India has become the world’s top plastic polluter, with the planet’s most populous nation now responsible for nearly one-fifth of plastic emissions, the South China Morning Post reported.
A new study, published in the scientific journal Nature by researchers from the UK’s University of Leeds, discovered that India accounted for about 9.3 million tonnes of the 50.2 million metric tonnes of plastic emitted into the environment annually, the story continued.
But the experts warned that might still be an underestimate of the true scale of India’s plastic pollution.
“The numbers represent a significant portion of the material generated in India,” one of the researchers said. “The amount of municipal solid waste burned in India is equivalent to that of the next four biggest waste-burning nations – Indonesia, Nigeria, China and Russia.”
Read the full story: The South China Morning Post
- By Sean O’Meara
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