AP PHOTOS: Millions of tons of plastic foul the world around us

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Children walk along debris, including plastics, that was washed ashore from previous typhoons along a bayside slum area on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Navotas, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

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FILE- Nina Gomes recovers a discarded plastic bag from ocean waters, near Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

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Motorists ride past garbage, most of them plastic, piled up on the side of a road in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

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Rabbits wrapped in plastic bags are displayed for sale at a market in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

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People store various waste materials in plastic sacks for sorting out in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Plastic bottles collected from garbage dumps and streets by recycler Jorge Tejada fill a bag, in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

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FILE- Waste pickers Salmaa and Usmaan Shekh, right, search for recyclable materials during a heat wave at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Channi Anand, File)

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Plastic waste is stored in a recycling centre in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

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Alexandra Water Warriors volunteers cleanup the Juksei river in the heart of Alexandra township from Plastic pollution in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

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A plastic bottle is stuck in a bush in Valdemanco, outskirts of Madrid, on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

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People walk past plastic waste on Badhwar Park beach by the Arabian Sea coast in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024.(AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

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Coots float between dumped plastic bottles and waste on the bank of the river Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

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FILE- A man walks past waste floating in the Drina river near Visegrad, Bosnia, Jan. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)

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A sanitation worker collects trash, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

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FILE- Recyclable collectors work at the Lixao open-air dump in Santo Antonio do Descoberto, Goias state, Brazil, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

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FILE- Revelers stand near a pile of garbage before a bullrun with bulls from La Palmosilla ranch during the first day of the running of the bulls at the San Fermín fiestas in Pamplona, Spain, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, File)

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A cow looks for food by a pond surrounded with plastic waste in Hyderabad, India, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

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FILE- A pedestrian carries takeaway food plastic bags in Hong Kong, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File)

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FILE- A priest sits amid the garbage left by devotees during ‘Kuse Aunsi’ at Gokarneshwor Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

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FILE- An abandoned dog house sits alongside a landfill covered with discarded plastic materials in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz, File)

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FILE- A classic American car drives past garbage in Havana, Cuba, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)

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Plastic garbage bales stand at the courtyard of the Interzero plastic sorting facility facility in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

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FILE- A boy sits on a tire among garbage during sunset at a beach in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

On a Philippines beach, barefoot children jumped and played on shoals of plastic washed ashore in previous typhoons.

Much of the world’s plastic garbage winds up in rivers that eventually carry it into the oceans. Along the way, it’s often ingested by fish, birds and other wildlife, like the trio of coots picking their way through the plastic refuse cluttering a Serbian river.

Plastic, a wondrously versatile material that can be contorted into endless shapes useful in everything from construction to packaging, is also a scourge.

It’s a problem that nations are trying to tackle in South Korea, where a final round of negotiations is underway on a legally binding treaty aimed at solutions.

Its use has exploded in the last half century, and global production is projected to reach 736 million tons by 2040, up 70% from 2020, without policy changes, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Only about 9% of that is recycled, and much of the rest winds up in the world all around us.

In Johannesburg, South Africa, a net trapped plastic garbage on the Juksei River, giving volunteers a chance to clean it up.

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In Jakarta, Indonesia, roadside garbage piled so high it threatened to elbow its way into traffic. And in a New Delhi shanty town, with seemingly every inch of the landscape choked with plastic waste, bags awaited sorting by collectors who hope to resell it.

And in Saint-Marc, Haiti, a boy took in an ocean sunset from a perch surrounded by plastic and other garbage.

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