Plastic may be an indispensable part of our daily lives, but its robustness and abundance have led to its overuse, putting a huge burden on the environment. Large emissions of plastic waste result in its accumulation in water bodies: in fact, recent studies have estimated about 0.27 million tons of plastic floating in the world's oceans. Because plastic does not decompose in water, it is a serious hazard for the marine life. Thus, to prevent plastic pollution, it is crucial to understand exactly how plastic is emitted into the oceans. Previous studies have tried to analyze plastic emissions, but they had some limitations: they focused on mostly mismanaged plastic waste and not how these plastic emissions actually originate.
