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Fact 1:  Trash can travel throughout the world's rivers and oceans, appearing on beaches and within gyres. This harms physical habitats, transports chemical pollutants, threatens aquatic life, and interferes with the human use of rivers.

Fact 2:  While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic. Around the world, one million plastic bottles are bought every minute, while 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. half of all plastic produced is used only once and then thrown away.

Fact 3: Since the 1950s, the rate of plastic production has grown faster than that of any other material. We’ve also seen a shift away from the production of durable plastic, and towards plastics that are meant to be thrown away after a single-use.

Plastic pollution facts and information - National Geographic

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Today, we produce about 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. That’s nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population. Researchers estimate that more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the early 1950s. About 60% of that plastic has ended up in either a landfill or the natural environment. 10 rivers alone carry more than 90% of the plastic waste that ends up in the oceans. The Niger river holds up to 35,196 tons of plastic. The Nile river holds up to 84,792 tons of trash.  The Indus river holds up to 164,332 tons of plastic in it. The Meghna river holds up to , Brahmaputra, Ganges, Amur, Hai He, Huang He, Chang Jiang, and finally the Mekong River.  Throwing plastic away is hurting our environment, we need to do something to fix it.

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Plastic is very different from paper or food. It doesn't rot, so it stays in the enviroment for hundreds of years.  Most of the plastic is sent into the ocean. So many animals get caught into plastic. Or, they eat the plastic mistaking it for food with it breaks down into smaller peices. Some example of plastic that is used one time is drink bottles, carrier bags, and crisp packets. There are so many ways that plastic gets to the ocean. It can be brought in by ships, beaches, or carried by river sometimes. Also some go down a toilet. There are 100,000 animals that die each year from eating plastics. The animals eat so much plastic that they are "full" but really they just dont have enough room in their stomachs to eat actual food. Some plastics will group together creather a garbage patch and they just sit all clumped together. Thats where most animals will mistake their food from.  That is how some problems are created with plastic polluting the ocean.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/42810179

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Millions of animals are killed by plastics every year, from birds to fish to other marine organisms. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by plastics. Nearly every species of seabird eats plastics.
Most of the deaths of animals are caused by entanglement or starvation. Seals, whales, turtles, and other animals are strangled by abandoned fishing gear or discarded six-pack rings Microplastics have been found in more than 100 aquatic species, including fish, shrimp, and mussels destined for our dinner plates. In many cases, these tiny bits pass through the digestive system and are expelled without consequence. But plastics have also been found to have blocked digestive tracts or pierced organs, causing death. Stomachs so packed with plastics reduce the urge to eat, causing starvation.
Plastics have been consumed by land-based animals, including elephants, hyenas, zebras, tigers, camels, cattle, and other large mammals, in some cases causing death.
Tests have also confirmed liver and cell damage and disruptions to reproductive systems, prompting some species, such as oysters, to produce fewer eggs. New research shows that larva fish in the first days of life, raising new questions about the effects of plastics on fish populations.

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The world’s plastic pollution crisis, explained

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Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can plastic pollution be cleaned up?

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Plastic harms so many things like the environment, the animals, and even humans. It also contribute to climate change how it releases carbon dioxide which goes in to the atmosphere and increasing carbon emissions. It also impacts tourism. About 8 million plastics end up in our oceans. It also takes up 80% of the marine debris on only surface water!

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Our resources share the knowledge gathered by IUCN's unique global community of 18,000+ experts. They include databases, tools, standards, guidelines and policy recommendations. We author hundreds of books, assessments, reports, briefs and research papers every year.

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This is an example of how plastics effect wildlife.

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The plastic that you use every day is hurting the environment and our oceans. The great pacific garbage patch is an example of the horror of what is to come in the future. Scientists say that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish and that is not including the other trash. They even said that the ocean makes up 70 percent of the planet and in just thirty years we have put just as much plastic as there are fish. Also not just throwing it away hurts us we use deadly chemicals to make the plastic that takes hundreds of years to decompose. Even when it’s broken up it turns to microplastics that still harm the ocean. These are just a few problems that plastic create.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch-Emalee Fortner

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch-Emalee Fortner

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a patch of floating debris in the North Pacific Ocean.
A man named Charles Moore discovered the Garbage patch in 1997 and continues to raise more awareness of the debris. Another name for the garbage patch is the Pacific trash vortex. Say someone throws a bottle off the coast of California and the California current takes it towards Mexico, and maybe the bottle catches the North Equatorial Current. The bottle will then make its way toward the garbage patch. Not all plastic floats on the surface of the oceans Oceanographers and Ecologists discovered that around 70% of marine trash sinks to the bottom of the ocean. If you couldn't tell already trash in the oceans is caused by us humans. Loggerhead sea turtles are affected by this, they eat plastic bags thinking they're jellyfish. However, they aren't the only ones affected, sea animals everywhere in the ocean are affected by plastic waste.

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The rising problem with plastic pollution-Bradley Abotobik

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The rising problem with plastic pollution-Bradley Abotobik

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Ever since the early 1950s plastic pollution has been a problem. These bottles are made out of plastics these plastics came from fossil fuels this problem has been happening worldwide but the plastic in the ocean are mainly from places that don’t have trash services and have to find their way of disposing of recycling and one of the ways is just throwing their trash into rivers which rivers lead to the ocean but it's not all their fault there is a low recycling rate all across the world and all that waste goes to the ocean or dumps and wildlife thinks these plastics are food so they end up eating the plastic so it's bad for the environment wildlife and humans if we don't do something soon we might not make it to 2060 because by 2050 our plastic pollution rate will be up 30% by then we might just be eating up pure plastic instead of actual food because the amount of plastic wildlife consumes.

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The world’s plastic pollution crisis, explained

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Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can plastic pollution be cleaned up?

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Plastic trash problems - brook valentine

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Plastic trash problems - brook valentine

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Today, single-use plastics account for 40% of plastic each year. Only 15% or less are being recycled so where does the other percent go? Most of the plastic trash ends up in the ocean, once caught up in ocean currents it can be transported anywhere. Whenever at sea, sunlight, wind, and wave action break down plastic waste into small particles. When animals see these little particles they think they're a food and eat them. They may think it fills up their stomach but it really is just causing them to starve to death.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution

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The world’s plastic pollution crisis, explained

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can plastic pollution be cleaned up?

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There are 5.25 trillion micro pieces in the ocean as of 2021, and there are 46,000 pieces in every square mile of the ocean and once you add all of the plastic altogether is weighs out to 269,000 tonnes, and coming from the rivers is an estimated 1.15 to 2.41 tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean from rivers. Once these plastics enter there are unlikely to leave until there are degraded to either microplastics or eaten by an animal. With all of the plastics added up is equivalent to 500 Jumbo Jets. Did you know that the main plastic in the ocean is styrofoam?

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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.
PLASTIC ACCUMULATION

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 encounters the sea.

1.15 to 2.41 million metric tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year.

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The stronger, more buoyant plastics show resiliency in the marine environment, allowing them to be transported over extended distances. They persist at the sea surface as they make their way offshore, transported by converging currents and finally accumulating in the patch.

Once these plastics enter the gyre, they are unlikely to leave the area until they degrade into smaller microplastics under the effects of sun, waves and marine life. As more and more plastics are discarded into the environment, microplastic concentration in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will only continue to increase.

ESTIMATION OF SIZE

The GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers an estimated surface of 1.6 million square kilometers

To formulate this number, the team of scientists behind this research conducted the most elaborate sampling method ever coordinated.

This consisted of a fleet of 30 boats, 652 surface nets and two flights over the patch to gather aerial imagery of the debris.

Sampling at different locations within the same time period allowed a more accurate estimate of the size of the patch and the plastic drifting in it.

LOCATION

Due to seasonal and interannual variabilities of winds and currents, the GPGP's location and shape are constantly changing. Only floating objects that are predominantly influenced by currents and less by winds were likely to remain within the patch.

By simulating concentration levels in the North Pacific, the researchers were able to follow the location of the patch, demonstrating significant seasonal and interannual variations. On average the patch orbits around 32°N and 145°W. However, the team observed seasonal shift from west to east and substantial variations in latitude (North to South) depending on the year.

The Ocean Cleanup is currently cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with System 03.

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Help fund our scale-up and let's make the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a thing of the past

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At the time of sampling, there were more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch that weigh an estimated 80,000 tonnes. These figures are much higher than previous calculations.
TOTAL MASS AND COUNT

80'000 tonnes of plastic float in the GPGP, equivalent to 500 Jumbo Jets

The mass of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) was estimated to be approximately 80,000 tonnes, which is 4-16 times more than previous calculations. This weight is also equivalent to that of 500 Jumbo Jets.

4 to 16 times more plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch than Previously Estimated

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The center of the GPGP has the highest density and the further boundaries are the least dense. When quantifying the mass of the GPGP, the team chose to account only for the denser center area. If the less-dense outer region was also considered in the total estimate, the total mass would then be closer to 100,000 tonnes.

A total of 1.8 trillion plastic pieces were estimated to be floating in the patch - a plastic count that is equivalent to 250 pieces of debris for every human in the world.

Using a similar approach as they did when figuring the mass, the team chose to employ conservative estimations of the plastic count. While 1.8 trillion is a mid-range value for the total count, their calculations estimated that it may be range from 1.1 to up to 3.6 trillion pieces.

Concentration

Using data from multiple reconnaissance missions, a mass concentration model was produced to visualize the plastic distribution in the patch.

The mass concentration model, pictured below, shows how the concentration levels gradually decrease by orders of magnitude towards the outside boundaries of the GPGP. The center concentration levels contain the highest density, reaching 100s of kg/km² while decreasing down to 10 kg/km² in the outermost region.

These results prove that plastic pollution at sea, while densely distributed within the patch, is scattered and does not form a solid mass, thus demystifying the trash island concept.

Vertical distribution

The Ocean Cleanup measured the vertical distribution of plastic during six expeditions between 2013 to 2015. Results from these expeditions proved that the buoyant plastic mass is distributed within the top few meters of the ocean.,

Factors such as wind speed, sea state, and plastic buoyancy will influence vertical mixing. However, buoyant plastic will eventually float back to the surface in calmer seas. Larger pieces were observed to resurface much more rapidly than smaller pieces.

Persistency

Characteristics of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, such as plastic type and age, prove that plastic has the capacity to persist in this region.

Plastic in the patch has also been measured since the 1970's and the calculations from subsequent years show that microplastic mass concentration is increasing exponentially - proving that the input of plastic in the patch is greater than the output. Unless sources are mitigated, this number will continue to rise.

The vast majority of plastics retrieved were made of rigid or hard polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), or derelict fishing gear (nets and ropes particularly). Ranging in size from small fragments to larger objects and meter-sized fishing nets.

Size classes

Plastic within the patch was categorized into four size classes:
- Microplastics (0.05 - 0.5 cm)
- Mesoplastics (0.5 - 5 cm)
- Macroplastics (5 - 50 cm)
- Megaplastics (anything above 50 cm)

92% of the total mass is made of debris larger than 5mm

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When accounting for the total mass, 92% of the debris found in the patch consists of objects larger than 0.5 cm, and three-quarters of the total mass is made of macro- and mega plastic. However, in terms of object count, 94% of the total is represented by microplastics.

Categorization types

75% to 86% of GPGP Plastics Comes from Fishing Activities

Once the plastics were collected, a team of volunteers classified the plastic into:
- Type H: Hard plastic, plastic sheet or film;
- Type N: Plastic lines, ropes, and fishing nets;
- Type P: Pre-production plastics (cylinders, spheres or disks);
- Type F: Fragments made of foamed materials

These plastic types were then screened for clues on age and origin. This was performed by examining each object for dates, languages, trademarks, symbols or 'made in' statements.

Why large debris matter

Because the plastics have been shown to persist in this region, they will likely break down into smaller plastics while floating in the GPGP.

This deterioration into microplastics is usually the result of sun exposure, waves, marine life, and temperature changes. Microplastics have been discovered floating within the water surface layers, but also in the water column or as far down as the ocean floor.

Once they become this small, microplastics are very difficult to remove and are often mistaken for food by marine animals.

Not only does plastic pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch pose risks for the safety and health of marine animals, but there are health and economic implications for humans as well.

Impact on wildlife

Plastic has increasingly become a ubiquitous substance in the ocean. Due to its size and color, animals confuse the plastic for food, causing malnutrition; it poses entanglement risks and threatens their overall behavior, health, and existence.

84% of samples contained toxic chemicals

Studies have shown that about 700 species have encountered marine debris, and 92% of these interactions are with plastic. 17% of the species affected by plastic are on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.

Toxic for Sea Surface Feeders

180X more plastic than food at the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Floating at the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is 180x more plastic than marine life. Animals migrating through or inhabiting this area are then likely consuming plastic in the patch. For example, sea turtles by-caught in fisheries operating within and around the patch can have up to 74% (by dry weight) of their diets composed of ocean plastics. Laysan albatross chicks from Kure Atoll and Oahu Island have around 45% of their wet mass composed of plastics from surface waters of the GPGP.

Since 84% of this plastic was found to have at least one Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic (PBT) chemical, animals consuming this debris are therefore ingesting the chemicals attached to the plastic.
Entanglement of Marine Life
Fishing nets account for 46% of the mass in the GPGP and they can be dangerous for animals who swim or collide into them and cannot extract themselves from the net. Interaction with these discarded nets, also known as ghost nets , often results in the death of the marine life involved.

Impact on Humans and Society

Once plastic enters the marine food web, there is a possibility that it will contaminate the human food chain as well. Efforts to clean and eradicate ocean plastic have also caused significant financial burdens.

Plastic pollution costs 13B dollars per year.

Affects the Human Foodchain

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 that includes humans. These chemicals that affected the plastic feeders could then be present within the human as well.

Affects the Economy

According to a study conducted in collaboration with Deloitte, yearly economic costs due to marine plastic are estimated to be between $6-19bn USD. The costs stem from its impact on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, and (governmental) cleanups. These costs do not include the impact on human health and the marine ecosystem (due to insufficient research available). This means that intercepting plastic in rivers is much more cost-effective than dealing with the consequences downstream. Learn more in our interactive map.

Resulting from several research missions, traveling across and above the GPGP, The Ocean Cleanup team compiled an unprecedented amount of data to better understand the plastic that persists in this region.

Boyan Slat - The New Picture of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (2018)

Research Expeditions

"To accurately quantify a problem of the size, we had to do research at a scale that had never been done before" - Boyan Slat

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Scientists have been studying this area since the 1970's - usually by means of dragging a small sampling net through the debris. This method showed a bias towards smaller objects and did not provide much insight into the larger pieces, and, thus, the entire scope of the GPGP.

Over the course of three years, researchers at The Ocean Cleanup went on several data collection missions. This included the Multi-Level-Trawl expedition, where they analyzed the depth at which buoyant plastic debris may be vertically distributed; the Mega Expedition using vessels to cross the patch with many trawls at once; and the Aerial Expedition which involved the use of a plane flying at low altitude to observe the debris from above.

2015 - Multi-Level-Trawl Expedition

Realizing that previous methods of analyzing the plastic in the patch needed improvement, The Ocean Cleanup designed a new research tool, called the multi-level-trawl, which allowed measurements of 11 water layers simultaneously going as far down as 5 meters below surface level. This trawl was then used in the Vertical Distribution Research.

The multi-level-trawl allowed the team to study further down into the water and understand to which depths buoyant plastic may be distributed. Through these studies, it was observed that buoyant plastic floats primarily in the first few meters of the water.

2015 - Mega Expedition

In 2015, 30 vessels and 652 surface nets, in parallel, crossed the GPGP as part of the Mega Expedition.
Numerous vessel owners offered the use of their ships for the mission. Of those ships, many carried behind them a Manta-trawl; including one mothership, the 171ft long Ocean Starr, which was able to carry two 6-meter-wide trawls and a survey balloon.

The fleet returned with over 1.2 million plastic samples that rendered an unprecedented amount of plastic measurements from the three months of study. Scientists present on the expedition noted that there was an alarming amount of plastic floating in the patch, and their preliminary findings indicated that there were more large objects than originally expected.

2016 - Aerial Expedition

After the Mega Expedition, the team wanted to learn more about these large plastic pieces that were difficult to come by. Megaplastics are more scattered than the smaller plastics, and, to study this important aspect of the patch, the team needed to cover an even larger area.

Using a C-130 Hercules aircraft, The Ocean Cleanup surveyed 311 km² with advanced sensors and an RGB camera (CS-4800i) that captured one photo every second of flight time. They took two flights and came back with over 7,000 single frame mosaics from the mission.

Ocean Research Laboratory

Once the ocean plastic was brought back to the Netherlands, it then needed to be counted, classified and analyzed.

Counting and Classifying

The first step in analyzing the plastic was to quantify it - to turn this physical matter into data.

Every piece of plastic that was recovered was cleaned, counted and classified by size and type. In total, 1.2 million plastic samples were counted, one by one, and were used to further study the physical properties and toxicity of the plastic that floats in the GPGP.

The Research team takes on the monumental task of counting and classifying the Mega Expedition samples.

Understanding Physical Properties

Not only is the size and count of the plastic in the GPGP important to calculate, but the way in which the plastic interacts in the water helps the team learn more about the buoyancy and depths of the plastic.

To test this, various experiments were performed on the plastic in environments that were intended to replicate oceanic conditions and particularly salinity. Laboratory tests were conducted to measure the vertical speed of the plastic as it resurfaces.

More than 4000 rising speed tests to understand how plastic particles behave in the water.

Understanding Toxicity

It is commonly known that harmful PBT (Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic) chemicals are found in ocean plastics, so researchers at The Ocean Cleanup tested plastic samples from the expeditions for their chemical levels. Their results helped them to realize what chemicals are present in the patch and what that means for animals feeding there.

Plastics ranging from various type and size were analyzed by placing them in mixtures that would allow the various chemicals to be identified. A process known as Chromatography. They found through various tests that 84% of the plastics in the GPGP contain at least one type of PBT chemical.

Ocean Plastic Data Science

Numerous computational and mathematical processes and methods were used throughout the study of the GPGP, allowing the team to visualize and characterize many features of the patch and the plastic within it.

Turning Ocean Plastic into Data

When the manta trawls samples were captured and then brought on the vessel, several criteria were noted in the datasheets, including the date, duration, and final coordinates of each tow.

With this information, the team was able to identify the exact location where the plastic was retrieved. The location and duration of all tows were confirmed during a post-processing phase by inspecting all the recorded datasheets against GPS trackers that were installed on all participating vessels. The total distance of tows, for example, combined with the net's characteristics allowed the researchers to estimate the total surveyed surface.

Process Aerial Expedition Data

Aboard the C-130 Hercules aircraft used for the Aerial Expedition were three types of sensors: Lidar (an advanced active sensor that is similar to that used on Google's autonomous cars), SWIR imager (an infrared camera to detect ocean plastic) and an RGB camera.

There were 3 sensor technicians, 7 navigation personnel and 10 researchers who helped track the plastic from above and monitor the equipment on board.

The data from this expedition were then analyzed and processed resulting in multispectral and geo-referenced imagery that was used to screen the surface area for plastic by trained observers and a machine-learning algorithm, providing spatial distribution of larger debris (>0.5m).

A Key to Convert Pixels into Kilograms

The mass of the plastic debris in the GPGP was calculated using imagery from the Aerial Expedition. By comparing the top view surface against dry mass of multiple objects collected during the first expedition at sea, including ghost nets, the team was able to make these estimations.

Merge all the Data into Comprehensive Computer Models

The data and imagery gathered from these objectives were eventually used by our team of computational modelers to build various models and computer-generated graphics. These served as a visual representation of the studies and tests that had been performed during the expeditions.

Research of this nature is crucial when understanding the many facets of the GPGP. These models have helped the engineers at The Ocean Cleanup to further improve the design of the cleanup system, which was deployed mid-2018.

We also use modeling to identify the pathways that bring plastic to the gyres. In 2022 our researchers published a new study based on over 6000 plastic objects (over 5 cm in size) captured in the GPGP by our System 001/B cleaning system in 2019. We then compared our field observations with our 'virtual particle' modeling results, allowing us to see the most statistically probable sources of GPGP plastic.

This indicated that over 75% of plastics in the GPGP - not only the 46% made up of fishing nets, as we discovered in 2018 - are attributable to offshore fishing activities. More research will be required in order to discover if this also applies to the other garbage patches around the world.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch * The Ocean Cleanup

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world and is located between Hawaii and California. Scientists of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation have conducted the most extensive analysis ever of this area.

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At Least 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year but why does that matter? Currently floating plastic is the most abundant marine litter in the world and has been detected on the shores of every continent in the world. The main sources of marine plastics are land-based, from urban and storm runoffs, sewer overflows, beach visitors, industrial activities, construction, and illegal dumping. The reason it's important is that it is the most widespread problem affecting the marine environments and what it does is threatens ocean health, food safety, and quality, human health, and contribute to climate change. The reason this is happening is that 300 million tons of plastic is produced in a single year and 8 million tons make it into the ocean every year and they make up 80% of the marine debris on the surface and deep sea.

sediments.https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-plasticshttps://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-plastics

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The impact of plastic

Plastic in the world's oceans is not just affecting animals it is affecting us and this is how. All of the trash we throw away all ends up in the ocean which is causing birds and fish to eat it thinking it's food. Once the birds or fish eat the plastic it sits in their stomach and they think they're full but they are really starving.Also when fish eat the plastic it can be bad because if we eat fish it can get into us. It also can get in soil and cause effects on growing food.

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The millions of tons of plastic swirling around the world's oceans have garnered a lot of media attention recently. But plastic pollution arguably poses a bigger threat to the plants and animals - including humans - who are based on land.

Very little of the plastic we discard every day is recycled or incinerated in waste-to-energy facilities. Much of it ends up in landfills, where it may take up to 1,000 years to degrade, leaching potentially toxic substances into the soil and water.

Researchers in Germany are warning that the impact of microplastics in soils, sediments and freshwater could have a long-term negative effect on such ecosystems. They say terrestrial microplastic pollution is much higher than marine microplastic pollution - estimated at four to 23 times higher, depending on the environment.

On the left: Artificial turf football field with ground tyre rubber used for cushioning. On the right: Microplastics from the same field, washed away by rain, and found close to a stream, Kristiansand, Norway. Photo: Soleincitta

The researchers concludethat, although little research has been carried out in this area, the results to date are concerning: fragments of plastic are present practically all over the world and can trigger many kinds of adverse effects.

The study estimates that one third of all plastic waste ends up in soils or freshwater. Most of this plastic disintegrates into particles smaller than five millimetres, known as microplastics, and these break down further into nanoparticles (less than 0.1 micrometre in size). The problem is that these particles are entering the food chain.
Sewage
Sewage is an important factor in the distribution of microplastics. In fact, between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of the plastic particles contained in sewage, such as from garment fibres, persist in the sludge, says the study. Sewage sludge is often applied to fields as fertilizer, meaning that several thousand tons of microplastics end up in our soils each year. Microplastics can even be found in tap water.

Moreover, the surfaces of tiny fragments of plastic may carry disease-causing organisms and act as a vector for diseases in the environment. Microplastics can also interact with soil fauna, affecting their health and soil functions. "Earthworms, for example, make their burrows differently when microplastics are present in the soil, affecting the earthworm's fitness and the soil condition," says an article in Science Daily about the research.
Toxic effects
In 2020, the first-ever field study to explore how the presence of microplastics can affect soil fauna was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. The paper notes that terrestrial microplastic pollution has led to the decrease of species that live below the surface, such as mites, larvae and other tiny creatures that maintain the fertility of the land.

Chlorinated plastic can release harmful chemicals into the surrounding soil, which can then seep into groundwater or other surrounding water sources, and also the ecosystem. This can cause a range of potentially harmful effects on the species that drink the water.

Shovel excavator spreading sewage sludge on a field. Photo: Flickr / SuSanA Secretariat

Generally speaking, when plastic particles break down, they gain new physical and chemical properties, increasing the risk that they will have a toxic effect on organisms. And the larger the number of potentially affected species and ecological functions, the more likely it is that toxic effects will occur.

Chemical effects are especially problematic at the degradation stage. Additives such as phthalates and Bisphenol A (widely known as BPA) leach out of plastic particles. These additives are known for their hormonal effects and can disrupt the hormone system of vertebrates and invertebrates alike. In addition, nano-sized particles may cause inflammation, traverse cellular barriers, and even cross highly selective membranes such as the blood-brain barrier or the placenta. Within the cell, they can trigger changes in gene expression and biochemical reactions, among other things.

The long-term effects of these changes have not yet been sufficiently explored. "However, it has already been shown that when passing the blood-brain barrier nanoplastics have a behaviour-changing effect in fish," according to the Leibnitz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries.
How do microplastics get into our water?
One of the main sources is our clothing. Minuscule fibres of acrylic, nylon, spandex, and polyester are shed each time we wash our clothes and are carried off to wastewater treatment plants or discharged to the open environment.

According to a recent study cited by Water World in 2016, more than 700,000 microscopic plastic fibres could be released into the environment during each cycle of a washing machine. This has not yet been studied in the case of handwashing, which is more common in developing counties, but the effects could be significant there as well.

Another study commissioned in the same year by clothing company Patagonia and conducted by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that washing a single synthetic jacket just once released an average of 1.7 grams of microfibres.

In 2019, it was estimated that 1.5 million trillion microfibers were present in the oceans around the world.
Microbeads
Microbeads are solid plastic particles that typically range from 10 micrometers (0.00039 inches) up to 1 millimeter (0.039 inches).

Numerous countries around the world have introduced legislation to ban the manufacture of cosmetics and personal care products containing microbeads. Such laws have already been passed in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Microbeads are solid plastic particles that typically range from 10 micrometers up to 1 millimeter. Photo: Wikimedia

In May 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and its Global Soil Partnership, the World Health Organization, the Secretariats of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) organized the Global Symposium on Soil Pollution (GSOP18) to bring together science and policy to understand the status, causes, impacts and solutions to soil pollution. The outcome document of the symposium, ' Be the solution to soil pollution' paved the way to the implementation of a coordinated set of actions to # StopSoilPollution.

In 2021, FAO and UNEP teamed up again to launch the Global Assessment of Soil Pollution, which details the risks and impacts of soil pollution on human health, the environment and food security.

For further information: Birguy.Lamizana@un.org

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Plastic planet: How tiny plastic particles are polluting our soil

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Much more research needs to be done to understand the impacts of microplastic pollution on land.

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Plastic Trash has become a recent problem in our world because the rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African nations, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or nonexistent. It is estimated that 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean comes from land-based sources, with the remaining 20 percent coming from boats and other marine sources. These percentages vary by region, however. A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, due largely to ocean current dynamics and increased fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water.

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Plastic Pollution Problem- Emma Satterfield 

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Plastic Pollution Problem- Emma Satterfield 

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Plastic has been polluting the world for 70 years. It originally started in World War 2. It became a real danger for animal habitats and animals themselves. It causes a reaction that could one day kill off all sea life. It starts out with trash getting thrown into the ocean by most Asian countries. It starts to slowly decompose itself after a few days. Fish start to eat the tiny pieces of plastic and it fills them up till they starve themselves. There are loads of endangered species from plastic. It causes so much damage to our ecosystem. Most states are banning plastic bags due to so much plastic being wasted. Its become a very serious problem on land as well. Most of the world's waste just goes to the ocean.

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By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. It's an environmental crisis that's been in the making for nearly 70 years. Plastic pollution is now considered one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals globally.

In "The Plastic Problem: PBS NewsHour Presents", Amna Nawaz and her PBS NewsHour colleagues look at this now ubiquitous material and how it's impacting the world, why it's become so prevalent, what's being done to mitigate its use, and what potential alternatives or solutions are out there. This hour-long program travels from Boston to Seattle, Costa Rica to Easter Island to bring the global scale of the problem to light.

From an expert on the world's garbage patches to an industrial ecologist who quantified exactly how much plastic has ever been produced, Nawaz tracks how the world is grappling with plastic. She also sits down with two of the world's biggest plastic producers - The Coca-Cola Company and Unilever - to find out what they're doing to address the problem.

Since its widespread use began after World War II - everything from band-aids to parachutes - over 9 billion metric tons of plastic has been created. And because it doesn't degrade and instead breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, much of that plastic is still here on earth. The problem is clear: too much plastic. But finding solutions is a murkier proposition.

Recycling for decades has been one of the so-called solutions. Nawaz tries her hand at sorting waste at a recycling facility. But an expert says the way we currently recycle is actually a part of the problem. Much of America's plastic waste was being sent to China. But now China has shut its doors to plastic waste, which could result by 2030 in more than 100 million tons of trash with nowhere to go. Markets are shifting, prices are tanking and now all that plastic scrap has been diverted to other southeast Asian countries, opening up a host of illegal markets. One of those is Malaysia, where our teams found countless examples of plastic waste from western nations at both legal and illegal recycling or incineration sites.

Bans on plastic have become one attempt at addressing the problem. Seattle is one of the first major American cities to ban single-use plastics. Nawaz visits a compost heap, a noisy and busy recycling facility, the Seattle Mariners ballpark and an iconic Seattle seafood chain - all are playing their part in finding solutions to the plastic problem. Nawaz also meets a young scientist who discovered a bacteria that eats plastic ; a young inventor who has made an alternative to plastic wrap out of the by products of beer brewing ; a startup making plastic roads ; and a trash can that goes underwater to collect plastic waste. On a smaller scale, she meets a family in Toronto, Canada trying to reduce their plastic footprint by shopping at a new zero-waste grocery store.

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In "The Plastic Problem: PBS NewsHour Presents", Amna Nawaz and her PBS NewsHour colleagues look at this now ubiquitous material and how it's impacting the world, why it's become so prevalent, what's being done to mitigate its use, and what potential alternatives or solutions are out there.

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The Pollution Problem All Around The World-Thomas Ramsey 

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The Pollution Problem All Around The World-Thomas Ramsey 

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Due to human activity, wasting plastic is causing harm to the environment and the human body. The chemicals used in the production of plastic are toxic.The problem has been going on since the 1960 and it's still going on till this day. This is a problem all around the world but the pollution is worse in China because of their high population. This is a really big problem because most of the plastic isn't biodegradable and it's hurting humans and the sea life. The problem is happening because people don't throw away their trash and most of the plastic isn't biodegradable.

https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-pollution

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40% of all the plastic we use, is only used once. Every year, several billion plastic items are used, and alot of it ends up in the ocean. Single use items aren't the only problem though. For example, Tires are made from plastic and rubber which wears down while you drive, causing thousands of microplastics to be spread onto the road and into the air.

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Cause of Plastic Pollution in the Environment - Plastic Soup Foundation

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What causes plastic pollution in the environment and the oceans? Learn more about how single-use plastics and everyday items can get carried into the sea.

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By Ramsay Roth

Plastic began surging after World War 2 ended. Plastics made medicine better and made life-saving equipment. Plastic saved fuel and pollution when it first surged. Half of the plastics ever made have been made in the past 15 years. Most of the plastic is in the ocean. Almost 700 species have been affected by plastics. Almost every species of marine life eats plastic. This is a globe wide problem and it has been happening for many years. Eight states have banned plastic bags. When animals eat plastic, they feel full, but their stomachs can not digest the plastic and they starve to death and die.

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The world’s plastic pollution crisis, explained

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Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can plastic pollution be cleaned up?

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Plastic and how it harms the environment - Blake Bell

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Plastic and how it harms the environment - Blake Bell

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Plastic is bad for the environment, and here’s why. Plastic is a material that was originally made to make things easier. It is made from crude oil, which is not biodegradable and takes a very long time to break down. Every year, humans generate more and more plastic, which ends up being more and more waste in the ocean. According to the EPA, plastics make up more than 12% of the municipal solid waste stream, which is a dramatic increase from the 1960s. Most plastics can be recycled, but only about 8% of them get recycled. The plastics that can’t be recycled, (but still are), end up in landfills. The rest of the plastic usually ends up in the ocean, which is really bad for the environment. These plastics will eventually erode, creating micro plastics that fish mistake for plankton. This could very well mean that you could’ve eaten plastic!

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Americans are generating more plastic trash than ever, and very little of it gets recycled. Plastics and their byproducts are littering our cities, oceans, and waterways, and contributing to health problems in humans and animals. The Ecology Center can help you use less plastic, recycle the plastic that you do use, and learn more about its hazards.

Plastic Recycling

According to the EPA, plastics make up more than 12 percent of the municipal solid waste stream, "a dramatic increase from 1960, when plastics were less than one percent of the waste stream." US residents are buying more plastic, and only about 8 percent of it gets recycled. The plastics industry rarely uses recycled plastics in the vast majority of their products, unlike the glass and metal industries. The recycling arrows stamped on plastic products and the cities that collect every type of plastic via their recycling programs lead people to believe that all plastic products are recyclable and being recycled, and that's simply not true. Non-recyclable plastics are separated and landfilled.

The Ecology Center currently picks up clean, rigid plastic containers, but we encourage people to avoid buying plastics whenever possible, since most plastics are not recyclable in the same way that glass, metals, and fibers are. Plastics are typically turned into only one other product, which must be landfilled at the end of its life. As the plastics recycling infrastructure develops and viable new plastics markets emerge, the Ecology Center will evaluate the collection of other plastics, based on operational, cost, and environmental concerns.

Are Plastics Safe?

Some plastics we know are toxic, such as #3, which is also known as PVC or vinyl. PVC contains phthalates and heavy metals, and creates dioxins when it burns. Other plastics contain Bisphenol-A (BPA), which has been identified as a chemical that disrupts hormones. Plastics can contain thousands of possible additives, and manufacturers are not required to disclose what their recipes are. Any plastic can leach, depending on the conditions (light, heat) and what additives it includes. The Ecology Center recommends avoiding plastics when possible, particularly in toys and products for children, and products that come in contact with food or drink.

Get Plastic Out of Your Life

Because plastics and their ingredients are pervading our oceans and waterways, invading the bodies of humans and wildlife, and filling landfills (with new and once recycled plastic) the Ecology Center recommends eliminating plastics from your life, as much as possible.

To get started, consult our handy fact sheet, Get Plastic Out of Your Life.

We also highly recommend Beth Terry's blog, My Plastic-Free Life.

Plastics Task Force

In 1995, the Ecology Center convened the Berkeley Plastics Task Force to study plastic waste issues and provide the City of Berkeley with data to help them determine the feasibility of including plastics in the recycling program. Members of the Plastics Task Force included Ecology Center staff and board members, representatives of Berkeley's recycling programs, members of the academic community, and other experts on environmental issues. The Plastics Task Force consulted with environmental organizations, plastics industry experts, recycling program operators, solid waste management companies, and public agencies. The Task Force's report is a comprehensive, scientific, and independent look at the full life cycle of plastics, from production through disposal.

Read the full 1996 Report of the Berkeley Plastics Task Force here.

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Americans are generating more plastic trash than ever, and very little of it gets recycled. Plastics and their byproducts are littering our cities, oceans, and waterways, and contributing to health problems in humans and animals. The Ecology Center can help you use less plastic, recycle the plastic that you do use, and learn more about its hazards.

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Plastic has been getting way too bad, It has affected our ocean and the wildlife in the ocean. The bad part is we are the ones responsible for it because people do not throw away their trash. They will just toss it into the ocean and not think much about it  Such as whales, Sea turtles, Sea birds, Seals and many more. There are more than 5.25 trillion micro-plastics in the ocean. Everyday around 8 million pieces of plastic make their way to the ocean. About 88% of the ocean surface is polluted by the earth's surface. Over 1 million animals are killed from plastic. It's crazy to think but it's estimated by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. There are 8-14 million tons of plastic entering our ocean every year. Over 500 billion plastic bags make their way to the ocean every year, and also 1 million plastic bags end up in the ocean every minute.

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More than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year.

100% of baby sea turtles have plastic in their stomachs.

There is now 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean & 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean, weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.

There is an estimated 75 to 199 million tons of plastic waste currently in our oceans, with a further 33 billion pounds of plastic entering the marine environment every single year.

Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic makes their way into our oceans.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is around 1.6 million square kilometers - bigger than Texas.

The world produces 381 million tonnes of plastic waste yearly - this is set to double by 2034.

50% of this is single-use plastic & only 9% has ever been recycled.

Over 2 million tonnes  of plastic packaging are used in the UK each year.

88% of the sea's surface is polluted by plastic waste.

Between 8 to 14 million tonnes enters our ocean every year.

Britain contributes an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of plastic annually.

The US contributes 38 million tonnes of plastic every year.

Plastic packaging is the biggest culprit, resulting in 80 million tonnes of waste yearly from the US alone.

On UK beaches there are 5000 pieces of plastic & 150 plastic bottles for each mile.

More than 1 million plastic bags end up in the trash every minute.

The world uses over 500 billion plastic bags a year - that's 150 for each person on Earth.

8.3 billion plastic straws pollute the world's beaches, but only 1% of straws end up as waste in the ocean.

1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption contains plastic.

Plastic microbeads are estimated to be one million times more toxic than the seawater around it.

Products containing microbeads can release 100,000 tiny beads with just one squeeze.

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100+ Plastic in the Ocean Statistics & Facts 2023

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We are polluting the ocean with 12.7 million tonnes of plastic a year. Discover the facts & impact of plastic pollution on our oceans, marine life & humanity.

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Eight states have banned plastic bags such as California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. People started dumping plastic into the ocean in the 1960s and that explorers have found most of the world's plastic. Most of the plastic has gone to the great pacific garbage patch which is located in between Hawaii and California in the pacific ocean. And local companies such as big oil wastes about 90% of the world's plastic.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water.

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How plastic trash is harmful.

Plastic trash harms physical habitats, transports chemical pollutants, threatens aquatic life, and interferes with human uses like rivers, marine, and coastal environments. Out of each kind of trash, plastic is the greatest potential to harm the environment, humans, and wildlife. Trash travels through oceans and that washes up onto the beach where birds and other animals try to eat that. The trash that doesn’t make it to the beach sharks, fish, dolphins, sea turtles, whales, and species like that are in danger. We can prevent all of that a little at a time by not throwing trash off our boats, not leaving trash on the beach to be washed up into the ocean, dont throw trash out of your car, out of your house, on the ground because when you do that and a storm comes that will blow all of your plastic into the ocean or anywhere that animals would eat it.

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Here's Why Plastic Is SO MUCH Worse Than You Think!

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The Problem with Plastic is very long and drastic so this will be a short paragraph about it. 

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By Tariq Siddiqui

The problem with plastic trash is that there is far too much in the ocean because plastic makes up more than 12 percent of the Municipal solid waste stream, which is a dramatic increase from 1960. Every US resident is buying plastic which only about 8 percent actually gets recycled and in 1995, the Ecology Center and the Berkeley Plastics Task Force studied plastic waste issues and provided the city of Berkeley with data to help the city with a recycling program.

https://ecologycenter.org/plastics/

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Americans are generating more plastic trash than ever, and very little of it gets recycled. Plastics and their byproducts are littering our cities, oceans, and waterways, and contributing to health problems in humans and animals. The Ecology Center can help you use less plastic, recycle the plastic that you do use, and learn more about its hazards.

Plastic Recycling

According to the EPA, plastics make up more than 12 percent of the municipal solid waste stream, "a dramatic increase from 1960, when plastics were less than one percent of the waste stream." US residents are buying more plastic, and only about 8 percent of it gets recycled. The plastics industry rarely uses recycled plastics in the vast majority of their products, unlike the glass and metal industries. The recycling arrows stamped on plastic products and the cities that collect every type of plastic via their recycling programs lead people to believe that all plastic products are recyclable and being recycled, and that's simply not true. Non-recyclable plastics are separated and landfilled.

The Ecology Center currently picks up clean, rigid plastic containers, but we encourage people to avoid buying plastics whenever possible, since most plastics are not recyclable in the same way that glass, metals, and fibers are. Plastics are typically turned into only one other product, which must be landfilled at the end of its life. As the plastics recycling infrastructure develops and viable new plastics markets emerge, the Ecology Center will evaluate the collection of other plastics, based on operational, cost, and environmental concerns.

Are Plastics Safe?

Some plastics we know are toxic, such as #3, which is also known as PVC or vinyl. PVC contains phthalates and heavy metals, and creates dioxins when it burns. Other plastics contain Bisphenol-A (BPA), which has been identified as a chemical that disrupts hormones. Plastics can contain thousands of possible additives, and manufacturers are not required to disclose what their recipes are. Any plastic can leach, depending on the conditions (light, heat) and what additives it includes. The Ecology Center recommends avoiding plastics when possible, particularly in toys and products for children, and products that come in contact with food or drink.

Get Plastic Out of Your Life

Because plastics and their ingredients are pervading our oceans and waterways, invading the bodies of humans and wildlife, and filling landfills (with new and once recycled plastic) the Ecology Center recommends eliminating plastics from your life, as much as possible.

To get started, consult our handy fact sheet, Get Plastic Out of Your Life.

We also highly recommend Beth Terry's blog, My Plastic-Free Life.

Plastics Task Force

In 1995, the Ecology Center convened the Berkeley Plastics Task Force to study plastic waste issues and provide the City of Berkeley with data to help them determine the feasibility of including plastics in the recycling program. Members of the Plastics Task Force included Ecology Center staff and board members, representatives of Berkeley's recycling programs, members of the academic community, and other experts on environmental issues. The Plastics Task Force consulted with environmental organizations, plastics industry experts, recycling program operators, solid waste management companies, and public agencies. The Task Force's report is a comprehensive, scientific, and independent look at the full life cycle of plastics, from production through disposal.

Read the full 1996 Report of the Berkeley Plastics Task Force here.

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Americans are generating more plastic trash than ever, and very little of it gets recycled. Plastics and their byproducts are littering our cities, oceans, and waterways, and contributing to health problems in humans and animals. The Ecology Center can help you use less plastic, recycle the plastic that you do use, and learn more about its hazards.

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Plastic sticks around in the environment for ages, threatening wildlife and spreading toxins. The physical impact on marine life: entanglement, ingestion, starvation. Rainwater and wind carry plastic waste into streams and rivers and through drains. ExxonMobil tops the list contributing 5.9 million tonnes to global plastic waste.

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sources of water pollution>
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Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while 500 billion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once - and then thrown away.

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Plastic Trash Problem Paragraph - Ryker Gates

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Plastic Trash Problem Paragraph - Ryker Gates

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Plastic Trash has become a recent problem in our world these days. This plastic is becoming a problem in Asian and African countries. Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans of our world. Also, Half of the plastic in the world today has been created in the last 15 years. With this plastic problem, sea animals are eating these plastics, which will starve and kill them.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution

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The world’s plastic pollution crisis, explained

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Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can plastic pollution be cleaned up?