Workshop Summary, A Global Estimate of All Sources of Plastic Debris into the Ocean

This is a summary of a workshop conducted by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) Marine Debris Working Group, with support from Ocean Conservancy. The workshop builds on a conceptual model designed in 2015, identifying eight major sources of plastic debris. Of the eight sources, only one (improperly managed waste generated on land), has been quantified to date by Jambeck et al. 2015). The workshop goal was to determine the largest sources of plastics to the ocean in order to provide a global estimate of total plastic debris entering the ocean and to prioritize intervention strategies.