Researchers from the University of Leeds in the UK have published a list of the world’s top plastic polluters. Bangladesh is in the top ten of that list. Basically, the list is made based on the amount of plastic waste a country releases into the environment every year. Accordingly, Bangladesh is ranked 6th in the list.
According to a report by the Indian media outlet Telegraph India, India is at the top of the list. The country releases at least 9.3 million tons of plastic waste into the environment every year. With this, 604 Taj Mahals can be filled every year. 90 percent of this plastic comes from waste collected or burned from different places.
Earlier, China was at the top of the list. However, China is fourth in this list. China releases 2.8 million tons of plastic waste into the environment every year. Apart from this, Nigeria has risen to second place on the list by releasing 3.5 million tons of plastic per year. Indonesia is at third place on the list. The country releases 3.4 million tons of plastic every year.
Pakistan is at fifth place on the list. The country releases 2.7 million tons of plastic into the environment every year. Bangladesh and Russia release 1.7 million tons of plastic each year, but Bangladesh is in sixth place on the list and Russia is in seventh place. Brazil is in eighth place on the list. The country releases 1.4 million tons of plastic into the atmosphere every year.
The two countries in ninth and tenth place on the list are Thailand and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, respectively. The two countries release 1 million tons of plastic waste into the environment, respectively.
The study was conducted by researcher Ed Cook, his colleagues Josh Cuttham and Costas Velis. They used artificial intelligence to study the waste management models of 50,000 municipalities around the world and estimated that two-thirds of the world’s plastic pollution comes from uncollected garbage.
Cook said, “We hope that our results will provide governments with a basic estimate from which they can work to reduce plastic pollution through local action plans.”
