canada, South Korea and Taiwan. Larger amounts of rubbish are also sent to countries with poor waste management systems such as Malaysia, Thailand and India, which account for 19 percent, 10 percent and 12 percent of US plastic waste, respectively.

When big countries like the US send their plastic waste overseas, they can claim it has been recycled. This fulfills the industrialized countries’ obligation to make major positive changes to the environment.

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Here are the 10 countries where plastic waste is most likely dumped in the ocean:

10. England – 703 thousand kg of plastic

9. Japan – 1.8 million kg of plastic

8. USA – 2.4 million kg of plastic

7. Egypt – 2.5 million kg of plastic

6. Mexico – 3.5 million kg of plastic

5. Thailand – 22.8 million kg of plastic

4. Brazil – 38 million kg of plastic

3. Indonesia – 56.3 million kg of plastic

2. China – 70.7 million kg of plastic

1. India – 126.5 million kg of plastic