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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Humanity’s fast-food habit is filling the ocean with plastic

Food bags, drink bottles and similar items account for the biggest share of plastic waste near the shore.
Plastic and other debris floats underwater in blue water

Plastic detritus from snacks and meals floats in the Red Sea. Marine sampling shows that food waste accounts for nearly 90% of plastic pollution at some locales. Credit: Andrey Nekrasov/Barcroft Media/Getty

Takeaway food and beverage packaging is the main source of plastic litter accumulating along many coasts.

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Nature 594, 476 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01563-1

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