Stop Cutting The Pacific Ocean Without Plastic Analysis

20 billion pounds of the world’s plastic winds up in the ocean annually. This plastic can be found swirling, covering about 40% of the world’s oceans surfaces (Center for Biological Diversity). Carried by water currents and wind combined, these man made, non-biodegradable materials have accumulated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), also known as “the world’s largest landfill.” Estimated to be twice the size of Texas, the Patch spans from the West Coast of North America to Japan (National Geographic). Often thought of as large islands of floating plastic, in reality the GPGP is an area of plastics broken down into smaller polymer molecules distributed across the ocean (Grant A Harse). This area of tiny plastic polymers raises concerns of bio magnification, animal harm, ocean pollution, and human use of plastics. Because the GPGP is so far from any country’s coastline and is difficult to track, no nation is willing to take responsibility or provide funding to clean it up. In addition to this issue, policies that already have been formed only target point source ship dumping. 80% of ocean debris come from land, so only a small percentage of waste disposal from ships is addressed (Dautel, Susan). In order create a solution to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, human behaviors will have to change to reduce use and consumption of plastic and to push for urban runoff/nonpoint waste to be better addressed on the local, national, and

In today’s world it’s hard to go anywhere without finding something wrapped in plastic. Plastic bags, packages, bottles and other items are scattered across the world. This has become a problem for the entire world and specifically the oceans. Plastic and other garbages that are resistant to the natural recycling process take a long time to recycle. These items will gather at certain points in the pacific ocean. Such places are known as garbage patches. The garbage patch isn’t the only thing causing problems for our oceans. Dead zones and rising ph levels are also contributing to create uninhabitable areas within the ocean. Depending on the ability of the marine life, some will make it to a place they can live, while others will not have enough oxygen, or proper ph levels to maintain their own lives. With marine debris rampant throughout the oceans accumulation is a real problem.

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

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the effect of the human population’s waste. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of trash floating in the ocean where there is a high density of garbage because of the Pacific Gyre. “Though their name suggests rafts of bobbing refuse, the patches are instead areas with high concentrations of trash — mostly wee bits of plastic particles that have degraded from larger pieces of litter such as water bottles. The bits amass within ocean vortices, driven by wind and ocean currents.”( Mole) The types of waste found in the garbage patch are micro plastics and macro plastics. Macro plastics can range from

Plastic pollution on the ocean is growing daily. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (fig1), contains more than 79 thousand tones of plastic, and every year more than 6,4 million tones of plastics are discarded in the ocean (Lebreton et al, 2018). The coral triangle is threatened with 3.22 million tones of plastic waste, just from Indonesia, this pollution end up in the coral reef and some of this plastic reach the abyssal and the hadal zones (Chiba et al, 2018) (fig 2).

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

Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. M., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., & ... Reisser, J. (2014). Plastic Pollution in the World 's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea. Plos ONE, 9(12), 1-15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913

As mentioned previously, while the benefits of plastic and packaging alike are evident in everyday life, there are in fact drawbacks when concerning disposal. The World Economic Forum states, “Today, 95%, or $80-140 billion annually, is lost to the economy after first time use.” The study goes on to explain, that after 40 years since the first universal recycling symbol, only 14% of plastic packaging is actually collected for proper recycling. Also, concerning business to consumer focuses, the study reports that many plastic uses are single use only and are left with no other options, but to be disposed of in

Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, said, “Only we humans make waste that nature can’t digest” (2009). The problem with plastic is that the majority of plastics manufactured today will stay in the environment for decades, and probably for centuries. Even if a plastic item is able to be broken down by weathering, it first degrades into smaller pieces, but the polymer itself does not fully degrade easily (Hopewell et al., 2009, 2116). Plastic can be found everywhere and it has been part of our lives. About 50% of the plastics are for single-use disposable applications such as packaging, agricultural films and disposable consumer items (Hopewell et al., 2009, 21115). Today, there are a lot of packaged products that people can buy and almost everyone uses plastic especially plastic shopping bags. It seems unavoidable to use plastic since it is found everywhere such as in household materials, grocery items, in bottles, cellphones, and many others. Due to plastic’s usefulness, more plastic is used and disposed of which increases the accumulation of debris in the environment. It is unlikely to completely ban the use of plastics around the world, therefore, we should use biodegradable plastics as a better alternative.

Plastics currently “represent the vast majority of human-made debris present in the oceans” (Reisser, Shaw, Wilcox, Hardersty, Proietti, Thums, & Pattiaratchi, n.d., p.1). According to Sigler (2014), “the magnitude of plastic pollution carried to sea has significantly multiplied over the past several decades” (p. 2). Due to this increase in plastic pollution, oceans are becoming increasingly dangerous to marine wildlife, the environment and human health; which is why policies that ban plastic bags and single use, disposable dishes are crucial to the sustainability of Earth’s water supply.

What’s the price of a bottle of water, or a ready meal from the corner shop? One pound? Two ninety-nine? The real cost is probably more than you realise. That’s because our addiction to plastic is responsible for one of the worst ecological disasters of the modern age: the build up of plastic in the world’s oceans. Environmental activists have been warning of this ticking bomb for years and governments around the world are now starting to act. But there are also things that we can all do at home and in our lives to reduce the damage.

Plastic has become one of the most pervasive materials in the world and is used to baggage about any consumer item. About three hundred million tons of plastic are consumed every single year and only fifteen percent of that amount is recycled (Cronin). Plastic does not biodegrade and can remain intact for up to a thousand years. “In fact, every single piece of plastic that has ever been manufactured is still in existence today” (Cronin). At least two hundred seventy thousand are believed to be floating around on the surface of the oceans alone, while a number of “trash islands” have formed in various areas of the world. The most-well known of these – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch– is already twice as large as the U.S. state of Texas.

As many of us tend to use plastic in our everyday life, we don’t notice that plastic is constantly being thrown and left on the streets. Eventually, the plastic makes its way down to our city drains and into the ocean, resulting in several problems. People may not think that it’s such a big deal if they throw one bottle onto the ground but in the long run it is because it makes its way down our drains. Then, once it reaches the ocean the fish will eat it resulting in death or even fishermen catching them and then the plastic contamination gets into our body’s by whoever consumes the fish. Which is causing us to get sick because we are starting to have plastic run through our bodies, this all starts with the humans and then ends with negative effects on us. Many people in my community need to realize that by just throwing away one simple plastic bottle on the ground can have a major effect on those in the ocean and on human. The plastic making its ways into our oceans killing sea creatures, also the villages rely on reefs to capture the fish but they are dying off, and many wetlands are being destroyed by all the landfill.

Many people in today’s world wouldn’t blink twice when seeing stray trash in Washington parks or beaches. There are even some who forget that they’ve left their own trash astray and leave their wrapper or soda can alone to float elsewhere. Much of this trash instead of being contained and thrown away, end up being swept away by the rain into sewers and into the Pacific Ocean. More attention should be brought towards the importance of properly disposing of trash and alternate choices that are environmentally friendly, keeping in mind how these stray pieces add onto a landslide of problems. In doing so, one might ask, “What reforms might be made in order to minimize human waste in the Pacific Ocean’s marine life?”

Plastic is probably one of the most detrimental materials that has ever been manufactured. With the world now using approximately six hundred billion pounds of plastic, plastic has become the familiar cheap material that we all know and come across multiple times a day. Materials like the plastic bag, zip lock bag, and plastic water bottles, have all been manufactured to be single use items that are used and thrown away over and over again. “Yet unlike paper litter, when plastic bags get into the environment, they