BBC News spoke with Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor of environmental engineering in the UGA College of Engineering, about a new study she led that found that 8 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste entered the ocean in 2010. Jambeck helped visualize the scale of such a massive number.
“The quantity entering the ocean is equal to about five plastic grocery bags full of plastic for every foot of coastline in the world,” she said.