Comment by ch4s3
4 days ago
I think their use of that paper is a bit sloppy, but you're sort of doing a similar thing by making a strong rhetorical claim "This author does what other pro-industry mouthpieces do" while ignoring the point of the paragraph, "Richer countries have near-universal refuse collection and almost none of their waste winds up in the ocean", which is broadly true[1]. North America and Europe account for 5.1% or ocean plastic. India alone accounts for nearly 13%, and the Philippines nearly 37%.
Worth noting that according to the data in that article, India is below the world average on a per capita basis, roughly 0.7x the world average. The Philippines is 25x the world average per capita.
I almost think the per-capita lens is less useful here, because the issue isn't consumption/use per se but the state capacity to collect trash and dispose of it properly. I also suspect that within India the majority of people produce little to no plastic trash that enters the ocean.