Supplementary data for 'Floating macro-litter leaked from Europe to the ocean '

• Main Authors: Daniel González-Fernández (8705811), Andres Cozar Cabañas (8011568), Georg Hanke (2200237)
• Format: Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Environmental Science; Surfacewater Hydrology; Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology); Riverine Litter; Marine Litter; Floating Litter; Plastic Pollution; Waste Management; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12130917.v3

Riverine systems act as converging pathways for discarded litter within drainage basins, becoming key elements in gauging the transfer of mismanaged waste into the ocean. However, riverine litter data are scarce and biased towards microplastics, generally lacking information about larger items. Based on the first ever database of riverine floating macro-litter across Europe, we estimated that between 307 and 925 million litter items are released annually from Europe to the ocean. The plastic fraction represented 82% of observed litter, mainly fragments and single-use items (i.e. bottles, packaging and bags). Our modelled estimates showed that a major portion of the total litter loading is routed through small-sized drainage basins (< 100 km 2 ), indicating the relevance of small rivers, streams and coastal runoff. Moreover, the major contribution of high-income countries to the macro-litter inputs suggests that reducing plastic pollution cannot only depend on waste management improvement but also requires changing consumption habits and behaviour. Modelled Floating Macro-litter Loading (items y-1) from Europe to the ocean. The shapefile contains litter loading for 32,651 drainage basins. The CCM River and Catchment Database and the European Catchments and Rivers Network System (ECRINS) database have been used to extract drainage basins, including sea outlets (n= 17,772) and centroids of polygons (n= 14,879) for drainage basins with undefined sea outlet nodes (EPSG: 4326, WGS 84). The following data fields are included in the attribute table: OutletC: country receiving the litter loading. OutletRS: Regional Sea receiving the litter. BalticSea, BlackSea, MedSea (Mediterranean Sea) and NEA (North-East Atlantic Ocean region). BSizeT: drainage basin total area (square kilometres). MWTotal: mismanaged waste production (tonnes per year) in the drainage basin total area. MeanMid: Modelled mid estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year. Mean-based approach. MeanLow: Modelled lower estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year. Mean-based approach. MeanUp: Modelled upper estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year. Mean-based approach. BSize450km: drainage basin area (square kilometres) overlapping the 450km upstream river flow buffer from the river outlet. MW450km: mismanaged waste production (tonnes per year) in the drainage basin area overlapping the 450km upstream river flow buffer from the river outlet. MedianMid: Modelled mid estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year. Median-based approach. MedianLow: Modelled lower estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year. Median-based approach. MedianUp: Modelled upper estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year. Median-based approach.