Plastic: Top 10 of coastal cleanups

For the first time in the 30-year history of Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup, plastic has made the Top 10 list of items collected by some 800,000 volunteers across the multi-country cleanup. "Given that plastic production is rising, this could be the start of a long and troubling trend," said Nicholas Mallos, the conservancy’s ocean trash program directors. Common non-plastic items, including glass bottles, rope, beverage cans and paper bags, were pushed out of the Top 10 in the most recent inventory published this week. Volunteers in more than 100 countries collected 20.5M tons of trash during September's cleanup. In Louisiana, more than 1,700 people took part, collecting just more than 47,000 items. The Gulf of Mexico has one of the world's highest concentrations of marine plastic. The Mississippi River may be to blame for much of the GoM's plastic problem. The river acts as a collector of plastic and other waste that eventually flows into Gulf. (Source: NOLA.com 06/28/18)