Globally, it was found that approximately 3.0 and 5.3 million MT of micro- and macro plastics, respectively, are annually lost to the environment, of which, between 1.2 and 2.4 million MT of plastic litter is estimated to flow from the world’s rivers into the oceans every year. While plastic pollution in oceans has received much attention over recent years and has been studied in depth, the role of rivers as carrying plastic pollution to the oceans has received less attention by the scientific community, practitioners, the general public and policy-makers. However, plastic pollution in Asian rivers has been highlighted in studies to account for an estimated 86% of the global input of plastics into oceans1 . Two major transboundary river basins in Asia, the Ganges and the Mekong, are among the 10 most plastic-polluted rivers in the world.

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