A Catchment Approach to Plastic Pollution Management

The Case of the Mulan River, People's Republic of China KEY POINTS• Over 170 trillion plastic particles are already in the ocean, and rivers add about 14 million tons each year.• In the Mulan River Basin, surveys and hydrological modeling estimate approximately 313 tons of plastics are generated per year, of which about 7.4% (23 tons per year) reach the ocean via the Mulan River and its tributaries.The main sources of this plastic load are solid waste (38%), agricultural films (26%), impermeable surfaces and roads (22%), and urban and rural sewage (13%).• Integrated river basin management is an effective framework for plastic pollution control.Plastics should be formally recognized as a "new pollutant" for monitoring and regulation.1