Plastic is everywhere. It covers 40% of the ocean's surface. 1000 kilograms of it is dumped into the ocean at Los Angeles, California each day. Each year, fish in the North Pacific ingest between 12,000 and 24,000 tons of plastic. This plastic can cause internal injury and even death to the fish that eat it. It still gets worse, though. After the plastic harms the fish, those fish are then eaten by larger fish and marine mammals, who then have to deal with the deadly plastic.
This doesn't affect just fish. Turtles eat the plastic, too. The turtles mostly mistake floating plastic bags for food, but also eat soft plastic, ropes, Styrofoam, and monofilament fishing line. The digestion of these can cause blockage in their guts, ulcers, internal puncturing, and even death.
This doesn't affect just fish. Turtles eat the plastic, too. The turtles mostly mistake floating plastic bags for food, but also eat soft plastic, ropes, Styrofoam, and monofilament fishing line. The digestion of these can cause blockage in their guts, ulcers, internal puncturing, and even death.
Marine mammals ingest plastic as well as fish and birds. They also get tangled in it. There is a lot of plastic in natural habitats, such as those of the Hawaiian monk seals, including areas serving as pup nurseries. The deaths caused by plastic severely damage their chances of overcoming extinction. Entanglement has also led Steller sea lions to the verge of extinction.
It is a common misconception that plastic can be remade into something else. It can only be downcycled, created into something of lesser value than a new piece of premium plastic. Because people want the new plastic, once is has been downcycled to the lowest level or thrown away it ends up in the landfills or the ocean.
As you can see from the graph below, natural materials such as wood, paper, wool, and cotton degrade relatively quickly, in under 20 years. Comparatively, inorganic materials, such as plastic, Styrofoam, and glass take much, much longer. A Styrofoam cup takes 100 years to degrade, a plastic bottle 450, and a glass bottle takes 700 years to fully degrade!
It is a common misconception that plastic can be remade into something else. It can only be downcycled, created into something of lesser value than a new piece of premium plastic. Because people want the new plastic, once is has been downcycled to the lowest level or thrown away it ends up in the landfills or the ocean.
As you can see from the graph below, natural materials such as wood, paper, wool, and cotton degrade relatively quickly, in under 20 years. Comparatively, inorganic materials, such as plastic, Styrofoam, and glass take much, much longer. A Styrofoam cup takes 100 years to degrade, a plastic bottle 450, and a glass bottle takes 700 years to fully degrade!