You can see the same thing on any beach: crumpled wrappers of food, bottle caps splayed out, and plastic containers crushed under your feet. This may sound like a casual observation, but it is supported by large data sets.
Researchers have found that plastics associated with food and drinks are the most common marine litter. These items were found to be among the three most common types of marine debris in 93% countries. The findings were published in One Earth and are the most prevalent type of plastic on the shorelines of the world. They represent a global reflection of our disposable culture.
Scientists and policymakers struggled for decades with an enigma. Hundreds of surveys, thousands of measurements and different record keeping systems were used to measure plastic pollution.
It generated an unwieldy tapestry, with disparate data that was impossible to interpret, much like a puzzle of unassembled pieces. All those terabytes could not be combined into a coherent narrative.
Plastic pollution has a major impact on human health, the economy, and the environment. Richard Thompson, a professor at the University of Plymouth and co-author of the study. This study, for the first, identified the categories of debris that are most prevalent at the national, regional and global levels. It also indicated where interventions should be prioritized, as well as which types of specific items to concentrate on.
In order to solve the problem, researchers created a method of ranking that avoids the incompatibility issue by ranking each dataset.
Instead of creating one metric that could be used for all studies, researchers identified three most common items in every survey. They then averaged the rankings from different countries.
The authors applied the same approach to 355 peer reviewed studies using data collected from 5,342 surveys sites between 1992 and 2020 and published since about 90% of those cases.
This paper examined 7 continents and 9 ocean systems as well as 13 regional seas. It also included countries that represent 86% of world’s population.
In the category of food and beverages plastics, plastic caps, plastic bottles, and food packaging were the three most popular items in over half the countries surveyed. Plastic bags ranked second, and were among the top 3 in more than half of all countries. Cigarette butts ranked close behind, at 38%.
Food-and-beverage-plastics have always been the most popular amongst the top five countries in terms of population: India, China.
United States of America. Indonesia. Pakistan.
The evidence that plastic pollution is a problem in the oceans and on our seas has now become undeniable. Max Kelly is the lead author of this study and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Plymouth.
The harmonized data was years in the making, and it allowed us to chart items that are abundant on global shorelines for the first time.
Researchers used Monte Carlo Simulation to estimate the likelihood that items on the top of the list will still appear in the final ranking, despite the fact the dataset was smaller.
Most reliable were the results from those countries that had larger surveys, and therefore more people. The rankings of countries with a population of one third of the entire world were more reliable than 90%, while 40 nations representing the other two thirds scored higher than 50%.
Regional differences were evident, and countries diverged greatly from the global pattern. The common sight of fishing and shipping equipment in an isolated area was likely due to buoyant debris being carried from far-off sources, rather than local ones. Food packaging was the third-most common object found in Antarctica.
This is because of its strict rules for waste disposal at research stations.
Other unusual items included life jackets in Greece, possibly related to the category of migrants crossing boats, and spent cartridges in Iceland.
The results are timely for the international governance of plastics. The authors point out that while specific negotiations are underway for a UN Global Plastics Treaty, their data could help to determine which products should be included on different lists of “problematic and unneeded” items – thereby helping the global agenda focus more attention on what really matters.
This study shows that waste management is not enough to solve plastic pollution. Susan Jobling, Professor at Brunel University in London and director of the PISCES Project under which these studies were conducted.
On the ocean’s floor, there are 11 million tonnes worth of plastic waste.
The same food and drink plastics are a major source of shoreline pollution in many different countries, including Indonesia. Upstream solutions such as reduction, reuse and better packaging are necessary to stop plastic pollution from occurring at the source.
Researchers warn that even though the framework they have developed provides a clear target, in order to measure the effectiveness of specific interventions, additional monitoring will be required at lower resolutions and with time.
Kenya and Tanzania are two African countries that have banned plastic bags. They no longer rank among the top three most popular items in their country.
Some countries with plastic bag bans continue to do so despite the fact that others have banned them. This suggests that timing and enforcement are as important as legislation.
Journal Reference
- Max Richard Kelly, Muhammad Reza Cordova, Susan Jobling, Paul Somerfield, Richard Charles Thompson. Global shorelines are dominated by food and beverage plastics: A harmonized ranking-based assessment to guide intervention. One Earth 2026, 0. DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2026.101712
