THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM
How much of an issue is this, and on what scale is the problem?
This problem has impacts all around the world- from Australia to the UK. For example, in 1992, a ship containing 28,000 plastic ducks was lost at sea when it fell overboard on its way from Hong Kong to the United States. Due to ocean currents, these ducks ended all over the world, from Antartica to South America. Plastic does the same, it moves with ocean currents.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the biggest collection of plastic in the ocean. It is almost 3x the size of the Spain and Portugal combined, where fish ingest 12,000-24,000 pounds of plastic. There is 6 times more plastic than plankton, and because most ocean plastic is smaller than 5mm, it is too easy for fish to eat- mistaking it as plankton. Scientists have collected up to 750,000 pieces of microplastic in a single square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch- most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups.
Major rivers are poisoned with plastic, and it seems to affect humans least. Most consequences of our actions kill fish, animals and birds. 100,000 marine creatures a year die from plastic entanglement, 1 million sea birds also die from plastic, a plastic bag can kill numerous animals because they take so long to disintegrate. There are believed to be 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean.
Plastic is too expensive to recycle- at £2,840 per tonne- so our solution is to dispose of it into the environment. 13,000-15,000 pieces of plastic are dumped into the ocean every day- yet our actions reflect back on ourself- at least two thirds of the world’s fish stocks are suffering from plastic ingestion. Even toothpaste contains 10% plastic- for plastic is everywhere.
HOW DOES IT ENTER THE OCEAN?
