Cocos Islands, a paradise covered with 977,000 shoes and 373,000 toothbrushes

PARIS – Hundreds of millions of plastic fragments are stranded in an archipelago of the Indian Ocean, another sign of the magnitude of this global pollution, researchers said.

In total, more than 400 million fragments weighing about 238 tons were found on the white sandy beaches of the Cocos Islands, a group of 27 atolls populated by a few hundred inhabitants, 2100 kilometers to the west. of

Australia

.

But biologist Jennifer Lavers, whose study was published Thursday in the newspaper
Nature Scientific Reports, these pieces on the surface are just the tip of the iceberg.

The researcher at the University of Tasmania is not surprised. "I have been working in isolated islands for about 15 years and they have all received this kind of leftovers," he said. "But what surprised me the most is that digging the amount does not decrease."

According to the team, the actual amount of plastic on the beaches studied, in the different layers of sand, would represent up to 26 times the volume of fragments visible on the surface.

For these researchers, global waste studies tend to "significantly underestimate the extent of accumulation".

Global plastic production continues to grow and half of the volume produced comes from the last 13 years. Every year, millions of tons fall into the oceans, directly threatening marine life.

For Jennifer Lavers, a discovery in a place as far away as the Cocos Islands is a source of great concern.

"The five towers [oceánicos] or "plastic continents" tend to attract, but the Cocos Islands are far away! ", he said, pointing out that" plastic is everywhere, divided by currents, big or small ".

Much of the waste found in the archipelago is food packaging.

For the scientist, the modes of production and consumption (reuse) must be reconsidered if the world wants to put an end to this "epidemic".

"Some atolls have received such sums [de plástico] that we should ask ourselves about our way of life, including our everyday objects, "he says.

AFP Agency