Data and Code

Remote islands are disproportionately affected by plastic pollution, often originating from elsewhere, so it is important to understand its origins, to stop debris entering the ocean at their source. We investigated the origins of beached plastic drink bottles in the Chagos Archipelago, a large remote Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Indian Ocean. We recorded the brands, countries of manufacture, types of drink, and ages of plastic bottles and their lids. The prevalent type of drink was water, with items mostly manufactured in Indonesia, China, and the Maldives. The main brands were Danone and the Coca-Cola Company. We deduced that ten percent of the items originated from ships passing the archipelago, including all the items manufactured in China. The identification of the brands creating plastic pollution in remote MPAs with high biodiversity supports extended producer responsibility, one of the proposed policy development areas of the Global Plastics Treaty.

偏远岛屿所受塑料污染的影响远超其应有的比例，且这类污染往往源自域外，因此厘清其污染源头、从源头上阻止海洋垃圾进入海洋至关重要。本研究针对印度洋大型偏远海洋保护区（Marine Protected Area, MPA）查戈斯群岛的冲上海滩塑料饮料瓶展开溯源调查。我们记录了这些塑料瓶及其瓶盖的品牌、生产国、所装饮品类型以及老化程度。所检出的饮品以饮用水为主，其生产国主要为印度尼西亚、中国与马尔代夫，主要品牌包括达能（Danone）与可口可乐公司（The Coca-Cola Company）。我们推断，10%的塑料瓶源自途经该群岛的船舶，其中涵盖所有产自中国的样本。针对生物多样性丰富的偏远海洋保护区内造成塑料污染的品牌进行溯源，可为生产者责任延伸制度提供支撑，而该制度正是《全球塑料条约》（Global Plastics Treaty）提议的政策发展方向之一。