The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) recently published a report, Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste, assessing the United States' contribution to plastic production and waste generation, its impacts, and the pathways in which plastic waste moves. The new NAS report, composed by a committee of academic experts, recommends that the United States substantially reduce solid waste generation to reduce plastic in the “environmental, economic, aesthetic, and health costs of managing waste and litter.” It also recommends the development and implementation of a national strategy to reduce the United States' contribution to the global plastic pollution crisis.

Entanglement and ingestion of plastic waste represent two especially well-studied impacts on marine and freshwater life. One review by Kuhn and van Franeker (2020) found documented cases of entanglement or ingestion in 914 species based on 747 studies —701 species have documented ingestion, and 354 species were found entangled in plastic debris. Microplastics ingested by marine biota may move through the food web, ultimately to humans, but more research is necessary about the effects on the food web and humans. 

Read the full article about reducing plastic waste by Miho Ligare at Surfrider Foundation.