An inshore–offshore sorting system revealed from global classification of ocean litter

ABSTRACT The surge of research on marine litter is generating important information on its inputs, distribution and impacts, but data on the nature and origin of the litter remain scattered.

Here, we harmonize worldwide litter-type inventories across seven major aquatic environments and find that a set of plastic items from take-out food and beverages largely dominates global

litter, followed by those resulting from fishing activities. Compositional differences between environments point to a trend for litter to be trapped in nearshore areas so that land-sourced

plastic is released to the open ocean, predominantly as small plastic fragments. The world differences in the composition of the nearshore litter sink reflected socioeconomic drivers, with a

reduced relative weight of single-use items in high-income countries. Overall, this study helps inform urgently needed actions to manage the production, use and fate of the most polluting

human-made items on our planet, but the challenge remains substantial. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

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subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS FLOATING MACROLITTER LEAKED FROM EUROPE INTO THE OCEAN Article 10 June 2021 INDUSTRIALISED

FISHING NATIONS LARGELY CONTRIBUTE TO FLOATING PLASTIC POLLUTION IN THE NORTH PACIFIC SUBTROPICAL GYRE Article Open access 01 September 2022 GEOSPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND ANTHROPOGENIC LITTER

IMPACT ON COASTAL MANGROVE ECOSYSTEMS FROM THE SAUDI ARABIA COAST OF THE GULF Article Open access 07 May 2025 DATA AVAILABILITY Supplementary text and additional figures and tables can be

found in the supplementary material. The data that support the findings of this study, as well as a tool (Excel macro) to automatically convert any litter category list into the joint master

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science monitoring approach. _Mar. Pollut. Bull._ 150, 110763 (2020). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has been financed by the Spanish Ministry

of Science, Innovation and Universities, CTM2016-77106-R, AEI/FEDER/UE through the MIDaS project. The 2014-2020 ERDF Operational Programme and the Regional Government of Andalusia (ref.

FEDER-UCA18-107828, PLAn project) supported C.M.-C., and the BBVA Foundation (PLASTREND project) supported D.G.-F.. The European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon

2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no_715386) supported E.v.S. This study is the outcome of the huge labour of many dedicated volunteers and researchers who have cleaned

and recorded litter all around the world together with ECOPUERTOS, Marine Litter Watch, Ocean Conservancy, Project Aware, The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, The Ocean Cleanup and RIMMEL.

The icons displayed in the figures were originally provided by Surfrider Foundation Europe. Thanks to A. L. Fanning for valuable comments on the document. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND

AFFILIATIONS * Departamento de Biología, University of Cadiz and European University of the Seas (SEA-EU), Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina (INMAR), Puerto Real, Spain Carmen

Morales-Caselles, Josué Viejo, Elisa Martí, Daniel González-Fernández, J. Ignacio González-Gordillo, Gonzalo M. Arroyo, Fidel Echevarría, José A. Gálvez, Carlos M. García, Ana Bartual, Gorka

Markalain & Andrés Cózar * Project Aware, Dive Against Debris, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Hannah Pragnell-Raasch * Asociación Proyecto Ecopuertos, Cádiz, Spain Enrique Montero *

European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate D – Sustainable Resources, European Commission, Ispra, Italy Georg Hanke * Posidonia Green Project, Barcelona, Spain Vanessa S. Salvo *

AZTI Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Pasaia, Spain Oihane C. Basurko * Ocean Conservancy, Portland, OR, USA Nicholas Mallos * The Ocean Cleanup, Rotterdam,

Netherlands Laurent Lebreton * Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands Tim van Emmerik * Red Sea Research Centre (RSRC) and

Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia Carlos M. Duarte * Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research

Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands Erik van Sebille * IFREMER (French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea), Immeuble Agostini, Z.I. Furiani, Bastia, France

François Galgani * Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Peter S. Ross * UNEP/ Mediterranean Action Plan,

Barcelona Convention Secretariat, Athens, Greece Christos Ioakeimidis * Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Japan Atsuhiko Isobe Authors * Carmen

Morales-Caselles View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Josué Viejo View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

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author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Erik van Sebille View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar *

François Galgani View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Carlos M. García View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed

 Google Scholar * Peter S. Ross View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ana Bartual View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Christos Ioakeimidis View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Gorka Markalain View author publications You can

also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Atsuhiko Isobe View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Andrés Cózar View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS C.M.-C. and A.C. conceived and drafted the present study; they contributed equally to the work. A.C.,

D.G.-F., H.P.-R., J.I.G.-G., E. Montero, G.M.A., G.H., O.C.B., N.M., L.L., T.v.E. and C.I. participated in the design and coordination of the field surveys. C.M.-C., J.V., A.C., E. Martí and

D.G.-F. analysed the data. All authors read and commented on the manuscript. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Carmen Morales-Caselles or Andrés Cózar. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING

INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PEER REVIEW INFORMATION _Nature Sustainability_ thanks Lauren Roman and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for

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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Methods, Table 1, Figs. 1–8 and references. REPORTING SUMMARY SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES Supplementary Tables 2–4. SUPPLEMENTARY

DATA Conversion tool. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Morales-Caselles, C., Viejo, J., Martí, E. _et al._ An inshore–offshore sorting

system revealed from global classification of ocean litter. _Nat Sustain_ 4, 484–493 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00720-8 Download citation * Received: 28 May 2020 * Accepted:

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