During the last 3 decades, plastic drink bottles have shown the fastest growth rate of all debris types on remote Inaccessible Island, which is part of the Tristan da Cunha volcanic island group.
During the 1980s, most bottles drifted to the island from South America.
Currently, 75% of bottles are from Asia, with most from China, according to the study published by PNAS.
“The recent manufacture dates indicate that few bottles could have drifted from Asia, and presumably are dumped from ships, in contravention of International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships regulations,” the authors of the report stated.
