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Use of plastic
The Full Story
Although plastic has numerous beneficial applications, our excessive reliance on disposable plastic products has resulted in severe consequences for the environment, society, economy, and health. Globally, we purchase one million plastic bottles per minute, and up to five trillion plastic bags are used annually. Half of all plastic produced is intended for single-use, leading to a throwaway culture. Plastics, including microplastics, are now omnipresent in our natural environment, becoming part of the Earth's fossil record and a sign of the current geological epoch, the Anthropocene. They have even spawned a new marine microbial ecosystem known as the "plastisphere”.
It is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year from rivers. More than half of this plastic is less dense than the water, meaning that it will not sink once it enters the sea.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans. It is located halfway between Hawaii and California.
At the time of sampling, there were more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch that weighed an estimated 80,000 tonnes which is 4-16 times more than previous calculations. This weight is also equivalent to that of 500 Jumbo Jets.
Plastic has increasingly become a ubiquitous substance in the ocean. Due to its size and colour, animals confuse the plastic for food, causing malnutrition. It poses entanglement risks and threatens their overall behaviour, health, and existence.
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Once plastic enters the marine food web, there is also a possibility that it will contaminate the human food chain as well. Through a process called bioaccumulation, chemicals in plastics will enter the body of the animal feeding on the plastic, and as the feeder becomes prey, the chemicals will pass to the predator - making their way up the food web to include humans.
Informative video: https://youtu.be/0EyaTqezSzs
-By: LHF