The Plastic Water Pollution Crisis Is Most Dire in These 5 Countries

Products made from plastic have become a critical problem, polluting bodies of water worldwide. Plastics in oceans have become so ubiquitous that a term was coined — ocean-bound plastic — to describe the likelihood of cheap plastic winding up in the ocean.

In the world's deepest trench, located within the Pacific Ocean, a diver discovered plastic waste littered across the sea floor.

While some countries are making notable strides to reduce or eliminate plastics, other countries reside on the opposite end of the spectrum. Those laggards are identified below.

Of the 57 million tons of total plastic pollution that humans generate each year, per PBS News, India contributes an astounding 10.2 million tons of plastic waste annually.

That astonishing figure represents more than double the plastic waste the second-place and third-place culprits produce.

The Ganges River is similarly one of the . The air quality problem in India remains an issue, though some measures have been taken over the years to attempt to mitigate the problem. Still, plastic waste and pollution of all sorts remain a gigantic issue in India, one that must be addressed immediately.

According to the World Bank Group, Nigeria at one point was responsible for 4.7 million tons of plastic waste annually — a portion of which ends up in the ocean due to certain cities' proximity to the water.

"If you take a walk through the streets of major Nigerian cities or take a look at the country’s sewers, rivers, lakes, and oceans, you will see discarded plastic waste everywhere," Simran Randhawa writes in Green Habitat Initiative.

While the figures differ across sources, PBS reports that Nigeria is the second-worst culprit of plastic pollution worldwide. Even worse, in a study of over 50,000 cities, Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, produced the most plastic pollution.

To their credit, Nigeria has taken steps over the years to achieve greener initiatives.

According to Aquablu, a water dispenser company aiming to reduce single-use plastics, China has been one of the world's worst plastic polluters in oceans. As of 2022, China was reported to produce 70.7 million kg of plastic pollution in the ocean.

Per the report, China produced the most plastic pollution in the world the year prior, and at one point accounted for nearly one-third of all plastic produced worldwide.

In 2020, China crafted a plan to ban some single-use plastics over the course of five years. Nevertheless, the astounding amount of plastic waste persists.

It's also worth noting that environmental factors were cited as one of the reasons major cities in China experienced power outages in recent years.

According to a December 2023 report in one5c, as of 2021, the Philippines contributes more than 356,000 metric tons of plastic pollution to the ocean each year. This tragic number is potentially inflated by the fact that the U.S. and multiple countries throughout Europe send their plastic waste to the Philippines and other countries on this list.

Per additional reporting from one5c, plastic waste enters the oceans via the Philippines' polluted rivers.

According to Aquablu, Indonesia produced 53.3 million kg of plastic pollution in the oceans as of 2022. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 1.29 million tons of the country's plastic waste enters the sea. An additional 10 billion plastic bags contribute to more plastic waste that eventually finds its way into the ocean.