TY - JOUR T1 - An inshore–offshore sorting system revealed from global classification of ocean litter A1 - Morales-Caselles,Carmen A1 - Viejo,Josué A1 - Martí,Elisa A1 - González-Fernández,Daniel A1 - Pragnell-Raasch,Hannah A1 - González-Gordillo,J. Ignacio A1 - Montero,Enrique A1 - Arroyo,Gonzalo M. A1 - Hanke,Georg A1 - Salvo,Vanessa S. A1 - Basurko,Oihane C. A1 - Mallos,Nicholas A1 - Lebreton,Laurent A1 - Echevarría,Fidel A1 - Van Emmerik,Tim A1 - Duarte,Carlos M. A1 - Gálvez,José A. A1 - Van Sebille,Erik A1 - Galgani,Francois A1 - García,Carlos M A1 - Ross,Peter S. A1 - Bartual,Ana A1 - Ioakeimidis,Christos A1 - Markalain,Gorka A1 - Isobe,Atsuhiko A1 - Cózar,Andrés AD - Departamento de Biología, University of Cadiz and European University of the Seas (SEA-EU), Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina (INMAR), Puerto Real, Spain AD - Project Aware, Dive Against Debris, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia AD - Asociación Proyecto Ecopuertos, Cádiz, Spain AD - European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate D – Sustainable Resources, European Commission, Ispra, Italy AD - Posidonia Green Project, Barcelona, Spain AD - AZTI Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Pasaia, Spain AD - Ocean Conservancy, Portland, OR, USA AD - The Ocean Cleanup, Rotterdam, Netherlands AD - Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands AD - Red Sea Research Centre (RSRC) and Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia AD - Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands AD - IFREMER (French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea), Immeuble Agostini, Z.I. Furiani, Bastia, France AD - Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada AD - UNEP/ Mediterranean Action Plan, Barcelona Convention Secretariat, Athens, Greece AD - Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Japan UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00700/81230/ DO - 10.1038/s41893-021-00720-8 N2 - The surge of research on marine litter is generating important information on its inputs, distribution and impacts, but data on the nature and origin of the litter remain scattered. Here, we harmonize worldwide litter-type inventories across seven major aquatic environments and find that a set of plastic items from take-out food and beverages largely dominates global litter, followed by those resulting from fishing activities. Compositional differences between environments point to a trend for litter to be trapped in nearshore areas so that land-sourced plastic is released to the open ocean, predominantly as small plastic fragments. The world differences in the composition of the nearshore litter sink reflected socioeconomic drivers, with a reduced relative weight of single-use items in high-income countries. Overall, this study helps inform urgently needed actions to manage the production, use and fate of the most polluting human-made items on our planet, but the challenge remains substantial. Y1 - 2021/06 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC JF - Nature Sustainability SN - 2398-9629 VL - 4 IS - 6 SP - 484 EP - 493 ID - 81230 ER -