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O-02

Prevent waste from the 1O most polluting rivers

No plastic flowing to the sea from the world’s 10 most polluting rivers.

12 organizations tracked  ·  1 vetted

The goal in brief

GoalNo plastic flowing to the sea from the world’s 10 most polluting rivers.

of river plastic from 10 rivers (2017 study)1
88–95%
rivers carry 80% of river plastic (2021)2
1,000+
of plastic carried to sea by rivers yearly2
0.8–2.7 million t
lbs of river plastic our members have stopped
678,033Live

Why it matters

A 2017 study estimated that just 10 rivers carry 88 to 95% of the plastic that rivers deliver to the sea.1 Newer research using field measurements spreads that load across more than 1,000 rivers, with small urban rivers among the worst,2 so plastic has to be caught on far more waterways than first thought.

How we’ll know it’s done

Finish line
No plastic reaching the sea from the 10 top-ranked rivers in the 2017 study,1 on the way to the G20’s goal of zero new marine plastic by 2050.3
What counts
Plastic caught in the river and recycled or safely disposed of, not just pushed downstream.
How it’s checked
Plastic counts at river mouths and barriers, and river models checked against field measurements.
Our part
Our campaign reports the pounds of ocean-bound plastic it stops in rivers each month.

What follows

  • Far less new plastic reaching the ocean.O-01Clean up all ocean pollution
  • Cleaner rivers for the communities that drink, wash and fish in them.H-03Establish universal access to clean drinking water
  • Waste systems that collect and recycle plastic instead of dumping it.E-04Establish global zero waste through circular economies
  • Mangroves and coasts at river mouths less choked with trash.E-09Regenerate coastal ecosystems to be resilient against natural disasters

Fund it today Vetted campaigns on this goal, taking gifts now.

How it can be solved

The approaches to this goal, and how many of the organizations taking each one we’ve vetted.

  • River barriers

    Floating barriers and bubble curtains that stop plastic before rivers carry it to sea.

    4 organizations · 1 vetted · 1 no longer operating

  • Litter traps and trash wheels

    Traps, booms and trash wheels that pull litter out of rivers and canals.

    6 organizations

  • River cleaning and care

    Cleaning and restoring rivers and the watersheds that feed them.

    2 organizations

Who’s working on it

We only call a solution proven, measurable and scalable once our vetting team has vetted it. Everything else here, the team is tracking.

Vetted1 organizationReviewed by our vetting team, and passed all three tests.

  • Proven

    It has worked, with results to show.

  • Measurable

    Its impact can be counted.

  • Scalable

    It can grow toward the size of the goal.

Not vetted11 organizationsTracked by our vetting team. Not vetted yet, so we make no claims about them.

No longer operational Kept here so the record is complete. 1

  • O-02-S01

    Renew Oceans No longer operational

    Collected plastic waste from the Ganges River in Varanasi, India.

    River barriers

Listing an organization isn’t an endorsement. Not vetted means just that: our vetting team is tracking it, and we make no claims about it yet. Last reviewed October 2026.

Know a solution we’re missing?

Submit a solution that tackles a goal on Humanity’s Checklist.

  1. Tell us about it in a short form.
  2. Our Solutionary Team reviews every submission.
  3. If it looks like a fit, we’ll start vetting the project.
Submit a project (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. 1. Schmidt, Krauth and Wagner, “Export of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea,” Environmental Science & Technology (2017) (opens in a new tab)
  2. 2. Meijer et al., “More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean,” Science Advances (2021) (opens in a new tab)
  3. 3. G20 Implementation Framework for Actions on Marine Plastic Litter, “Osaka Blue Ocean Vision,” G20 Osaka Summit (2019) (opens in a new tab)