Tackling Plastic Pollution: Top 100 Influencers, Brands and Publications

Plastic has only been around for 60-70 years but it’s already begun to negatively impact the natural environment and create problems for plants, wildlife and even human population. As plastic is composed of major toxic pollutants, it has the potential to cause great harm to the environment in the form of air, water and land pollution.

Plastic pollution in the sea is set to treble in the next 10 years, and by 2050 the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by weight. This is a massive problem because the accumulation of plastic in the environment adversely affects wildlife, humans and the environment itself, especially in waterways and oceans. Marine animals are affected through entanglement, direct ingestion of plastic waste, or by exposure to chemicals within plastics that causes damage to their biological functions. Sea birds are affected as well, with studies showing that 90% of sea birds have some sort of plastic in them. Humans are also affected by plastic pollution. In the UK alone, more than 5 million tonnes of plastic are consumed each year, which can disrupt hormone levels.

Plastic reduction efforts have occurred in some areas in attempts to reduce plastic consumption and pollution and promote plastic recycling, but it’s estimated that only 24% of all plastic actually makes it into recycling systems. That leaves a remaining 3.8 million tonnes of waste, destined for landfills. Between 10 and 20 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans every year. More plastic is being thrown or washed into the ocean at a rate much quicker than what it is breaking down. Plastic as a material is photodegradable, which means that it breaks down into smaller pieces when exposed to sunlight, and because the temperature they are exposed to in the sea is a lot lower than that on land, the breakdown process takes a lot longer in the marine environment. It’s estimated that 5.25 trillion plastic particles are currently floating around in world’s oceans.

As this is such an important issue, we were very interested to discover the top influencers, brands and publications discussing plastic pollution on social. What follows is the top 50 in each category, including a network map of the online conversations. There are a wide variety of different influencers that you can engage with so it is good to focus your engagement on certain personas that you feel will best communicate your message to your target audience. Typically industry experts, micro-influencers and everyday influencers are easier to engage than the macro influencers.

TOP 100 INFLUENCERS

Below is a list of the top 50 plastic pollution influencers. If you want to see who ranks from 1-100 be sure to download the full report by clicking the download button below!

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Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Company	Influencer Score
1	@ErikSolheim	Erik Solheim	UNEP	100
2	@Dev_Fadnavis	Devendra Fadnavis	Bharatiya Janata Party	87.78
3	@LewisPugh	Lewis Pugh	Swimmer / Ocean advocate	65.26
4	@AfrozShah1	Afroz Shah	UNEP’s Champion of the Earth	57.5
5	@ZAGrrl	Gail Barnes Ph.D.	Personify LLC	41.02
6	@KangarooCaught	Rajan Naidu	Environment and Social Justice Activist	39.37
7	@LeoDiCaprio	Leonardo DiCaprio	Actor and Environmentalist	36.06
8	@michaelgove	Michael Gove	Secretary of State for Environment	32.7
9	@MayorofLondon	Mayor of London	London.gov.uk	29.64
10	@deespeak	Dia Mirza	UNEP Goodwill Ambassador	25.96
11	@BeingFarhad	Shah A Farhad	Environment and Social Justice Activist	20.76
12	@cathmckenna	Catherine McKenna	Minister of Environment & Climate Change	20.73
13	@James_BG	James Murray	Editor of BusinessGreen	20.21
14	@MarkRuffalo	Mark Ruffalo	The Solutions Project	19.36
15	@VetoPlastic	Karen	Activist	19.15
16	@PaulPolman	Paul Polman	CEO of Unilever	19.08
17	@implicitweet	Dianna Cohen	Plastic Pollution Coalition	18.76
18	@KarmenuVella	Karmenu Vella	Commissioner for Environment	18.33
19	@PYCousteau	Pierre-Yves Cousteau	Cousteau Divers	17.85
20	@BiologistDan	Daniel Schneider	Biologist, Diver, Activist	17.41
21	@mrjonkhoo	Jon Khoo	Interface	15.95
22	@JackHarries	Jackson Harries	Filmmaker, Photographer, Environmentalist.	14.99
23	@juliepackard	Julie Packard	Monterey Bay Aquarium	14.95
24	@ifranhk	Frank Moonalice	Sustainability activist	14.16
25	@keithpp	Keith Parkins	Deep ecologist, activist	13.63
26	@kristianteleki	Kristian Teleki	Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit	12.86
27	@tveitdal	Svein T veitdal	Klima2020	12.67
28	@lillyspickup	lillysplasticpickup	Plastic Pollution Coalition	12.64
29	@wawarah	Rahmah Abdul Hamid	PPSEAWA Malaysia	12.61
30	@ineeshadvs	Neeshad V S	AYCM Qatar	12.49
31	@Lara	Lara Setrakian	News Deeply	12.42
32	@EmmaHowardBoyd	Emma Howard Boyd	The Environment Agency	12.35
33	@Benioff	Marc Benioff	Salesforce	12.33
34	@2morrowknight	Sean Gardner	World Communication Forum	11.92
35	@peteswildlife	peter burton	Wildlife Activist	11.89
36	@dhruvboruah	Dhruv Boruah	Entrepreneur, Activist	11.82
37	@MikeHudema	Mike Hudema	Greenpeace	11.48
38	@HoeZaay	José Covaco	Vlogger / Comedian	11.25
39	@VisualPersist	Matt Bjerregaard	ReefScan	11.22
40	@nspugh	nigel pugh	Enviromentalist, Photographer	10.64
41	@Alex_Verbeek	Alexander Verbeek	Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs	10.41
42	@JudiWakhungu	Prof. Judi Wakhungu EGH	Kenya’s Ambassador to France	10.31
43	@M_Hartl	Dr Mark Hartl	Associate Professor of Marine Biology	9.82
44	@sherryrehman	SenatorSherryRehman	Senate of Pakistan	9.53
45	@AdamRogers2030	Adam Rogers	UNDP	9.39
46	@BillBruceComms	Bill Bruce	Bill Bruce Communications	9.34
47	@GeorgeMonbiot	GeorgeMonbiot	Author, environmental activist	9.27
48	@Stevewal63	Steve Waldron	SEI	9.21
49	@JustinR_Freeman	Justin Freeman	Green enthusiast	8.73
50	@calestous	Calestous Juma	Professor Harvard	8.66

Tackling #PlasticPollution: Top 100 Influencers, Brands and Publications

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MAPPING THE COMMUNITY

Below you can see a network map of the online plastic pollution conversations showing the number two influencer Erik Solheim at the centre. This map was created with our Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM). Be sure to click on the map to enjoy the full size network diagram in greater detail.

Below is another network map of the plastic pollution conversation showing the number one brand UN Environment at the centre. If you are interested in learning more about identifying, managing and engaging with influencers click here to get in touch!

TOP 100 Brands

Below is a list of the top 50 plastic pollution brands. If you want to see who ranks from 1-100 be sure to download the full report by clicking the download button below!

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Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@UNEP	UN Environment	100
2	@SkyOceanRescue	Sky Ocean Rescue	62.87
3	@UN	United Nations	55.35
4	@Seasaver	Blue Planet Society	49.61
5	@Greenpeace	Greenpeace	37.88
6	@sascampaigns	SurfersAgainstSewage	34.45
7	@mcsuk	MCSUK	31.76
8	@UNDP	UN Development	30.58
9	@NatGeo	National Geographic	27.45
10	@wef	World Economic Forum	27.13
11	@TEDTalks	TED Talks	20.51
12	@GreenpeaceUK	Greenpeace UK	20.21
13	@unwantedplastic	unWANTED plastics	19.79
14	@2handsproject	Two Hands Project	19.59
15	@PlasticPollutes	Plastic Pollutes	19
16	@wwf_uk	WWF UK	18.47
17	@Tesco	Tesco	17.69
18	@EU_ENV	EU Environment	17.01
19	@DefraGovUK	Defra UK	16.88
20	@BinStrap	BinStrap	16.61
21	@BBCEarth	BBC Earth	16.07
22	@nature_org	Nature Conservancy	15.57
23	@UNDP_India	UNDP India	15.06
24	@dw_environment	DW – Environment	14.59
25	@PlasticBank	Plastic Bank	14.37
26	@plastics2fuel	Waste-Derived-Diesel	13.91
27	@EnvAgency	Environment Agency	13.86
28	@WWF	WWF	13.41
29	@WeAreProject0	Project 0	12.82
30	@BoatPicsLancs	Plastic Free ⛵ Morecambe Bay	12.8
31	@lonelyplanet	Lonely Planet	12.69
32	@EHFoundation237	Ethereal Heart Fdn	12.55
33	@CGTNOfficial	CGTN	12.44
34	@WorldBankWater	World Bank Water	11.97
35	@PolychemUSA	Polychem USA	11.52
36	@TIPACorp	TIPA-Corp	11.09
37	@CECHR_UoD	CECHR	11.01
38	@greenpeaceusa	Greenpeace USA	10.71
39	@EU_Commission	European Commission 🇪🇺	10.68
40	@IUCN	IUCN	10.54
41	@FastCompany	Fast Company	10.46
42	@OneLessBTL	OneLess	10.32
43	@OpenLitterMap	OpenLitterMap	10.3
44	@versovabeach	Clean Up Versova	10.09
45	@storyofstuff	The Story of Stuff	9.6
46	@scrapr_	Scrapr	9.34
47	@EU_MARE	EU Maritime & Fish	9.29
48	@coopukfood	Co-op Food	9.23
49	@UNESCO	UNESCO	9.12
50	@sainsburys	Sainsbury’s	9.05

TOP 100 PUBLICATIONS

Below is a list of the top 50 plastic pollution publications. If you want to see who ranks from 1-100 be sure to download the full report by clicking the download button below!

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@guardian	The Guardian	100
2	@BBCWorld	BBC News (World)	80.02
3	@SkyNews	Sky News	73.13
4	@nytimes	The New York Times	60.59
5	@BBCNews	BBC News (UK)	56.25
6	@BBCScienceNews	BBC Science News	56.16
7	@TheEconomist	The Economist	51.3
8	@ndtv	NDTV	49.39
9	@dw_globalideas	DW \| Global Ideas	48.79
10	@CNN	CNN	47.12
11	@Independent	The Independent	46.49
12	@guardianeco	Guardian Environment	46.45
13	@UE	Unearthed	44.92
14	@Forbes	Forbes	44.16
15	@TIME	TIME	43.74
16	@FoxNews	Fox News	43.15
17	@BIUK	Business Insider UK	39.63
18	@mashable	Mashable	39.5
19	@washingtonpost	Washington Post	39.38
20	@HuffPost	HuffPost	39.33
21	@ABC	ABC News	39.06
22	@EcoInternet3	EcoInternet	34.97
23	@XHNews	China Xinhua News	34.15
24	@AP	The Associated Press	34.08
25	@EINWasteNews	EIN Waste News	32.43
26	@LGSpace	Little Green Space	31.42
27	@NPR	NPR	30.13
28	@cnni	CNN International	28.91
29	@FinancialTimes	Financial Times	28.61
30	@NBCNews	NBC News	27.17
31	@gmanews	GMA News	26.41
32	@thetimes	The Times of London	26.37
33	@htTweets	Hindustan Times	25.98
34	@bbcworldservice	BBC World Service	25.5
35	@sciam	Scientific American	25.46
36	@nowthisnews	NowThis	25.24
37	@businessinsider	Business Insider	25.22
38	@guardiannews	Guardian news	25.02
39	@EcoWatch	EcoWatch	25
40	@AJEnglish	Al Jazeera English	24.82
41	@business	Bloomberg	24.65
42	@Telegraph	The Telegraph	24.16
43	@verge	The Verge	23.15
44	@dwnews	dwnews	22.81
45	@NewScienceWrld	The New Science	22.57
46	@ajplus	AJ+	22.23
47	@BusinessGreen	BusinessGreen	22.17
48	@the_hindu	The Hindu	22.14
49	@standardnews	Evening Standard	21.62
50	@BBCBusiness	BBC Business	21.43

At Onalytica we love building these lists and want to give back to our loyal readers as much as we can. If you’re interested in other topics (such as Virtual Reality, Digital Health, Digital Marketing) be sure to have a gander on our blog or why not propose some topics to us on twitter?

Effective influencer marketing starts with identifying relevant influencers for your brand. Onalytica’s new Discovery platform mines over 200 billion posts a year into a curated database of over 500K global social media influencers, including data from Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn Profile Links + Demographic Data. Our software enables you to identify influencers by topic, demographic or content and includes real-time tracking and measurement reporting to scale your influencer relations.

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Disclaimer: As ever with these lists, it must be stressed that the ranking is by no means a definitive measurement of influence, as there is no such thing. The brands, individuals and publications listed here are undoubtedly influential when it comes to driving discussion around plastic pollution.

The PageRank based methodology we use to extract influencers on a particular topic takes into account the number and quality of contextual references that a user receives. These calculations also take into account a user’s relevance (number of tweets on topic), reach (number of followers) and reference (how often they are referenced by other influencers). If you want to learn more, please read our article that outlines How to identify your target influencers.