Jenna Jambeck an environment engineering professor at the University of Georgia holds a plastic baggie with trash collected last fall from a clean up at Panama Beach Fla Thursday Feb 12 2015 at the AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Jose Calif Each year about 88 million tons of plastic ends up in the world oceans a quantity much higher than previous estimates according to a new study that tracked marine debris from its source