Plastics In The Ocean Facts

The billions upon billions of items of plastic waste choking our oceans lakes and rivers and piling up on land is more than unsightly and harmful to plants and wildlife.

Plastics in the ocean facts.

There are several tangible steps you can take to help reduce ocean pollution today. Here are ten shocking facts about how much plastic is in the oceans. Facts fiction and unknowns. Plastics in the ocean.

Causes of ocean pollution. Plastics can take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose and in the meantime wreak havoc on the environment. 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. Plastic is an amazing man made material it s cheap to produce and has many uses.

The following 10 facts shed light on how plastic is proving dangerous to our planet health and wildlife. Nancy foster scholar at the university of rhode island graduate school of oceanography. 1 every half second this much plastic makes it into the world s oceans. Read on for more ocean pollution facts.

That s how much plastic we dump into the oceans each year. Much of our unwanted plastic ends up in the ocean around 8 million tonnes of it every year in fact. That s similar to emptying a garbage truck of plastic into an ocean every minute. In your home your office your school and your ocean.

2 at least 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. September 25 2018 at 6 pm eastern 3 pm pacific. Taken at the un s clean seas exhibit in new york. Oil spills toxic wastes floating plastic and various other factors have all contributed to the pollution of the ocean.

On beaches microplastics are visible as tiny multicolored plastic bits in sand. In the oceans microplastic pollution is often consumed by marine animals. Eight million metric tons. Plastic oceans international is a 501 c 3 non profit organization organized and existing under the laws of california federal tax id 81 3778043.

Every half second this much plastic makes it into the world s oceans. Plastics in the ocean. That s about 17 6 billion pounds or the equivalent of nearly 57 000 blue whales every single year. By 2050 ocean plastic will outweigh all of the ocean s fish.

Among the top 10 kinds of trash picked up during the 2017 international coastal cleanup were food wrappers beverage bottles grocery bags straws and take out containers all made of plastic. More plastic than fish.