A Brief Note On The Issue Of Plastic Pollution

It has a direct and deadly effect on wildlife. Plastic debris, laced with chemicals is often ingested by marine animals and can injure or poison wildlife. Cattle and other animals are ingesting it, a substance that doesn’t break down, piling up within them. Thousands of marine mammals are killed after ingesting plastic mistaking it for food or getting caught in it. The marine animals mainly affected are: sea turtles, ingesting plastic; seals and sea lions, entangled in packaging; seabirds like the Laysan albatross, ingesting plastic; fish, consume and breath plastic; also whales and dolphins, consume 31% of the marine plastic

Plastic's end of life cycle involves being discarded, either recycled for reuse or dumped into a landfill or the ocean. Recycling's popularity has significantly grown since the 1970's, as well as the overall number of plastic products being produced. In addition, the amount of plastic products being created as significantly increased over the past 60 years. Due to the endurance of polymers, plastic is filling up landfills faster than it should and invading our natural habitats. Recycling is one of the most critical things we can do for our environment. It can cut down on the amount of plastic in landfills as well. Recycling plastic reduces the need to create more plastic, which also cuts down on oil use and pollutants being released into the air. In the time that recycling has become more popular, technology has advanced to create more job

In fact, many of the major plastics used today began when commissioned to be used for the war effort (Freinkel, 6). When plastic was first brought to The United States, the American people loved it. Not only can plastic imitate other materials, but it is also much more affordable. Overall, plastic is cheap. The leap in plastic produced from the ‘40s until now is extremely substantial. For instance, in 1940 plastic was hardly used, in 1960 a single American used close to 30 pounds of plastic per year, today each individual uses more than 300 pounds of plastic per year (Freinkel, 6). A major impact on the amount of plastic used is directly related to the way Americans, starting in the 1940s, were now able to mass produce plastic products. For instance, a single plastic comb making machine could reproduce ten combs in less than one minute (Freinkel, 22). Overall, plastic is relatively inexpensive and it is made for mass manufacture. Considering this it is east to see why plastic became so popular in the first place, it was a plastic miracle. However, there is a direct relationship between the amount of plastic produced and the amount of plastics that are being polluted into the

Plastic in the ocean breaks down into such small segments that pieces of plastic from a one liter bottle could end up on every mile of beach throughout the world.

In the article, "Plastic in Our Oceans", Kimberly Amaral discusses the everyday uses of plastic and how it can be beneficial to humans, but harmful to marine life. As fishermen casually dump waste overboard, animals mistake it for food sources, such as a turtle mistaking a plastic grocery bag for a jellyfish. From the trash brought out to sea, gyres, large circulations of water, carry the garbage through currents, spreading it to all over the ocean, specifically to the central gyre. Amaral notes common ways for marine life to die from plastic, which include entanglement by plastic rings, consumption of plastic bags and pellets which stuff the intestines and lead to health problems, and suffocation. As researchers today work hard to discover

Currently, 300 million tons of plastic are manufactured to supply the world demand and between 5 and 13 million tons are found in the ocean (Katsnelson, 2015). Based on current trends, by 2050, 2,000 million tons of plastic will be manufactured to supply the worlds demand for plastic, meaning more pollution in the oceans (Vaughan, 2016, May 23). As Richard Thompson has stated, “While some of the plastic floats at the surface, the heavier pieces sink to the ocean floor making it hard to clean up the waste” (Katsnelson, 2015). Some of the waste comes from fishing materials or cargo ships. For example, fishing nets, buoys and other debris that is left behind from fishermen lead to the

The plastic around the world is building up to become a huge world problem. Each year eight million tons of plastic

are being presented with the facts of how much devastation plastic is causing and will

1. The main problem with plastics is that they will virtually never go away. Most consumers throw them away, but they do not go away, they just go elsewhere. Out of sight, out of mind. Animals suffer injury, and in many cases death, from their encounters with plastic. Animals can be harmed through entanglement, laceration, suffocation, and ingestion. Depending

Plastic in the Oceans: Having been to the Centers for Disease Control’s David J. Sencer Museum this past year, I was able to see the exhibition GYRE: The Plastic Ocean. The ocean has become littered with enormous amounts of plastic over the years and, in some places, entire islands can be found entirely composed of discarded or lost plastic objects. The sheer volume of new and current information currently being put forth on this topic makes it an excellent one for research.

The ocean. Many picture deep blue water and beautiful wildlife, but that wildlife is in danger and the ocean isn’t all water anymore. Big plastic patches are found in many of the world’s oceans, and marine life is ingesting the plastic which often leads to death because the animals choke on it, get poisoned by the plastic, or starve to death because plastic is the only thing the marine life is eating. Animals such as turtles and seals also get caught in the plastic and can’t get back into open water leading to starvation or severe injuries. The Hawaiian Monk Seal, which is already on the brink of extinction, often gets caught in the plastic and dies, the other problem affecting

take up space and hurt communities. The large-scale consumers of plastic are the citizens of

The overuse of plastics in today's society has become major environmental issue for our oceans. Plastic pollution is the dumping, littering, or disposing of any type of man-made plastic that has been produced and has ended up in our ocean and has not been recycled.

We 're treating the oceans like a trash bin: around 80 percent of marine litter originates on land, and most of that is plastic. Plastic that pollutes our oceans and waterways has severe impacts on our environment and our economy. Seabirds, whales, sea turtles and other marine life are eating marine plastic pollution and dying from choking, intestinal blockage and starvation. Scientists are investigating the long-term impacts of toxic pollutants absorbed, transported, and consumed by fish and other marine life, including the potential effects on human health.

Where does all the plastic go. Every bit of plastic that has been created is still here. This is because plastic is one-hundred percent non-biodegradable! Even the most degraded plastic down to polymers cannot be digested by bacteria (Laist, 1997). If global issues like starvation and climate change are not enough to stress on, the weight of an issue literally churning in the Pacific Ocean is startling. For decades the majority of the world’s population has not been properly educated on the nature of plastic and the potential harm it can do to our environment and our physical health. Due to factors of man and the natural effects of nature, a major problem has developed that is now harming our food.