Annually 8 Million Tons of plastic are thrown away in our Oceans
Everyday, more than 20000 tons of plastic are dumped in our oceans worldwide. In a period of one year, it is 8 million tons of plastic. The amount is too big to imagine, here are some equivalents:
8 million tons of plastic corresponding,
- 4 million cars
- 400 million flatscreen TV's
- or 40 billion IPhone 6
We are living in a world made of plastic and can't live without it nowadays. Plastic is everywhere and we are producing nearly 300 million tons of plastic. It is cheap and has an incredible variability which makes it ideal for many products. The diversity of plastic is imaginable and it's beeing for mostly all applications in the western world, at least the product is wrapped in plastic.
Estimates are, that nearly 50% of plastic is only used once and then thrown away. Packaging is the largest end use of plastic, accounting just over 40% of the total plastic production, worldwide.
Some facts about the plastic bag:
- Approximately 500 billion plastic bags every year are used worldwide
- The Averaged period of time the plastic bag is used, are just 15 minutes
- Over the last ten years, humans have produced more plastic bags, than during the whole of the last century
Some facts about the plastic bottle:
- According to the Container Recycling Institute in the US, 100 billion plastic bottles were sold in 2016. That estimates at least 300 bottles per person, just in the United States.
- The process to produce the plastic bottle requires 6 times more water per bottle, as there is in the container itself.
- 15% of the worldwide trash comes from beverage containers
Plastic is a material consisting of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic compounds. Most of the Plastic we produce can't become recycled in useful materials. Most of it is just set on fire and simply blown in the air (remember, fire --> Carbon dioxide => greenhouse gas [climate warming], just a small side effect).
Back to the plastic in the oceans, how does the plastic find it's way into the world oceans? Have a look at this graphic:
(Source: images.medicaldaily.com)
And how does it affect our oceans and the animals living in it?
The most obvious sign is the trash all over our wonderful beaches and lagoons. The plastic is washed ashore and stays there, until animals eating it or someone is picking it up, bringing it back in the circulating system. Besides the beaches, we see plastic swimming on the surface of the oceans, making it look awful and dirty.
But here comes, what really matters, the animals living in the oceans. They become entangled in the broken nets or plastic bags and are dieing a cruel, slow death. Many of them even confound plastic for food and eat it. Here are some stomaches of examined dead animals:
The percentage of ingesting or entangled species in the oceans is overwhelming
Even if we would be able to clean all surfaces of the biggest oceans in the world, it would simply be not enough. Because just a small percentage is floating, old plastic is sinking on to the ground of the oceans and lies there forever. Yet, no technology is developed which is able to clean the bottom of oceans. Even though, there are projects to clean the upper surface of the oceans, which is impressing, considering the gigantic scale of the oceans, it takes manny generations to do it.
Anyway, if you are interested in getting to know the project a little better, here is there website: https://www.theoceancleanup.com
How can you help to prevent plastic getting into the oceans? Here are 7 easy things you can do to reduce plastic pollution
Stop using plastic straws. In the US and UK, 550 Million are thrown away every day
Skip the plastic bottle... drink beverages from reusable bottles or mugs. Worldwide, over 500 Million plastic bottles used every year
Take your groceries home in reusable bags, not plastic. Worldwide, up to 1 Trillion plastic bags discarded every year
Use cloth diapers instead of disposables. In the US, Over 27.4 Billion disposables thrown away every year
Ditch the disposable razor. In the US, over 2 billion thrown away every year
Give up gum. It's made of synthetic rubber, which is a plastic. Worldwide, over 100,000 Tons discarded every year
Get the plastic off your face. Over 300,000 plastic beads in a tube of facewash
This is happening every day and became a common operation for rescuers of the oceans:
START RAISING AWARENESS OF THE WORLDWIDE PROBLEM, ANIMALS ARE SUFFERING AND DYING EVERYDAY DUE TO OUR TRASH!
Thank you for reading this post. Please resteem, to spread the word about plastic in our oceans. Feel free to upvote, if you think this content is valuable.
Good article! We have been reducing plastic more and more through the years. I do still get plastic grocery bags at the store on occasion because of their other uses. I do not buy garbage bags, I just have smaller trash cans and use the grocery bags for my trash bags. That means taking the trash out a bit more often, but hey, that just means more exercise! I used to crochet a bunch of the plastic grocery bags into heavy duty reusable totes and have donated them to auctions as well as have a couple for my own personal use. Most of the time though, I get paper bags at the store because I have many uses for those too in the garden and around the home.
I used cloth diapers with my kids and make my own cloth feminine products - another good thing to add to the list.
A couple other things on that list are new to me and a bit shocking. Good thing I do not buy commercial gum (I actually chew frankincense and myrrh resins instead) and make my own all natural skin products. Now I have even more reason to continue doing so!
Fabulous! I really like your enthusiasm saving plastic in your everyday life, amazing that you even made your own diapers. Most importantly you are aware of the problem and use plastic consciously. Keep up ur endeavors, I'm glad there are more and more of us out there :) @raincountry
I was literally just about to write a post about this! It drives me crazy! Im always cleaning up rubbish from the beach when walking my dog in the mornings. People are so inconsiderate.
Yeah agreed, most of them just don't give a fuck about the environment. Keep raising awareness is everything one can do about it (besides the 7 methods in saving plastic articles haha)
Plastic is a real problem, Fukushima is worse IMO. No coverage with these melted down reactors dumping all their waste every minute of every day since 2011 into our oceans....... Most don't even know it's going on...... they will.
ur right, Fukushima is the bigger problem if it keeps dumping the molten down reactors into the ocean...seems like they try to hide the catastrophe, there is no reporting about fokushima nowadays in the media.
Maybe u should write a post about it and raise awareness? ;) @stillwater
Anyways will follow you,
Greetings @ddot
Plastic waste is a common problem that causes damage on Ocean and make all the animal in a serious problem and gives bad effect to ecosystem. This problem should be solved by increasing human awareness on the effect of Plastic waste.
Correct, this is the reason I was writing this Post :)
This post received a 4.3% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @ddot! For more information, click here!
I am your follower, and i saw your posts. you are doing good:) @ronaldmcatee
Thanks, followed you back :)
you are awesome bro :)
i like you .
Thanks so much for the great post, I upvoted and started following you. Keep sharing truth! Content to wake people up so we can make this world a more beautiful place for all earthlings <3
Lovely words @veganbeast, thank you I will keep up reporting about these kind of problems, and keep raising awareness :)
I'm already following you 😉
thanks for writing about such an important topic.
Id like to nominate it in a curation group so maybe more people will read and think about it.
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Good to see someone like you here @ddot keep spreading the word to save our ocean and mother Earth. :-)