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Consequences of plastic in the ocean
Consequences of plastic in the ocean
Consequences of plastic in the ocean
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Water is the most abused and wasted natural resource. Even with all our technological advancements, there are still approximately 1 billion people on this planet that do not have access to clean drinking water. Earth is comprised of 75% water with 96% of that being ocean water. Throughout the years, the ocean has become a dump for societies to use, throwing trash and waste away into the waters. Marine debris can destroy marine habitats, endanger marine and coastal wildlife, and serve as threats to human health and safety. For decades there has been a steady increase in the production of plastic materials for human use and various consumptive purposes. Due to bad disposal techniques, our population’s overuse, and the non-biodegradable nature of plastic; plastic is accountable for 80% of marine debris. This issue of plastic has and is …show more content…
This is a collection of marine debris that has mixed into a swirling gyre in the Central North Pacific Ocean. This patch of plastic is difficult to measure accurately due to its vast size, the movement of the water, the debris within it, and not only the debris at the surface level but the debris that has sunken meters beneath the surface. Plastic is the main source of debris in the gyre and represents up to about 80% of the ocean’s total debris across the entire earth’s ocean (EPA, 2011). The plastic breaks down into tinnier pieces known as micro plastics. These micro plastics make the ocean water cloudy to see through. Mixed with the micro plastics are larger pieces of plastic. Most researchers of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch agree that it is at least the size of the state Texas, while other scientist argue that it is doubled. As plastic has become a dominant product in our lives, and its production has increased, the northern Pacific Ocean has been accumulating mass amounts of plastic by ocean and wind
The ability to correctly understand and differentiate between the areas which need the most help is important in order to make effective change. People have ideas about where they think the a lot of ocean trash is located, but are not actually certain that the information is true. For example, Preston asserts that “the name of the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch,’ a collection of marine debris in the northern Pacific Ocean, might conjure up a vast, floating trash island. In reality, though, much of the debris is tiny or below the surface; a person could sail through the area without seeing any garbage at all.” This demonstrates how a majority of people have a specific image about what the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is even though the actuality drastically differs. It is imperative that scientists and other researchers ensure that the information provided is as extensive as possible so people are certain about which areas are highly concentrated with debris. As a result of more thorough information, people would know where to focus their efforts to more effectively solve the
This pollution problem is so ubiquitous plastic can be found throughout the marine environment from coastlines to near shore lagoons to remote ocean hotspots where plastics caught up in marine currents. And gathered up into huge garbage patches that swirl
The ocean is an abundant source of life. It is home to thousand of different creatures, provides a great source of food, and provides the earth with about one half of the oxygen needed to sustain life. (National Geographic) Pollution especially plastic, is a catastrophic problem. Ironically plastic, which is a material designed to last forever is generally used for things we tend to throw away. Every year about one hundred to two hundred billion pounds of plastic are manufactured. Only 31% of that plastic is actually recycled. Biomass packaging estimates 10% of that plastic ends up in the ocean annually. About 20% of it coming from ships and other platforms, and the other 80% coming from land derived sources, such as international garbage dumping, winds or tides either way it finds its way to the ocean.(Biomass Packaging Co., et al)
The main effect of this plastic is pollution. In passage 3 it states that ” We have so much to thank the oceans for; however, they are threatened daily by natural and manmade pollution. Ocean pollution comes in many forms, but the largest factor affecting the oceans is plastic”.
It generates hazardous waste that is ultimately deposited in the oceans’ shores. As most of the plastics deposited are non-biodegradable. The plastic pollution is damaging the marine life as well as the well being of human. In the article “Plastic Pollution” by Kiener, it is stated that the plastic comprises of 10 percent of all ocean debris. It has been estimated that about 100 million tons of plastics are used worldwide everyday, and only 5 percent of the plastic is recycled because most types of plastic cannot be recycled economically. Kiener also notes in his article that approximately 2.4 million pounds an hour of plastic enters in the world’s oceans everyday. Therefore, the most important thing that we can do is, to stop plastic waste from entering the oceans in the first
According to the article Ocean Pollution Causes, “Back in 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that about 14 billion pounds of garbage was being dumped into the ocean every year. That's more than 1.5 million pounds per hour, with an estimated one third possibly contributed by the United States.” This strongly proves that a great deal of our trash that isn’t disposed of properly ends up in the ocean and most of it is possibly from the U.S. There is a profound amount of trash floating in the ocean. Many unusual objects have ended up the water. For instance, plastic bags/bottles, balloons, glass bottles, shoes, packaging material, cigarettes, beverage cans, food wrappers, as well as an exceedingly amount of other types of plastic. An immense amount of garbage is just drifting in the ocean that no one knows about. The trash floating in the ocean is way too much to count. One question is where does all the trash go once it’s in the
It was thought a while back that no matter how much trash we poured into the ocean the result would be inconsequential. However, when we examine the coastlines, swirling patches of garbage in the middle of the ocean, and the fact that there is enough trash added to the ocean each year to circle it four times (“22 Facts about Plastic Pollution”) it is obvious we thought wrong. With billions of pounds of plastic already in the ocean today, (ECO360 Plastic Garbage 1) we’ve already dug ourselves in a deep hole but that doesn’t mean it’s too late.
More than “eight million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every single year” according to “Plastic Oceans” (Plastic 1). The ocean is connected to human life more than most people realize which is why things should be done about it. Imagine looking forward to a day at the beach, traveling there only to see that the beach is closed due to the fact that there was a recent oil spill near the coast or having plastic all over the sand. It necessary that oceans are cleaned, preserved, and guarded due to the direct connection they have to human life and what the effect of pollution has on the growth and well being of marine ecosystems.
People are hurting the animals, and they don’t realize it. That’s one of the issues that the people don’t realize what they are doing. All of the sea creatures about 100,000 marine animals and countless fish are being harmed by the floating plastics. Those animals die in the North Pacific every year from either eating the plastic junk or becoming ensnared, and even drowning in it. Since there is plastic in the ocean and it’s killing fish over time and from the over time it could actually make the fishes go extinct because we are throwing our garbage in the ocean, which is killing the species and affects the food chain in the ocean. Also, every people are eating plasticizing additives, drinking them, breathing them, and absorbing them through their skin every single day. Only 3 to 5 percent of plastics are recycled in any way. Which means each person tosses about 185 pounds of plastic every year. So, the plastic never really goes
The world population is living, working, and vacationing along the coasts. They are contributing to an unprecedented tide of plastic waste. Pollution is defined as the process that alters a substance or molecule on planet earth, the pollution is caused by the physical contact of an organic decaying particle with a clean particle in the same spot, at the time the two particles join together is when occurs pollution in which the environment is greatly altered. Too many, plastic is a modern day miracle, versatile, inexpensive and durable (Rochman 2014). To others, it is a scourge, a non-degradable pollutant that threatens to choke the global environment. Plastic pollution has led to the deaths of many animals, natural resources, and people (Rochman 2014). It is time to change America’s thinking and to learn from past mistakes.
The water that moves in a spiral motion in oceanic gyres locks plastic waste in, keeping it captive indefinitely. Plastic only takes up twenty percent in landfills, which is shocking; because the extent which consumers use it. If only twenty percent is ending up in landfills, where is it going? The answer is simple, in the ocean. Charles Moore claims “Eighty percent of mid-ocean flotsams has
A lot of waste in thrown away each year. According to ECO360’s “Plastic Garbage” there are a lot of surprising facts about plastic. In just America alone, they use roughly 2.5 million water bottles every hour! Unfortunately, only one or two percent of plastic is recycled. With this being said, about 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the oceans every year! This is how the plastic islands have been created. Plastic islands are large clutters of plastic formed into one big mess. There are currently five known garbage islands in the world today. There are two in the Pacific Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean, and one in the Indian Ocean (Budnikov). These large plastic islands are incredibly dangerous to marine life. Thousands of marine wildlife
“By using a 100 km-long floating barrier to let the ocean currents concentrate the plastic themselves and is deployed for ten years it will be able to removed forty-two percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch” (The Ocean Cleanup). However, this technology is still in its pilot stages and will be deployed to ensure success of this method in August 2016. So how will this barrier collect the plastic? The plastic will be stored in an internal buffer, a machine that stores and collects plastic, which will need to be emptied every five months. With the plastic collected it will be used to make new objects that can be made from plastic. If the pilot does well and collects the plastic like it’s suppose to do, a bigger floating barrier will be made to be put in five different gyres around the
Ocean pollution is a serious issue that is harming both land and sea inhabitants. It is dropping economic levels and destroying the food chain by killing off the predators’ prey. The great pacific garbage patch is one of the world’s biggest garbage gyres, filled mostly with plastic and other tough biodegradable waste. Even though we don’t live in the ocean it still affects us in many ways, and before we clean up the ocean we must find a way to stop people from littering first.
...harges of Human-made Debris Comprise the Largest Source of Marine Debris in Oceans World-wide (nearly 80%)." Plastic Debris Rivers to Sea Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.