Join The Plastic Pollution Coalition

Right now a baby seal is choking on a six pack ring of plastic that someone left on the beach last night. Right now a lantern fish is erroneously eating a piece of plastic thinking it is food. Right now a sea turtle is mistaking a plastic bag for a jelly fish. Little do many know that thousands of marine animals die every year from ingesting plastic. Many are also unaware that lantern fish are one of the most common bait fish in the ocean that provide food to tuna, salmon and other fish we consume daily; they have various types to mercury poisoning due to plastic. Although plastic is one of the greatest materials ever

Plastic Pollution is a man made disaster, but it is rapidly growing every day. It is causing harm to oceans, sea life, and even human life, as we know it. It is important to prevent plastics from ever touching the ocean and we need to do something about it soon. Plastic pollution is something that is dramatically impacting the environment and taking action is something we have to do before it affects more of our planet.

Silverman (2007), states that, “Plastic constitutes 90 percent of all trash floating in the world's oceans”. Plastic has become a well-known and wanted commodity around the world. It is a commodity that is involved in most things that we use; however, we are oblivious of its bad effects. In the article “Plastic is rubbish” it shows that in 2010 alone, Americans created 31 million tons of plastic waste such as containers, appliances, and cups (n.d.). When plastic is used this excessively it acts as a hazard and a harmful commodity, since it endangers the lives of many creatures including humans. The way this commodity is disposed off should be efficient and should not result in harming the environment either. To solve this problem, all governments should take action and improper plastic disposal should be made illegal and its production should be moderated to lessen its effect on the environment, human health, and overall on the economy worldwide.

Plastic can be made in to just about anything we use everyday. Just look around you, just about almost anything you use is made out of plastic. Despite its effortless attainability, plastic has transformed the world and the way, we as consumers, use it on a daily basis. There is questions arising to whether or not we should be using plastics the way we are. What will be the long-term effect of plastic usage and its disposal? Many experts and researchers have tried to come to a solid conclusion to the topic. However, its complexity and the way its use is evolving, leaves many holes open to discussion. Eventually, will we have to completely stop using plastic?

The world population is living, working, and vacationing along the coasts. They are contributing to an unprecedented tide of plastic waste. Pollution is defined as the process that alters a substance or molecule on planet earth, the pollution is caused by the physical contact of an organic decaying particle with a clean particle in the same spot, at the time the two particles join together is when occurs pollution in which the environment is greatly altered. Too many, plastic is a modern day miracle, versatile, inexpensive and durable (Rochman 2014). To others, it is a scourge, a non-degradable pollutant that threatens to choke the global environment. Plastic pollution has led to the deaths of many animals, natural resources, and people (Rochman 2014). It is time to change America’s thinking and to learn from past mistakes.

In conclusion, it should have been learned that the issue of plastic pollution has become ruinous. The cost of repair and the inconvenience of lifestyle changes cannot compare to the frightful future this planet is headed. At current rates, hazards are not just inflicted on Earth's oceans but individual human health and the other creatures that rightly inhabit this land. With this concern

Plastic pollution makes up the majority of pollution problems all over the world, on land and off land. There are few solutions to fixing this pollution problem overall because of plastic properties. The pollution in the ocean poses a great problem to marine ecosystems, and to the health of the human population due to its durability. Over the years the consumption of plastic products has risen a marginal amount making the issue of pollution even larger (“When the Mermaids Cry: The Great Plastic Tide”). The pollution causes damage to the economy, environment, marine life, human health, along with the global impact. If the plastic pollution problem does not decrease, or completely disappear, then there will be great consequences in the oceans and on land.

This essay will examine the effects of plastic pollution on international, national, state and local levels in the marine ecosystem, the impacts on the health of marine animals and humans, the legislation and management strategies put in place to counteract the negative impacts of the issue and its origins including the evaluation of the effectiveness of these measures and the conflicting perspectives of the stakeholders involved such as, intergovernmental, governmental, corporations, environmental and community groups.

Plastic bags, balloons, glass bottles, shoes, packaging material—if not disposed of correctly, almost everything we throw away can reach the sea...This garbage can also come back to shore, where it pollutes beaches and other coastal habitats.” Whenever one litters, a lot of that garbage will eventually find its way to the ocean, causing the oceans to become filthy. But, the garbage does not only just stay in the ocean, the garbage comes back to the land to the shores and causes pollution on the coasts. Another quote from the article is, “Plastic garbage, which decomposes very slowly, is often mistaken for food by marine animals. High concentrations of plastic material, particularly plastic bags, have been found blocking the breathing passages and stomachs of many marine species, including whales, dolphins, seals, puffins, and turtles. Plastic six-pack rings for drink bottles can also choke marine animals.” This quote explains how the garbage in bodies of water impact the marine species, the marine animals can even die from the garbage. Both of these quotes tie in with our topic because the article gives information on the impacts of

Animals shouldn’t have to suffer because of us, “Plastic materials of varying kinds had spread to all oceans and adjacent seas by the late 1970s or early 1980s and wide concern was being expressed over the amounts of cylindrical, virgin plastic pellets that are industrial feedstock, together with fragmented plastic particles of varying size and shape that were being ingested by pelagic seabirds”. More than a million seabird and water life is killed by plastic, every year. To make matters worse, 10% of plastic that is made in one year ends up in sea, which in turn is harm animals and/or mammals. Once trash enters the sea, it pills up and then water current wash it up on shore. Littering isn’t just a hazard for humans, but all living

Attention Grabber: Every year, billions of pounds of plastic and trash end up in the world’s oceans, adversely impacting marine wildlife populations.

Plastic pollution is a huge problem worldwide. In science class, we counted the amount of plastic in all the recycling bins in the school. The most common material found was plastic water bottles. The total amount of plastic water bottles was 32. The company with the most plastic was that we examined was Nestle. Scientist predict that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by the year 2050. In the article, Scientists Predict More Plastic than Fish in the Oceans by 2050-Here’s What We Can do to Stop it written by Justin Gardner, it states, “If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050. In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight).” In addition, scientists predict that a little more than 8 million tons of plastic and garbage will been thrown into the ocean in the coming years. In the article, Plastic waste in ocean to increase tenfold by 2020 written by Steve Connor, it reads, “Scientists estimate that about 8 million tons of plastic debris such as food packaging and plastic bottles are being washed into the oceans each year…” This shows how much garbage is thrown into the ocean. This is only the amount washed up onto shore, imagine how much is still out in the ocean.

The quantity of marine debris is increasing in oceans worldwide. Researchers at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation documented an increase in plastic debris in the Central Pacific Gyre five-fold between 1997 and 2007, where the baseline in 1997 showed plastic pieces outnumbered plankton on the ocean surface.(“Clean Water Action”). Each year the pollution increases, making marine life decrease. The pollution also makes their living conditions worse, to the point where they have to leave their homes and live somewhere cleaner. “Tens of thousands of individual animals from hundreds of marine species, including every kind of sea turtle and around half of marine mammals, have encountered plastic, glass, and other garbage in the ocean, according to a

“46,000 pieces of plastic trash float in every square mile of ocean…the whole ocean is now infected with plastic. It’s impossible to get it out” (Ellingwood). The public and the government continues to deny this statistic, as they claim it is too expensive to clean up the oceans. However such people take the ocean for granted. It is essential for them to realize that the ocean is an important part of our ecosystem, and therefore impacts all of humanity. Furthermore, not only do people harm themselves, but due to their carelessness, ignore the life of the marine creatures as well. Personal responsibility should not be the only reason for the world’s caution, because the ocean is a “lifeline of survival” for many, as it controls their jobs,

Plastic is taking over the ocean and it should not be, a problem that is going on is the plastic is getting caught in the sea animals and they eventually die. “More than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped in our oceans every year”(The Facts).The sea animals think that the plastic is food and they eventually die from all the plastic they consume. “Marine plastic pollution has impacted. . .86% of