2026-08-14 · percent of river plastic emissions
Most river plastic comes from a handful of rivers
Ten rivers carry a large fraction of plastic entering oceans.
A handful of rivers do most of the damage: an estimated 90% of the plastic that rivers carry to the ocean comes from just ten of them. The remaining 10% is spread across every other river on Earth, with Asia and the Pacific (5.2%), Africa (2.8%) and the Americas (2%) sharing the rest. Each square is an equal slice of river plastic emissions.
1 cell = 0.1 percent of river plastic emissions (0.1% of river plastic to oceans) · 1,000 cells
Context
The 90% share is the headline estimate from Lebreton et al.'s work on river plastic emissions to the ocean, and it drives this grid's split between ten spotlighted rivers and everything else.
Outside the top ten, the remaining 10% is unevenly split: Asia and the Pacific account for 5.2%, Africa for 2.8%, and the Americas for 2%. Even the long tail of river plastic is regionally lopsided.
If the estimate holds, interception and cleanup aimed at a short list of river systems could reach most of the plastic flowing to the ocean — while the remaining 10% still flows from rivers across Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Lebreton et al. river plastic share estimate.
Share and export
Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-08-14-ocean-plastic