U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds
The plastic pollution crisis has been widely blamed on a handful of Asian countries, but new research shows just how much the U.S. contributes.
When the Environmental Protection Agency released its plan earlier this month for addressing marine litter, it named five Asian nations—China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam—as responsible for more than half of the plastic waste flowing into the oceans every year.
“The United States has some of the most beautiful beaches and oceans in the world, and the coastlines are incredible,” President Trump says in enlarged type on the plan’s first page. “As president, I will continue to do everything I can to stop other nations from making our oceans into their landfills.”
The trouble with that framing, scientists say, is it distorts the complexities of a global problem and contributes to a sense of complacency in the United States that
