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by bendermon 3408 days ago
Note: Thank you for down voting for pointing out a glaring 'fake statistics' and poor journalism, on a #1 trending post on HN.

The first and the second quote do not mean the same thing, not even close.

"A massive 60%t of the plastic waste in the oceans is said to have come from India, according to the Times of India."

The TOI reads - "Banning disposable plastic is a huge step for the capital and the country because India is among the top four biggest plastic polluters in the world, responsible for around 60% of the 8.8 million tons of plastic that is dumped into the world’s oceans every year."

As an Indian, I see a lot of journalists stuck in a colonial era. They go out of their way to tarnish and stereotype the great unwashed. They manage to turn even positive news to mock and heckle the less developed world.

But this article has taken it to great heights. The TOI isn't exactly known for journalistic integrity and often conveniently pulls statistics from their backside. But to misquote the devil, this article has certainly hit the lowest level.

3 comments

"India, with 0.60 million tonnes per year of mismanaged plastic waste, is ranked 12th. China ranks no. 1 with 8.82 million tonnes per year of mismanaged plastic waste. There are 11 Asian and Southeast Asian countries in the list, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Burma."

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and- environment/india-pumps-600000-tonnes-of-plastic-waste-into-the-ocean-annually-science-journal/article6890568.ece

>But this article has taken it to great heights. The TOI isn't exactly known for journalistic integrity and often conveniently pulls statistics from their backside. But to misquote the devil, this article has certainly hit the lowest level.

I second this. We should just ban TOI links on hacker news.

Is their claim factually incorrect?
I think it might actually be factually incorrect. I looked up the Times Of India article that OP's article was referring to [1], and could not find a source on the biggest plastic polluters in the world.

Then, after searching around, the articles [2] and reports [3] that I found all put Indonesia (not India) in the top 5 polluters in the world. They refer to an authoritative source from Science [4], but I'm not able to access this due to the paywall.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Surely the Times of India hasn't confused "Indonesia" for "India", right?

[1] http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/all-forms-of-disposable...

[2] http://www.audubon.org/news/these-5-countries-are-biggest-pl...

[3] PDF! http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/marine-debris/mckin...

[4] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768

The article claims - India contributes 60% of the plastic in the ocean.

From the Times of India (TOI) article that it refers to - "India is among the four largest contributor who in total contribute 60%". Which considering a journalist's honesty definitely means India is the fourth largest contributor, which would mean India at most contributes 15% of the waste.

That is a long way from the 60% claimed. Considering the reputation of TOI, even the milder claim is quite suspect.

Actually the wording on the sentence is bad, but they said the top 4 contribute to 60%, and claim India is among the top 4.
Hard to say definitively, but the claim seems likely to be wrong. According to this link, India is far from the worst offender.

http://billmoyers.com/2015/02/19/theres-horrifying-amount-pl...

Looks like it, Jambeck et al in Science 2015 rank India 12th for plastic waste input to the oceans.

DOI: 10.1126/science.1260352