Three to eleven million tonnes of plastic waste is estimated to be on the bottom of the ocean. Plastic pollution on the seabed could be up to 100 times greater than the amount of plastic floating on the ocean's surface.
Around half (46 percent) of the estimated plastic mass is located above a water depth of 200 meters, the rest (54 percent) in the following ocean depths of up to 11,000 meters. Since plastic consumption is expected to double by 2040, understanding how and where plastic Waste is transported in the sea is crucial to protecting marine ecosystems and wildlife.