More than 10 million pieces of trash were plucked from the world's waterways in a single day last year. But for Philippe Cousteau, the beach sandals that washed up in the Norwegian arctic symbolised the global nature of the problem of marine debris.

"We saw flip-flops washing ashore on these islands in far northern Norway near the Arctic Circle," Mr Cousteau, a conservationist and grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, said in a telephone interview.

Mr Cousteau was commenting on marine debris statistics released Tuesday by the Ocean Conservancy group.

"People don't wear flip-flops in the Arctic, at least not if they're sane," Mr Cousteau said. "I think people are starting... to realise that this is a global problem."

The report detailed the amount and kind of trash that volunteers gathered on one day in 2009 along coastlines of six continents and the banks of inland waterways, stressing that as much as 80 per cent of marine litter starts on land.

"Trash travels, and no beach, lakeshore or riverfront is untouched - no matter how remote," Vikki Spruill, Ocean Conservancy's chief executive officer, wrote in the report's introduction.