Supplementary data for 'Floating macro-litter leaked from Europe to the ocean: an issue beyond large rivers and developing countries'
Creators: name: González-Fernández, Daniel
name: Cabañas, Andres Cozar
name: Hanke, Georg
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Environmental Science
subject: 40608 Surfacewater Hydrology
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: 60205 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology)
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Riverine systems act as converging pathways for discarded litter within drainage basins, becoming key elements in gauging the transfer of mismanaged waste into the ocean. However, riverine litter data are scarce and biased towards microplastics, generally lacking information on larger items. Based on the first ever database of riverine floating macro-litter across Europe, we estimated that between 98 and 577 million litter items are released annually from Europe to the ocean. The plastic fraction represented 82% of observed litter, mainly fragments and single-use items: bottles, cover/packaging and bags. The modelled estimates suggested that a major portion of the total litter loading is routed through small-sized drainage basins (&lt; 100 km2), indicating the relevance of small rivers, streams and coastal runoff. Moreover, the litter contribution from high-income European countries to the ocean suggests that reducing plastic pollution cannot only depend on waste management improvement but also requires changing consumption and behaviour habits. Modelled Floating Macro-litter Loading (items y-1) from Europe to the ocean. The shapefile contains litter loading output for 32,651 drainage basins. Based on the based on catchment data from the CCM River and Catchment Database including sea outlets (n= 17,772) extracted from the EU-Hydro River Network database and centroids of polygons (n= 14879) for drainage basins with undefined sea outlet nodes (EPSG: 4326, WGS 84). The following data fields are included in the attribute table: <i>BSizeT</i>: drainage basin total area (square kilometres). <i>BSize250km</i>: drainage basin area (square kilometres) overlapping the 250km distancebuffer from the river outlet. <i>Pop250km</i>: number of inhabitants in the drainage basin area overlapping the 250km distancebuffer from the river outlet. <i>MW250km</i>: mismanaged waste production (tonnes per year) in the drainage basin area overlapping the 250km distance buffer from the river outlet. <i>OutletC</i>: country receiving the litter loading. <i>OutletRS</i>: Regional Sea receiving the litter. BalticSea, BlackSea, MedSea (Mediterranean Sea) and NEA (North-East Atlantic Ocean region). <i>MidEstima</i>: Modelled mid estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year.<i>LowEstima</i>: Modelled low estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year (prediction intervals for percentile 25<sup>th</sup>). <i>HighEstima</i>: Modelled high estimate of Floating Macro-litter Loading in items per year (prediction intervals for percentile 75<sup>th</sup>). <br><br>