Essay on Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

Plastic has become a daily consumption nowadays. Due to the plastic chemical composition, all plastics take from 450-1000 years to biodegrade, many cannot be recycled at all, and none can be recycled more than a few times. Plastic items end up in the ocean eventually and continue to fill the world’s oceans at an astonishing rate, inflicting major environmental damage. Now, the ocean is sick because of the plastic waste. The accountability of plastic pollution is shared by every country that produce and use plastics.  

http://oceancrusaders.org/plastic-crusades/plastic-statistics/

As graph 1shows the biggest polluting countries in the world is China. The top 5 represent approximately 60% of all ocean plastics, also the top 5 countries are located near the Pacific Ocean. However, the marine plastic debris is a problem that every human on the Earth share. It not only affects multiple industries, our global economy but also it could affect our health eventually. According to the graph, there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. This very high statistics is alarming which means the plastic pollution has seriously damaged the environment of marine lives. 

The Eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is home to some of the world’s marine reserves. However, from graph 1 indicates that countires in Asia are basically the major causes that produce and overuse plastics. As graph 2 shows mircroplastics pollution in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is set to continue to increase in the coming decades. The amount of microplastics in the region is expected by 2030 to increse some 3.9 times compares to 2008 levels. “One of the crucial findings is that the change in the mircroplastic abundance over time increses systematically and identically at all the samplng sites. This implies that the source of microplastics pollution is likely not local, but regional and maybe even global in scale”(Swarzenski, 2020.)

Already, the damage had been made and were irreversible. Recycling seems to be the current solution to the overuse of plastics. “But the final destination of a considerable amount of recyclable material is still being assessed. Plastic do not disappear and will remain in our environments indefinitely affecting wildlife, until the pollution is reduced.” (Sigler, 2014.) At least, the simplest way to reduce the usage of plastics is to avoid using plastic items. By saving marine lives first, then will save our lives at the end.

References

Web End=https://www.worldfinance.com/markets/counting-the-cost-of-plastic-pollution

Web End=http://oceancrusaders.org/plastic-crusades/plastic-statistics/

Web End=https://seaturtles.org/our-work/our-programs/end-plastic-addiction/

Web End= https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/world-oceans-day-2020-new-iaea-research-records

Sigler, M. (2014). The effects of plastic pollution on aquatic wildlife: Current situations and future solutions. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 225(11), 1-9.