Effects Of Plastic Pollution On Our Oceans

Did you know just by recycling that water bottle you just finished, you could be making a huge impact. Ocean pollution is a serious issue is only increasing day by day, but this issue has not just occurred over this past year. This concern has been growing over the past decade and it is only rising according statistics. With the use of recycling, awareness, and policies we change the course of this concern onto a path of a healthier and cleaner ocean.

A research program called plastic oceans, states “ We use over 3oo million tons of NEW plastic every year. Half of this we use just ONCE and usually for LESS than 12 minutes. 8 million tons of plastic waste end up in the ocean every year. A large amount of this “thrown away” plastic carries toxic chemicals such as BPA, phthalates, pesticides and PCBs. Which is dangerous to living things.

For many years plastic has been choking sea animals and harming or killing them!! According to, IFL Science “The whale discovered in the Netherlands is only the fifth whale confirmed to have died from ingesting plastic.” According to BTN “Each day around 3 and a half million pieces of plastic wash into the sea. Once there, they can harm marine animals that mistake plastic for food or get tangled in it.” A fact from Plastic Oceans “8 million tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year.” In conclusion, when we don’t recycle when we need to, our animals get injured or

In the world today, not a single of us can truly say that we don’t at lest come in contact with plastic. They are everywhere, in our cars, carpets, food, and virtually every other product we consume; it has becomes a globalization needs that we can’t run away from. As according to the National oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA) state the approximately 1.4 billion pounds of trash enters the ocean per year. Most of it get washed up on the beaches by waves and tides, some of it sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor, some got eaten up by marine animals mistaking it for food. Ultimately plastic pollution is a man made catastrophe, as soon as it enter the Oceans it is causing harm to the ecosystems and environment, as wells as affecting

Plastic has become a staple, and the use of plastic products is abundant in everyday life even if it is not apparent. The production and use of plastics has increased dramatically over the last sixty years, and a vast majority of plastic being produced is not recovered after it is used. It is clear that much of what we have today would not be possible without plastics, but the fact that it is not biodegradable and toxic creates a product that just takes up a vast amount of space and poisons animals. The overflow of plastic eventually makes its way into the ocean and is affecting marine life at an alarming rate. Plastic debris pollutes oceans all over the world as it breaks down into smaller pieces and are ingested by a large range of species. Animals exposed eat the plastic products and it causes health problems throughout the marine ecosystem. Some humans rely on these animals for food without knowing that they have been exposed to toxic products. The smallest organisms or exposure to chemicals can wreak havoc on the human body causing serious illness. It is clear that much of what we have today would not be possible without plastics, but the fact that plastic is not biodegradable and toxic creates a product that takes up a vast amount of space and poisons animals. Plastics contain chemicals that can interfere with the bodies natural functions and can cause adverse health issues if left untreated. Plastic pollution is rampant all over the globe exposing everyone

Plastic debris and litter is a serious pollution that is currently affecting oceans, waterways and coastal lines. Plastic is a man made tangible substance made from a range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, and nylon. This material is high on demand with the human kind but takes an average of 450 years to disintegrate. This product is impacting the marine environment, wildlife, and then eventually circling back to humans. Currently, the world’s biggest plastic patch is located north in the Pacific Ocean, trapped in what’s called a gyre (known as an ocean rip). There are also another two plastic islands located in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. These three plastic patches contain a higher amount of plastic but to today's count, in total there are 5 forward. Sea Education Society scientists studied plastics in the Atlantic and calculated there are 580,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer. Causes of plastic are endless, but trash is the main contributor. Plastic is located in almost every item around, and once it's in the trash, all the garbage gets dumped in land fills and seeps into the ground and soil affecting wildlife. Plastic is cheap and substantially available, so over production of plastic is high. The cause of plastic filling up land and oceans is a couple of reasons. People normally have a one-time use for plastic then throw it away but after that, the plastic is hard to eradicate. Burning plastic leads

By the year 2050 plastic bottles will outnumber fish in the ocean. Last year a study by the National Academy of Sciences showed that there are over five trillion pieces of plastic currently littering the ocean. Many people believe that throwing away plastic would have negligible impact on humans and animals, this is untrue. Thousands of birds, turtle, seals, fish, and other marine animals die every after entangling themselves in or consuming the tons of plastic currently in the ocean. Plastic is such a durable material that according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, every single bit of plastic ever made still exists. The ocean has turned into our own personal landfill, affecting millions of lives. Organizations such as

Debris in our world’s oceans is a continuum threat, especially plastic debris. Plastic debris causes choking of creatures by tangling or getting wrapped up and caught in it. Plastic also bleeds out toxins out into the great sea, and specifically into some ecosystems. Toxins let out increases the chance for the some to be sucked in by organisms themselves. Numerous people throughout the world have no clue how littering can hurt us as human beings and other organisms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains marine debris as "any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned into the marine

Pollution is tearing the world apart weather it is the carbon dioxide that is pumped into the atmosphere by cars and other machinery, or deforestation and depletion of natural resources but a secret killer is on the loose. Scientists say that there is more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans and that number is rising rapidly. Charles Moore’s idea of a cleaner ocean is to stop plastic dumping, The Ocean Cleanup and Richard Grant deepen his idea worth spreading by providing facts about plastic and its harmful effects on marine life.

Since it’s commercial inception in the late 1930’s, plastic has revolutionized, modernized, and undoubtedly eased human living. Unfortunately, this leap in consumer and industrial technology also came with an unforeseen and devastating side effect. It is speculated that there are at least 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing a combined 268,940 tons currently floating in the world’s oceans (“Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans” par. 17). Given that ocean pollution is in such an advanced stage, my research question is this, is it too late or impossible to remove a majority of plastics from the oceans? Although the design and production of large scale ocean clean up equipment is still in it’s infancy, my thesis will be centric to idea that through this equipment, it is not too late to efficiently clean the oceans. Through faith in the machinery currently under

Every year almost 300 million tons of plastic is produced worldwide and 8 million tons of it are found in the ocean. This happens because plastic cannot decompose due to the fact that it is a synthetic material. When these plastic materials are polluted into the ocean and broken down they’re absorbed by smaller fish and entered into our food chain. If they’re not ingested they can remain in the ocean or ground for thousands of years. People should be against the mass use of plastic because it can cause pollution in the ocean, it never goes away, and it can harm animals, people, and the environment.

Scientist have now begun research on the mass production of plastic and the accumulation of plastic in our oceans. There are several ways plastic can degrade into micro-plastic. For example photodegradtion and weathering processes can increase the designation of plastic materials causing them to become microscopic. Common locations where scientists are discovering mass quantities of microplastics are in the subtropical gyres, closed bays, gulfs and seas that have coast lines heavily populated by humans. These microplastics can now be chased up into the food web, starting with lower trophic level producers and slowly making their way into the tissues of higher trophic predators.

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.

The problem concerning plastic waste in our oceans is the deleterious effects it has on the oceans environment, marine life, and humans. Do you remember a day where you went for a stroll on the beach and never noticed a single piece of plastic? Nearly everyone will answer this question saying no. Beaches are covered with large plastic debris and millions of plastic particles that are taking place of the sand. Plastic is being washed ashore and swept into the ocean. Plastic enters the oceans in numerous

First off, we need to look at how does plastic waste hurt organisms in oceans. For starters, the 5.25 trillions of plastic particles in the ocean has been spread out, acting as a small cover for the ocean (Eriksen-Reisser et al., 2014). With these particles being so small that we cannot see them with the naked eye, small marine organisms like zooplanktons consume these particles because the zooplanktons believe the particles are food (Tibbetts, 2015). As a result, zooplanktons become filled with more toxic substances than normal. As these zooplanktons get eaten, the