Economic development, coastal population growth, and expansion of tourism-related activities along coastlines have been the leading causes of marine debris pollution worldwide. While the problem of marine debris pollution has been increasingly recognized, there has been limited research on its socioeconomic drivers, primarily due to a paucity of consistent data on debris. The research described here utilizes newly available data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on marine debris along eight coastal states of North America to examine the relationship of such debris pollution with socioeconomic variables including population, age, education, and tourism, as well as the mitigating effect of social capital on debris pollution. The results indicate that marine debris increases with income; however, at higher income levels the amount of pollution starts to decline, supporting the “Environmental Kuznets” hypothesis. We also find that population growth along coastlines contributes to greater debris accumulation. Our results further highlight the significant roles social capital and education play in curbing debris pollution. Understanding the socioeconomic drivers of marine debris is an important first step in informing abatement policy and allocation of resources by public agencies to address the marine pollution problem.

经济发展，沿海人口增长以及沿海岸线的与旅游相关的活动的扩展，已成为全球范围内海洋垃圾污染的主要原因。尽管海洋垃圾污染问题已得到越来越多的认识，但对其社会经济驱动因素的研究却很有限，这主要是由于缺乏有关垃圾的一致数据所致。本文所述的研究利用了来自美国国家海洋与大气协会（NOAA）的最新数据，该数据涉及北美八个沿海州的海洋垃圾，研究了此类垃圾污染与社会经济变量（包括人口，年龄，教育程度和旅游业）之间的关系，以及社会资本对垃圾污染的缓解作用。结果表明，海洋垃圾随收入增加而增加。然而，在较高的收入水平，污染量开始减少，这支持了“环境库兹涅茨”假说。我们还发现，沿海岸线的人口增长促进了更多的碎片堆积。我们的结果进一步凸显了社会资本和教育在遏制垃圾污染方面的重要作用。了解海洋垃圾的社会经济驱动力是为公共政策提供减排政策和资源分配以解决海洋污染问题的重要第一步。