The Epidemic Of Ocean Trash

Found on “34 Facts about Pollution”, the text says 14 billion pounds of garbage are dumped into the ocean every year and most of it is plastic. It makes you wonder why people do it? To act cool or to act like a complete idiot? As a result for oblivious behavior, we won’t be able to drink anywhere without some kind of trash in our water. And we won’t even be able to shower ourselves with out some plastic coming out from the faucet.

In the National Geographic article “Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year”, author Laura Parker expresses how violent the simple act of dumping trash into the ocean really turns out to be. This article goes into depth telling exactly what plastics pollution is causing, where it’s mostly coming from, and what you can do to decrease this problem and help save both our planet and ocean wildlife.

“The waste dumped into the oceans tend to have toxic substance, which soaks in all the oceans oxygen,” so the oxygen is available to mammals.There are some items of trash that actually improve the found in environment. If it is in the right location, trash can increase rather than damage that’s found in the ecosystems. That may be true but I realized if we don’t clean up the oceans, it can change colors and we won’t have clean water to drink because of all the stuff that’s in the oceans.

People are constantly throwing trash outside their window when they are driving down the street or throwing trash on the ground when they are walking. As minor as littering is, there are long term effects. Trash that ends up in the storm drains, eventually make it’s way into the ocean. Once the trash is in the ocean, it can eventually make its way into a whales blowhole, or can be consumed by an animal; which could harm them. Also, trash that makes it’s way into lakes and oceans is very difficult to remove. If you cannot remove the trash, how are you going to prevent these animals from getting

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.

“Around 260 million tons of plastic is produced every year, approximately 10% of this ends up in oceans. This litter is frequently consumed, often with fatal effects, by marine animals and birds who mistake it for food. The Trash Vortex of the Northern Pacific ocean is a patch the size of Texas consisting of trillions of pieces of decomposing plastic.” (Geer) Water pollution often directly correlates with other natural recourses that is being harmed by the same

Have you ever been to the beach? I have and swimming in the ocean is one of my favourite things to do when I go on vacation! You wouldn’t want someone to come into your house and throw their cigarette butts or their plastic drink container on your kitchen floor when they’re done would you? I know I wouldn’t. Littering in the ocean does not magically get rid of your garbage; the marine wildlife has to deal with it in their homes. Roughly 75% of our earth is covered with water (IDRC 2010). Many people think that when you dump trash into the ocean that nature will biodegrade. It can take up to hundreds of years for this trash to fully

“Prince Charles 's Newest Cause: Combating Ocean Trash” (March 2015). “New Titi Monkey Found: Fire-Tailed, With Sideburns” (Mach 2015). “Bolivia launches an innovative forest certification system” (January 2015). “Alleged King of Amazon Deforestation Detained in Brazil” (February 2015). What do all these headlines have in common? That finally people have taken action towards the biggest problem facing the World today, and over the next centuries to come, climate change. Countries all over the world have started investing their power and time on focuses for environmental issues because we are on the point of no return. What does this mean? We have reached such a level of pollution that if we don’t act now, as in every day for the rest of

The Santa Monica Daily Press recently revealed an article discussing the trash in the Pacific Ocean. I believe that humans should do everything they can to prevent the pollution of our oceans. The ocean is a major food and water source and has large economic value. The ocean has contributed $ 1.2 trillion dollars and over 350 million jobs. One of the major consequences of oceanic pollution is the destruction of coral reefs, which is a habitat to many of the world’s marine wildlife. It is said that the coral reefs are home to more than 4,000 species of fish and 800 species or hard coral. If the coral is wiped out we would lose $375 billion dollars worth of goods and services. Also, pollution can contribute to the movement of harmful invasive

When I first heared of plastic islands in the ocean I already think of how bad and toxic that can be for our environment?, especially sea animals. This constant barrage (the equivalent of 136 billion milk jugs each year, estimates a?study?published in the journal?Science) poses a serious danger to marine life. Animals can get tangled up in this trash or ingest it?either because they mistake it as prey or because the plastic has been broken down into tiny particles by seawater? (Engler). This is just the big pieces of garbage what about the small pieces? A lot of the debris in the ocean are so small that even the human eye can not see the waste. Where does the waste go? Why are humans not more aware

is a major provider of the trash that pollutes the ocean. In the year 2000 we were producing nearly 5 pounds of trash per day which is more than double the amount of trash produced in most other industrialized countries (Recycling and Conservation). Thar is way too much, we need to recycle and not throw away. One of the things that we seem to always throw but is easily recycled is plastic. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), “Americans generated 33 million tons of plastics in 2013, which is about 13% of the waste stream”. I think that that is ridiculous since nearly all plastic is recyclable. To put that into perspective the 200 million pounds of garbage americans make each year is enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day (11 Facts About Recycling). We need to reduce the amount of trash we produce and recycle the trash that we do make. You can make a

The oceans have too much trash in parts of the world. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found swirling in the gyres of the oceans making up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces and 80 percent of pollution enters the ocean from the land. Plastic doesn’t degrade well at all. Virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form (with the exception of the small amount that has been incinerated). Also it takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to

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.

Studies show that almost 8 million metric tons of plastic make its way into the ocean every year.1 All the trash can injure or entangle sea animals, causing them to drown. A majority of the trash is degraded plastic, which is broken down by the sun and the waves into tiny pieces of plastic. This makes it harder to clean up the oceans, because there is sea life the same size of the plastic, so it is much harder to just filter out the degraded plastic without harming the sea life and small organisms.2 But if we pick up the trash when we see it on the ground, it will never have the opportunity to make its way into the ocean or hurt animals.

The amount of money needed to clean up the pollution of plastic in the ocean would amount to at least 30 billions US dollars per year. The majority of the plastic polluting the ocean is due to plastic bags which people throw away. The pollution of the environment would endanger animals since they may eat it. Then, others would not make the teeniest effort to recycle because they would think that they are too insignificant to make a change. However, they would be able to make a change, if they desired to do so, since they can just use a little tiny effort as to place the plastic bags inside the recycling bins compared to the regular trash bins. However, there isn't such a perfect world, so people would litter and cause pollution which would deceive animals that mistakenly eat the waste. Animals like turtles and dolphins would mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and would choke on it. This