Plastic Kills May 2014 | Page 6

Plastic makes animals disappear

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50% of turtles are ingesting plastic and eventually dying. Six different species of sea turtles have consumed human debris and waste.Each year, the percentage keeps increasing. Sea turtles are becoming extinct, mainly because of plastic. This problem isn't local, it occurs worlwide. Signs of debris ingestion appear in turtles that wash up anywhere from places like New York City, to places like small towns in Brazil. Smaller places actually had a higher count of turtles with ingestion opposed to larger cities where there is a higer population.

Plastic bags are constantly being mistaken for jellyfish and therefore consumed by predators of jellyfish such as sea turtles.

Plastic ingestion increased from 30% in 1980 to 50% in 2012