Essay about Plastic and the Ocean

More than 750,000 pieces of microplastic can be found in just one square kilometer of it. Approximately 80 percent of its debris comes from land, 10 percent is made up of over 700,000 tons of commercial fishing nets, and the remaining 10 percent consists miscellaneous objects discarded by recreational and commercial ships. What is it? The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch lies in the Pacific Ocean between the west coasts of America and the East coasts of Asia. Because the effects on marine life caused by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are detrimental to their habitat, diet, and

The problem with plastic ending up in the ocean is that marine life is being harmed by the presence of it. A study done on the harbor seals in the Netherlands found that more than 12% had plastic in the digestive system (California Coastal Commission). The list of affected species indicates that marine debris is affecting a significant number of species. It affects at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of all marine mammal species (Save our shores). The problem is underestimated because the marine life that ingests plastic or dies from entanglement often goes undiscovered due to the vastness of the ocean, as they either sink or are eaten by predators before they are discovered (Plastic Debris). The potential harm from ingestion of plastics is not restricted to seabirds. Plastic bags drifting on ocean currents resemble the prey of turtles. There is evidence that their survival is being hindered by plastic debris with young sea turtles being vulnerable (Ocean pollution). Over the past 20 years polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have polluted marine food webs at an increasing rate, and are prevalent in seabirds. Though their adverse effects may not always be apparent, PCBs lead to reproductive disorders, increase the risk of disease and alter hormone levels. These chemicals have a detrimental effect on marine organisms even at very low levels and plastic pellets could be a route for PCBs into marine food

Over the few years, humans have discarded millions of tons of garbage into the oceans. Ever wonder where the cup you threw out this morning will end up? Or the plastic spoon you used for lunch? How about the cap of a water bottle? The calamitous plastic ends up in the water, taking thousands of years to decompose. The consumption of plastic by the marine life is perilous and the leading cause of death for life on shore.

Some ways that plastic enters the marine environment can be  through improper waste management, intentional or accidental dumping and littering near shorelines or at sea, or it could even be through stormwater runoff carrying them to sea. “Plastics are used in many aspects of daily life and are a big part of our waste stream. Many plastics are colorful and will float in water, which makes plastic debris a very visible part of the marine debris problem.”(OR&R's Marine Debris)”. Plastic is used by humans everyday because it is in mostly everything. From phones to water bottles to your toothbrush. Plastic comes in many colors and can easily seen floating on the water's surface. That means that it is even easier for fish to see and be mistaken for food.

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

In the documentary “Inside the Garbage of the World”, the main social problem being explained is that there has been a great influx of plastic and other type of garbage in oceans and their beaches. This buildup of pollution has largely affected the wildlife population ranging from animals on the beaches to the creatures of the ocean. In oceans, what is called ‘garbage patches’, a large buildup of garbage that flow to one area in the oceans, are being created. Approximately 50 percent of all plastic sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor but about 2 times that much is actually already on the ocean floor. In fact, according to the documentary, there is a garbage patch that is to the left of California that is the size of half of the United States. Each year, about 4.7 million tons of plastic goes in the ocean a year and it is estimated that by 2050, there will be another 33 billion tons of plastic added to the present amount. Eighty percent of the current pollution comes from the land. According to marine researchers, twice as much plastic debris is one the ocean floor than it was 10 years ago. In the futures, plastic will break down into smaller pieces of plastic, creating a bigger problem from the habitat. This plastic pollution is one of the leading cause for beach and ocean inhabiting creatures be extinct because animals are mistaking these plastic pieces for food. When scientist began to dissect beach animals such as birds, they discovered that at least fifteen pounds of

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.

Plastic debris is polluting the human food chain. In a 2008 Pacific Gyre voyage, Algalita researchers began finding that fish are ingesting plastic fragments and debris. Of the 672 fish caught during that voyage, 35% had ingested plastic pieces.

We can find plastic bags, bottles, balloons, packaging materials, and even food wrappers that contribute to the debris. While large plastics are a major pollutant, over time these plastics break down into smaller and more toxic pieces. These small plastics more easily ingested and they also act as hosts for invasive species and carry them to other regions of the ocean more and more rapidly and increases the damages caused by plastics.¹ A new study found that more than 90 percent of 67 fulmars (a type of bird) had ingested plastics such as twine, Styrofoam, and candy wrappers. An average of 36.8 pieces of plastic was found per bird. On average, the fraction of a gram in each bird would equal to a human packing 10 quarters in his stomach, the scientists figure. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, up to 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year from eating

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

With the combination of polymers that don’t biodegrade and mass overproduction, companies are harming the environment in severe ways. Plastic, a material seen everywhere, is a polymer made from oil. It is mass produced to make everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles and does not biodegrade. When it is eventually thrown out, the waste usually finds it way into the ocean, where it is either buried under sediment or eaten by marine life (Weisman 287-295). Creating a material that will ultimately kill marine life will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the

In “Better Planet Garbage Patch”, Thomas Kostigen tells his experience of traveling to the Eastern Garbage Patch to witness this growing problem first-hand. Kostigen describes this area to be one and a half times the United States with a depth of 100 feet or more (Krostigen). The size of this garbage patch is so massive, encompassing around ten million square miles of the North Pacific Gyre. On the other hand, according to “An Ocean of Plastic”, Doucette claims that nobody knows its exact size or if it has any boundaries at all. (Doucette). Although there have been many estimations on the size

With the ceaseless consumption of plastics, problems arise affecting the current state of the planet along with the existing life that depends on it, negatively impacting the future to come. As Leighton Kille and Rachael Stephens state in their Journalist’s Resource article “Plastics, Human Health and Environmental Impacts: The Road Ahead,” the readily usable products made of plastic create a hazard to people and the environment. Plastics, found in many products and made simple to dispose of, contain harmful chemicals that can endanger the human body as well as any animals that may encounter it. From Kille and Stephens’s research, the impacts of plastics are understood to be an expanding threat to the world. Acknowledging the influence of plastic in the modern world and plastic’s menace on society, I believe in the change of cities’ recycling processes, encouragement of the refusal of purchasing single-use plastic products, and the education on the dangers of plastics on human health and the environment. The world that we live in has run on plastic consumption, which continues to increase as we support the companies that manufacture these items by buying their products. Millennials of the UTA community, the people that can make a difference in the world, will be the ones greatly impacted by the growing production of manufactured plastic goods. Simple, yet greatly influential, differences in an individual’s life can better the world of tomorrow by finding alternatives to

Images of wounded and tangled marine wildlife have engulfed the media for many years and attempts are being made around the world to curb the increasing levels of macro-plastic pollution (large, visible pieces of plastic debris). Marine plastic pollution has a global impact on marine wildlife, habitat and human health and economy in various ways. The most publicized of which is through entanglement and ingestion (refer to graph 1 in appendices) (Allsopp et al., n.d.). However, once the human-made polymers are ingested, they can lead to physical blockages, gut impaction and perforation, choking, the transfer of toxic compounds, reduced food intake that leads to malnutrition and eventually starvation (Plastic Waste: Ecological and Human Health Impacts, 2011). While macro-plastic debris, such as fishing lines and plastic bags, is the main contributor to entanglement, both micro- and macro-debris are ingested across a wide range of marine

To begin, one of the main points delineated by activists is that plastic does not biodegrade, which means that they cannot be broken down by organisms; instead, in a process that looks seemingly similar to biodegradation but is much more toxic, plastic tends to “fragment into smaller and smaller pieces, making them more likely to be eaten by marine and land animals” (Suzuki and Hanington 1). This mechanism of nature is pernicious to wildlife in the community, as displayed in