• According to a 2015 Ocean Conservancy report about 8 million tones of plastic waste are dumped into the world’s oceans every year.
• More than half of the plastics come from five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
• They are among the fastest growing economies in Asia, where much of the world’s plastic is produced, consumed and discarded.
• Most of them were improperly discarded in countries where waste management is at best patchy.
• World Environment Day  highlighted the perils of plastic with the tagline “if you can’t reuse it, refuse it”.
• Microplastics – tiny shards that easily soak up toxins after breaking off from larger plastic pieces – have been found in tap water, ground water and inside fish that millions of people eat across Asia every day.
• At the current rate of dumping, the total amount of plastic trash in the world’s oceans is expected to double to 250 million tons by 2025.

Source:TH