While plastic production has skyrocketed since the 1970s, recovery efforts barely make a dent in the hundreds of billions of pounds of plastic created each year. Plastic constitutes 90% of all trash floating in the world’s oceans.3 The United Nations Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. In some areas, the amount of plastic outweighs the amount of plankton by a ratio of six to one. Of the more than 200 billion pounds of plastic the world produces each year, about 10% ends up in the ocean. 70% if that eventually sinks, damaging life on the ocean floor.3 The rest floats and a lot of it ends up in the gyres and the massive garbage patches, with some plastic eventually washing up on a distant shore where people might pay better attention to it. For the most part the plastic floats around trapped in the gyre for years. It begins to decompose but never truly breaks down. The very characteristics that make plastic so useful to humans like its durability, light weight and decomposition are huge liabilities for the oceans and ocean life. As small particles start to dissolve into the ocean they are mistakenly eaten by small organisms. These organisms are then eaten by small fish and the plastic enters the food chain. Sea birds mistake larger pieces of plastic for food, eat them, and as they ingest more plastic they slowly die.4
Everything leads to the ocean, so always make conscious decisions whether you’re buying things or throwing them away.
To watch the gyre currents in the image to the left, click the link below:
by noah loudon