Plastic In The Ocean Facts Bbc

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Plastic in the ocean facts bbc.

100 of baby sea turtles have plastic in their stomachs. Your email country. Bbc earth delivered direct to your inbox. Never miss a moment.

Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. As producer on the original planet earth for bbc and discovery mark oversaw its two underwater episodes shallow seas and freshwater. The old fashioned metal boxes that have been dragged around the ocean since 1931 have accidentally created a record of the history of ocean plastic. Do you know your microplastics from your single use.

All the bbc s news on plastic pollution it is estimated debris takes about six years to reach the centre of the north pacific gyre from the coast of the us and about a year from japan. Plastic is an amazing man made material it s cheap to produce and has many uses. Plastic rubbish can be incredibly harmful to fish and other sea life. Article share tools facebook.

Scientists are very worried about plastic that ends up in the ocean. But half of the plastic we produce is designed to be used just once and then thrown away and even plastic that can be reused or recycled gets chucked out too. The facts about plastic pollution. There is now 5 25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean 46 000 pieces in every square mile of ocean weighing up to 269 000 tonnes.

A plastic bag has an average working life of 15 minutes. More than 1 million seabirds and 100 000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year. Test your knowledge in the plastics pollution quiz. Much of our unwanted plastic ends up in the ocean around 8 million tonnes of it every year in fact.

Find out lots of facts about plastic in the ocean. Shocking ocean plastic statistics. Sign up for hand selected playlists topical articles and the very best from the bbc earth community. In 2014 or 315 bottles per person.

A vast ocean sieving expedition across the atlantic has revealed that there is as much as 21 million tonnes of plastic particles in the ocean much higher than estimated. It can stay in the ocean for thousands of years if it isn t recycled. Experts think that by 2050 the amount of plastic in the ocean will weigh more than the amount of fish in the ocean. All animals whether they live on land or in the sea can be hurt by plastic.

According to the container recycling institute 100 7 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in the u s. And as they take a long time to degrade.