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I walked into the Plastic Oceans event not expecting much. I'd seen a short piece of the full documentary during a Global Scholars meeting, and although I found the subject matter interesting, I originally wasn't particularly moved. After tonight's event, however, I find myself motivated both to learn more about ocean pollution and to take action.

In my opinion, the most affecting parts of the documentary (and the question and answer session with Mr. Leipzig) were the depictions of ocean animals stuck in trash, the explanation of the "plastic smog", and the statistics about animals eating plastic. I was particularly shocked to see how much plastic was found in the seabird dissected in the documentary. Mr. Leipzig mentioned that 15% of that bird's body mass was plastic, and put that statistic in context by explaining that 15% of a human's body mass is equivalent to about 12 pizzas. It's horrible to think that humans are consuming these animals and are thus consuming unimaginable amounts of plastic.

The documentary's choice to position the issue of plastic in our oceans as a public health issue was ingenious; it caused me (and I'm sure many of the attendees) to think of pollution as less of an abstract concept and to take Mr. Leipzig's suggestions for positive change more seriously. One of his most interesting suggestions was to ban plastic on Poly's campus in the next couple of years. From purchases vending machines to lack of care around recycling and composting, Poly students consume and waste a lot of plastic. It would be interesting to change our consumption habits and establish Poly as a model of sustainability amongst the private school community.

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"A Plastic Ocean" Event Reflection - hannahsgip - Medium

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I walked into the Plastic Oceans event not expecting much. I'd seen a short piece of the full documentary during a Global Scholars meeting, and although I found the subject matter interesting, I originally wasn't particularly moved. After tonight's event, however, I find myself motivated both to learn more about ocean pollution and to take action.

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By Laura Beans

"Paper or plastic?" was once the inquiry of bag-boys in supermarkets around the country. But a growing conscience concerning the frivolous abuse of single-use plastic grocery bags has finally taken hold in the U.S. Around the world, from Australia to Ireland, communities have been enacting bag bans for almost a decade.

The first plastic sandwich bags were introduced in 1957. Department stores and supermarket chains started using plastic shopping bags in the late 1970s. The recycling of plastic bags began in 1990, but by 1996 four out of five grocery bags in the U.S. were thin, single-use, polyethylene bags. More than 1 billion single-use plastic bags are given out free of charge everyday. In 2009 the U.S. International Trade Commission reported that 102 billion plastic bags were used in the U.S.

Plastic bags never biodegrade, but they do breakdown. As they do so, any toxic additives they contain-including flame retardants, antimicrobials and plasticizers-will be released into the environment. Many of these chemicals may disrupt the endocrine system -the delicately balanced set of hormones and glands that affect virtually every organ and cell in the bodies of humans and animals.

Plastic bags are especially harmful to marine animals, and are one of the most common garbage items on California's beaches according to the Los Angeles Times. Most starts out as litter on beaches, streets and sidewalks. Stormwater runoff and overwatering flushes them through storm drains or directly to creeks, streams and rivers that lead to the ocean.

In marine environments, many animals confuse the plastic littering the oceans for food, including sea turtles. One in three leatherback sea turtles have plastic in their stomach, most often a plastic bag, based on a study of over 370 autopsies. Once in these animals bodies the plastic bioaccumulates, and the chemicals can cause excess estrogen to be produced, which has led to discoveries of male fish with female sex organs. For sea turtles, the plastic blocks their digestive tract and the food that is trapped releases gases that render them buoyant, and unable to dive for food.

A group based in Mexico, Global Ban Now, is raising public awareness of the issue with the release of their short video, Silent Killers. The video was created after a member discovered a sea turtle close to death off the coast of La Paz, Mexico. The sick turtle was brought to a facility in La Paz, where it was discovered that she was slowly starving because a single-use plastic bag, which she had eaten, was blocking her digestive tract. The turtle was kept for a couple of weeks, the plastic was removed and she was released back to the sea.
Visit EcoWatch's WATER page for more related news on this topic.
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Silent Killers: The Danger of Plastic Bags to Marine Life

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By Laura Beans"Paper or plastic?" was once the inquiry of bag-boys in supermarkets around the country. But a growing conscience concerning the frivolous abuse of single-use plastic grocery bags has finally taken hold in the U.S. Around the world, from Australia to Ireland, communities have been enac...

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84 per cent of the 106 experts surveyed, said they had found turtles tangled in rubbish, in the Atlantic, Pacific Caribbean, Mediterranean and Indian ocean coast.

Although they found more than 1,000 entangled turtles, they believe the real number is far higher because many animals will decay at sea.

Greenpeace UK's head of oceans Will McCallum said: "Nearly all species of turtle are endangered and yet research like this shows that the threats from human activity are only getting worse.

"The throwaway plastic we use for just minutes can turn into a floating trap for marine creatures like whales and turtles that lurks in our oceans for centuries.

"If UK ministers are truly feeling inspired after watching Blue Planet II, then a good place to start would be stopping plastics getting into the ocean by pushing ahead with plans for a deposit return scheme."

The research was published in the journalEndangered Species Research.

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Turtles trapped in plastic forced to drag lethal cargo through seas until they die, study finds

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84 per cent of the 106 experts surveyed, said they had found turtles tangled in rubbish, in the Atlantic, Pacific Caribbean, Mediterranean and Indian ocean coast. Although they found more than 1,000 entangled turtles, they believe the real number is far higher because many animals will decay at sea.