A Powerade bottle from 2001 was found on Yaya, a Peruvian beach south of Lima. A Coca-Cola bottle from 2002 was found on Robinson Crusoe Island, a World Biosphere Reserve, in Chile. These were the oldest of all the bottles collected.
These discarded pieces of packaging were collected in a new macro-study that looked at the origin of plastic bottle pollution on beaches and cities along Latin America’s Pacific coastline. The research—the first to be conducted on a regional scale, thanks to a citizen science initiative covering 10 countries—combed more than 12,000 kilometers of coastline along the west coast of South and Central America. It found that across the region, Central American countries are most affected by coastal plastic pollution, and underscores the urgency of confronting this major problem.
Although volunteers found numerous bottles dating back more than a decade, “most of them were less than a year old,” says scientist Ostin Garcés, an expert on the impact of plastic on marine ecosystems at the University of Barcelona and a lead author of this new research.
Plastic makes up the majority of the garbage on coastlines around the world and has reached even the most inhospitable corners of the planet, including the deepest parts of the oceans and both the Arctic and Antarctic. Its impact not only has repercussions on biodiversity and the balance of ecosystems; various studies show how plastic already colonizes our insides, runs through our blood, and lives in our brains and organs. Microplastics have even been found in semen and ovaries. The microplastics that we eat, drink, and breathe every day are part of us.
An environmentalist searches for plastic waste and packaging dumped on El Esterón beach in Intipuca, El Salvador, in October 2024. Photograph: MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images
“Production and consumption continue unabated,” says Garcés, who is part of the team that sampled a total of 92 continental beaches, 15 island beaches, and 38 human settlements to determine the abundance, origin, and characteristics of plastic bottles along Central and South America’s Pacific coast. This study reveals surprising data, given that more than half of the bottles and caps collected had visible dates.