It’s no secret pollution is a problem, but did you know according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization there are about 50-75 trillion pieces of plastic and microplastics in our oceans? Sounds like a lot right? Add to that roughly 8-10 million metric tons of plastic that ends up in our oceans every year. Does this sound like a problem yet?
Wait, there’s more.
Let’s talk about plastic. We buy plastic everyday. Look around at the stuff around the office or your home. There’s a lot of plastic. Even the keyboard of your computer is made of plastic. Did you know that it takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade? To top it off, plastic never fully degrades. It sticks around in the form of microplastics.
The sheer number of plastic in our oceans is astounding, but where does it go if it never fully degrades? All of the plastic or microplastic gets pulled into gyres in the oceans where dense patches coined “garbage patches” form. There are five of these offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world. The largest one is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located roughly halfway between Hawaii and California.
Trying to grasp how large this area is can be difficult. Here’s why.
Despite popular belief that this is a swirling island of garbage, it’s not. Trust me, that doesn’t make what I am about to say any better.
The litter in the oceans is constantly mixed by wind and waves, so it’s moving. According to NOAA, it’s difficult to estimate the size of the garbage patches due to the constantly moving ocean currents and winds that in return move the borders and content around.
Not to mention, all the plastic litter doesn’t float. A lot of the garbage is in the top portion of the water column known as the epipelagic zone aka the “sunlight zone” which is about 200 meters or 656 feet deep.
Why can’t scientists see it on satellites to help measure it?
A lot of the trash within the garbage patches is made up of microplastics. They’re not always visible to the naked eye, but they’re out there. Satellite imagery doesn’t show swirling islands of garbage either. Microplastics can cause a cloudy appearance in the water. The GPGP has an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers. That’s an area twice the size of Texas give or take. Just because these microplastics aren’t visible doesn’t mean they aren’t a problem.
Microplastics can be ingested. There’s a wide range of animals in the ocean that consume them and have been found in organisms ranging from small invertebrates to large mammals. These microplastics can travel through waterways, ending up in ecosystems where marine life thrives. When consumed they can cause health problems like abrasions in the digestive tract which can ultimately result in death. The bigger pieces of plastic like old fishing line entangle marine life, trapping them and strangling the animal to death.
The plastic pollution also threatens food quality and safety which can impact human health too. Not to mention if trash is lining the coast, people are less likely to visit, impacting coastal tourism.
There are a few things we can do to help out with this water crisis. Yes, it’s a crisis based on the numbers of plastics entering the ocean every year and the massive impact it plays in our lives. So what can we do?
1. Reduce the amount of single-use plastics in your home like plastic bags, water bottles, straws, cups, utensils and other items that are only used one time.
2. Recycle and recycle properly. Recycling programs help to curb the amount of plastics potentially ending up in the ocean and the amount of new plastics being made.
3. Support legislation that aims to curb plastic production and waste.
4. Avoid products that contain microbeads found in some face scrubs, toothpastes, and bodywashes. Microbeads enter our oceans and waterways through our sewer systems and affect hundreds of marine species.
5. Get involved in beach and river clean-up efforts that prevent plastics from entering our waters in the first place.
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