From 1950 to 2015, plastic production increased with 445,7 million tons.
About 8 million tons of plastic waste gets into the ocean from coastal nations. For an equivalent example, imagine setting 5 garbage bags on every foot of the coastline.
By 2050 plastic might outweight fish in the oacean.
Worldwide, about 2 million plastic bags are used every minute.
Over the last ten years there were produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.
The quantity of plastic waste we produce is enough to circle the earth 4 times a year.
Only 5% of the plastic produced is recovered. Excepting this small procent, all the other plastic that was ever made, still exists.
It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.
Located in the North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California, the Great Pcific Garbage Patch is the largest ocean garbage site in the world and it is twice the size of Texas.
Much of the plastic trash remains in the coastal waters, although, if caught by the currents, plastic waste can travel around the world. It is also carried to sea by rivers which, on the way downstream can collect more and more plastic waste.
Once the plastic waste arrives at the sea, due to sunlight, waves and wind, it breaks down into smaller particles called microplastics. This micro form of plastic can be found in water systems, drifting to the air or, through water animal species, in our food.
The average person eats 70,000 microplastics each year.
The presence of plastic waste in seas and oceans has a great impact on the animals; most of their deaths are caused by entanglement or starvation.
Sea animals can tangle in abandoned fishing gears, plastic bags or six-packs rings.
Plastic had been found to block animals’ digestive systems which causes lack in the urge to eat and, in result, goes to starvation.
Both sea and earth animals are in danger of eating plastic bits which can lead to death.
Once plastic is turned into microplastic, it is impossible to get it out of the oceans.
Sources:
Writer- Ana Maria Ilie, Theoretical Highschool Nicolae Iorga, Bucharest.
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