Using satellites & AI to measure plastic pollution

Plastic pollution has become one of the most urgent threats facing the planet, presenting a threat to the health of humans and animals alike. Now, in a world first, a new digital platform has been developed by Australian non-profit Minderoo Foundation that maps out plastic pollution across the globe in near real-time.

Global Plastic Watch combines artificial intelligence and remote sensing satellite imaging to create an open-source, high-resolution map of plastic pollution with the aim of enabling authorities to better manage it and prevent plastic leakage into marine environments.

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The digital tool uses freely available data from the European Space Agency and a specially-designed machine learning model created in collaboration with Earthrise Media, an environmental digital product agency to determine the size and scale of land-based plastic waste sites, itself a major contributor to the rapidly growing problem of it ending up in rivers and oceans.

It is estimated that between 8 and 14 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in the oceans every year, and the data gathered by the project is probably the most authoritative insight into the problem.

So far, the project has detected over 2,800 sites in 25 countries including all of South-East Asia, Australia, and the top 20 countries in annual plastic leakage into the oceans according to the scientific publication Science Advances.

Dr Andrew Forrest AO, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Minderoo Foundation said that data and transparency were important tools in the battle against plastic waste, however it has been difficult to accurately identify and measure its build up in a systematic way, until now. Most data currently comes from estimations and modelling data.

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"Generally, the world has no idea how dangerous plastic waste is to the organic environment, particularly humans. The destination for every piece of plastic is nano-plastic, which has both poisonous and cutting attributes able to mutilate cells and even penetrate the human blood-brain barrier," Dr Forrest said.

"Preventing illegal and legal plastic waste stockpiles entering the oceanic environment is critical to limit this harm. Once in the ocean, through both mixing, absorption and ingestion by animals, this plastic will officially enter the human environment."

The tool is aimed at providing support to country-level efforts to understand the scale and effects of land-based plastic waste sites. 

Many of the sites mapped by Global Plastic Watch were hitherto undocumented and Dr Fabian Laurier, Lead for Technology and Innovation, and Ocean Conservation at Minderoo Foundation, said that the number of sites is far higher than expected. It also found that 22.1% of the sites are located within 250 metres of a waterway, with 8.1% being within 100 metres.

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"We know that land-based leakage contributes up to 91 per cent of the plastic waste that enters the ocean," Dr Laurier said. "Global Plastic Watch has revealed that many large-scale waste sites across the first 25 countries we have mapped were previously undocumented and the number of sites is much higher than expected.

Minderoo Foundation is working with the government of Indonesia to increase its recycling capacity to double recycling rates through developing capacity for an additional one million tonnes per year by 2025.

Dr Nani Hendiarti, Deputy for Environment and Forestry Management Coordination, Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Indonesia, welcomed the launch.

"Global Plastic Watch is very helpful for identifying undocumented or illegal waste dump sites in Indonesia," Dr Hendiarti said. "That has enabled us to prioritise areas in need of better waste management policies and actions. Therefore, it plays an integral role in accelerating the government’s waste management achievements across all regions in the country."

Global Plastic Watch comes almost a year after Minderoo released the Plastic Waste Makers Index which found that 20 companies were responsible for more than half of the world's plastic pollution.

Read more: 20 companies produce 55% of global plastic waste, research reveals

It is projected that the world will see an increase in single-use plastic production of 30% over the next five years. Minderoo has predicted that such an increase will lead to another three trillion items of disposable plastic waste by 2025.

Earlier this year, researchers at the UK's Hull York Medical School found microplastics in human lungs for the first time. A similar study by Dutch researchers this year found microplastics in human blood. Microplastics are defined as being less than 5mm in dimension, with many being invisible to the naked eye. They are formed as larger plastic items slowly degrade and break apart in the natural environment.

Global Plastic Watch says that it will continue working with partners and refining the AI to further improve accuracy and expand coverage to new sites and countries throughout the year.

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