Analysis Of Plastic Debris

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Situation Analysis In today’s world, there is enough plastic thrown away each year to circle the world around four times. This is a major global problem that all countries have. Plastic is something we use for a few minutes and throw away. What most people don’t know is these simple plastics actually take centuries to degrade. Take for example a simple plastic bottle, this innocent looking plastic bottle that everyone uses take about 450 years to degrade. As said by Jeb Berrier in the movie BagIT, "Think about it. Why would you make something that you're going to use for a few minutes out of a material that's basically going to last forever, and you're just going to throw it away. What's up with that?".

There are other ways that the wildlife is affected by plastic pollution. Such as entanglement, this is most common in marine life, such as fish, seals, turtles, and birds. These animals get stuck in this debris and end up suffocating or drowning. Because they are unable to untangle themselves, they also die from starvation or from their inability to escape predators. On a report in 2006 called Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans, It was estimated that at least 267 different animal species have suffered from entanglement and ingestion of plastic debris. Some species are consumers of jelly fish, but often mistake plastic bags for their natural prey, which obstructs the esophagus of sea turtles therefore killing them. It has been estimated that about 400,000 marine mammals die annually due to plastic pollutions in the ocean. As said by Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra “One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure”. Air wildlife are also greatly affected by plastic pollution. Seabirds are a common example. Seabirds often mistake trash floating on the ocean’s surface as prey. Or often their food sources had already ingested plastic debris, thus transferring the plastic from prey to