There are five grocery bags full of plastic for every foot of coastline in the world going into the ocean each year and this will increase tenfold by 2025.

The Problem

Plastic is becoming one of the biggest pollutants in the ocean. Science, the American academic journal, renowned as one of the top peer-reviewed scientific journals, recently reported that 8 million tonnes of plastic goes into the world’s oceans each year.

It has previously been stated that there are 245,000 tons of plastic waste in the ocean but this was most probably a low estimate as this was based on the plastic found floating in the ocean & not that which had already sunk.

According to the NRDC, 80% of marine litter starts on the land & most of that is plastic. The NRDC’s video on plastic production can be found here:

The Report

The report, written by Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia, calculates that in 2010, between 4.8 & 12.7m tonnes of plastic entered the oceans. It states that, without waste management improvements, the plastic waste entering the ocean will increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.

The Author

According to NPR, America’s public radio station, Jenna Jamebeck is passionate about waste management. She fell in love with waste management. “I take photos of the way people manage waste all over the world,” she says. “I take pictures of garbage cans. I met my husband at the landfill. … At least he understands me.”

Jamebeck studies the waste streams of 192 countries & analysed how much waste they generated as well as how each nation deals with waste. She then calculated how much was plastic & how much was within 30 miles of an ocean.

How Does Plastic Get Into the Ocean?

A lot of the plastic waste that’s in the ocean is either blown or washed into it. Where countries don’t have established waste management routes or where there’s a lack of enforcement, more plastic makes it into the ocean.

The Effects

Plastic has many effects on the oceans:

• It covers the ocean floor & damages habitats, it entangles & strangles wildlife like dolphins, seals, turtles, sea birds & fish
• It breaks down into small pieces and can be ingested by smaller organisms which it can kill
• It can absorb pollutants & then be absorbed into other organisms

The Kicker

The real shame about this is that plastic is a valuable & reusable commodity. Recyclers are prepared to pay for plastic, businesses are prepared to pay to reuse plastic & recycling plastic is, in the vast majority of cases, an economically sound decision.

The problems of plastic in the ocean come down to poor waste management & a lack of thought being given to just how valuable a commodity plastic can be.