Stop Ocean Plastic.
Facts, statistics, and solutions for plastic pollution in our oceans. The latest data on ocean plastic, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and what we can do to stop it.
Ocean Plastic Pollution: The Crisis in Numbers
Every year, between 19 and 23 million tonnes of plastic waste enter rivers, lakes, and oceans worldwide, according to the UN Environment Programme. That is the equivalent of a garbage truck every single minute. The plastic in the ocean now numbers between 82 and 358 trillion particles floating on the surface alone, with concentrations accelerating since 2005.
Stop Ocean Plastic exists to track this crisis with data, not conjecture. We aggregate the latest peer-reviewed research, verified statistics, and real-world collection data to give you an accurate picture of ocean plastic pollution — how bad it is, where it comes from, and what is actually working to stop it.
How Much Plastic Is in the Ocean Right Now?
The scale is staggering. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic spanning 1.6 million square kilometres — an area twice the size of Texas. Across all five ocean gyres, microplastics have been found in every marine habitat tested, from Arctic sea ice to the Mariana Trench. Organisations like Plastic Bank are tackling this at the source, having collected over 9.4 billion plastic bottles before they reached waterways.
- Over 100,000 marine mammals die annually from plastic ingestion or entanglement (IUCN, 2023)
- 36.5% of fish caught for human consumption contain microplastics (Frontiers in Marine Science, 2025)
- Without policy intervention, river-to-ocean plastic flow will reach 3.6 million tonnes annually by 2060 (OECD Global Plastics Outlook)
Five countries account for over half of ocean-bound plastic waste. Here's the country-level data on where marine plastic comes from.
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