5 Reasons Why We All Need to Do More to Avoid Plastic Pollution — Ralph Thurman

With 97 percent of the Earth’s water found in the oceans, governments and policymakers all over the world are increasingly coming to recognize the stark threat posed to our seas by plastic pollution. Not only are we heavily reliant on oceans to absorb CO2 and regulate our climate, but these vast bodies of water are the №1 protein source for more than 1 billion people worldwide.

Over the past 10 years, plastic pollution has grown to become a cataclysmic problem, threatening the future of delicate marine ecosystems and everything that depends on them to survive. In this article, we outline five of the most important reasons why we need to eliminate plastic pollution from the world’s oceans for good.

1. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now larger than the state of Texas

Composed of floating plastics, this blot on the seascape is also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex.

Plastic that ends up in waterways is washed down rivers and streams, making its way into the ocean. Here, debris is pushed along by the current, accumulating to form vast carpets of garbage on the ocean’s surface.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch actually refers to two separate collections of plastic debris: the Eastern Garbage Patch, situated between the US states of California and Hawaii, and the Western Garbage Patch, which lies just off of Japan. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a major concern for conservationists, as the debris can threaten marine life across a vast area.

The Ocean Cleanup Project has embarked on an ambitious project to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It has developed a trash-catching barrier system that utilizes active propulsion to scoop up debris as it moves through the water. Called Jenny, the design incorporates an 800-meter-long barrier. Arriving in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in August 2021, the system is scheduled to undergo more than 70 tests in the next 60 weeks designed to demonstrate its effectiveness at capturing large amounts of plastic.

2. Plastic pollution kills more than 1 million seabirds annually

In addition, more than 100,000 marine animals die as a direct result of plastic pollution every year. In one shocking study, plastic particles were detected in the stomachs of 100 percent of baby sea turtles surveyed.

Plastic pollution affects marine life in a variety of different ways. The most visible and disturbing are entanglement, suffocation, and ingestion, which affects hundreds of marine species. With wildlife such as whales, fishes, turtles, and seabirds mistaking plastic for prey, their stomachs fill with plastic debris, causing them to die of starvation.

Plastic waste can also result in internal injuries, lacerations, infections, and a reduced ability to swim. Floating plastics aid the proliferation of invasive bacteria and marine organisms, disrupting delicate ecosystems.

3. Plastic pollution has infiltrated the human food chain

Microplastics have been detected not only in the fish and seafood we eat, but also in tap water, salt, and even beer. Present in all the world’s oceans, including the Arctic, plastic waste contains carcinogenic chemicals that interfere with the body’s endocrine system, triggering developmental, neurological, immune, and reproductive disorders that not only affect wildlife, but humans too.

4. Of the 300 million tons of plastic we produce annually, 50 percent is single-use

Plastic is an extraordinary substance with unlimited useful applications. Nevertheless, with each plastic shopping bag taking approximately 20 years to break down in water, leaving in its wake a trail of toxic particles and chemicals, single-use plastic is not environmentally sustainable.

According to scientists, each plastic drinks bottle takes at least 450 years to biodegrade in the ocean and turn into microplastic. In the United States alone, 35 billion empty water bottles are thrown away every year. Of these, just 12 percent are recycled and around 50 percent are sent to landfills. Much of the remainder find their way into the world’s oceans.

5. Plastic is made from nonrenewable resources, contributing to climate change

The impact of climate change is becoming increasingly obvious in countries all over the world, triggering freak weather events and wildfires on an unprecedented scale. Every time we reach for a disposable plastic bag at the grocery store, we are inadvertently contributing to a chain of events that is having a colossal impact on the environment, depleting non-renewable resources and wasting energy.

Plastic bags are largely composed of polyethylene, a derivative of natural gas processing and crude oil refining. Both natural gas and oil are fossil fuels, emitting greenhouse gases throughout their extraction and production. Making plastics is incredibly energy intensive, with up to 10 percent of the current oil supply going toward the manufacture of plastic bags today. In the US, approximately 12 million barrels of oil are used to make 100 billion plastic bags every year, the majority of which end up in landfills or the oceans, completing a shockingly wasteful, environmentally damaging cycle.

Originally published at https://ralphthurman.com on September 8, 2021.