Ships are illegally dumping plastic trash at sea, study suggests mardi, 15 octobre 2019 à 11:45 - Sources on land blamed for most ocean plastic, but ships may be a bigger problem than thought Thousands of plastic drink bottles are washing up on a remote, uninhabited island in the South Atlantic, and researchers say they're evidence of illegal dumping from cargo ships. Ships have been strictly banned from throwing trash overboard for more than 30 years. Nevertheless, "ships are responsible for most of the bottles floating in the central South Atlantic Ocean, in contravention of International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships regulations," concludes the new international study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.