Reckoning with the U.S. role in global ocean plastic waste /

This book is a must read for concerned public and private sector professionals. The study, part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's "Consensus Study Report" series, brings together perspectives on plastics in the ocean from and for multiple disciplines. As reported here, the US produces more waste in general--and more plastic waste in particular--than any other global entity. The various authors focus on the US, but a global perspective is included. The summary provides a comprehensive overview of the salient points used to generate four key recommendations. The findings and conclusions to support these recommendations are detailed in each succeeding chapter. The second and third chapters cover plastics as products and as waste, providing a source-to-sink overview of the global plastic cycle. The remaining four chapters focus mainly on the fate and transport of plastics in the ocean, the need for better monitoring of plastic waste in the ocean, and the current state of international strategies for managing plastics. The book is well illustrated and referenced. Numerous tables provide access to the data used to support the findings. The text is written in an easily accessible manner such that laypeople and students from grade eight and up would understand the salient points. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Nancy W. Hinman, formerly, University of Montana