Ocean Maid 

SPECIFICALLY:

1. 15 million tons of plastic pollutes the ocean every year.

2. Plastic packaging waste is blown into rivers or the sea from landfills, it floats in through storm drains, or is dumped or burned close to the shore in countries with poor or non-existent waste management systems.

3. In addition to needing to dispose of their own waste, some of these countries must also contend with imported plastic packaging waste shipped from countries like the UK, the U.S., and Canada.

4. Of the polyethylene plastic waste exported from the European Union, for example, scientists estimate that 1% to 7% ends up in the oceans.

5. Peer-reviewed scientific studies have estimated that 15 million tons of plastic washes into the ocean every year. This is roughly equivalent to dumping two garbage trucks full of plastic into the oceans every minute.

6. Plastic is everywhere in our oceans: floating on the surface, scattered across beaches and coastlines, and most of it is hidden on the seafloor where it accumulates in underwater structures like seamounts, canyons, and escarpments.

7. Plastic debris has been found washing up on the world’s most remote coastlines, melting out of Arctic sea ice, and sitting at the deepest point of the ocean floor.

8. A recent review found that more than 900 ocean species have ingested or become entangled in plastic, from zooplankton at the bottom of the ocean food web, to seabirds at the top of it.

9. Scientists found that more than half of all sea turtle species studied — 52% — have ingested plastic. Sea turtles and other animals can mistake plastic bags, like the ones used by Amazon, for jellyfish or algae — their typical food.

10. In a new study, Oceana found evidence of nearly 1,800 animals from 40 different species swallowing or becoming entangled in plastic since 2009 in the U.S. Of those, a staggering 88% were species listed as endangered or threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.

11. Plastic essentially never biodegrades. Instead, once it reaches the ocean, it breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces, ultimately becoming microplastics that attract and harbor harmful chemical pollutants. When eaten by fish and shellfish, some of the contaminants attached to microplastics work their way into our food supply.

12. Everything from salt to honey to beer has been found to contain microplastics. Scientists are still studying how humans might be affected by the plastics that are making their way into our food, water, and air.

13. Recycling is a false solution to the plastics crisis. According to a recent study, as of 2015 approximately 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic had been produced since it first emerged in the 1950s, and 6.3 billion metric tons has become waste. Of this, a mere 9% was recycled. Twelve percent was incinerated and 79% accumulated in landfills, on the ground, or in the ocean. Additionally, much of the plastic packaging waste that has been thrown into recycling bins has not been recycled.

14. Recycling often means that plastic is downcycled into lower-value products. Plastic waste exports are an additional problem. In 2018, 157,000 shipping containers of U.S. plastic waste were exported to countries with poor waste management, meaning that plastic ends up in dumps, landfills, is burned (sometimes in the open air), or enters and pollutes the oceans and other waterways on the other side of the globe.

15. Plastic production has far outpaced waste management’s ability to keep up, and that trend is likely to get worse. Reports have projected that plastic production will quadruple by 2050.

In brief, extraordinary efforts to transform the global plastics economy are needed.

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