Plastic Pollution

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• Environment

  • Plastics are disastrous to marine life, and humans have to avoid disposal of the waste that enters drains, rivers and evidently the ocean.

  • Plastic is non-biodegradable so it continues to break down into smaller and smaller pieces.

  • Tens of thousands of landfills across the globe have plastics full of toxic chemicals which are seeping into groundwater and flowing into the ocean.

  • When plastic is dumped in landfills, it interacts with water and form hazardous chemicals.

  • Wind carries and deposits plastic from one place to another, increasing the litter.

  • Burning of the plastic in open air leads to environmental pollution due to the release of poisonous chemicals.

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• Wildlife

  • Entanglement, ingestion and habitat disruption all result from plastic ending in spaces where animals live.   

  • 1 in 3 species of marine animals have been found entangled in marine litter.

  • Over 90% of all seabirds have pieces of plastic inside their stomachs.

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• Major Pollutants

  • The vast majority of plastics that end up in the ocean are cups, bottles, bags and fragments of fishing gear.

  • Most plastic are derived from petroleum, some newer are produced from the fermentation of corn syrup.

  • Packaging is the largest market use accounting for over 40% of total plastic usage.

  • Plastic are like flame retardants, they leach toxins into the water and stick to petroleum-based objects.

  • The plastics contain toxin that displace nutritive algae that creatures at the top of the food chain require.

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• Quick Facts

  • All countries bordering a body of water have produced a total of 2.5 billion metric tons of solid waste.

  • With 275 million metric tons of the 2.5 billion being plastic

  • Every 11 years the amount of plastic in our ocean doubles.

  • There is an estimate of 51 trillion plastic particles floating around the oceans.

  • Americans alone discard 30 million tons of plastic a year, only 8% get recycled.

  • It costs millions of dollars each year to clean affected areas after exposure.

  • As land becomes more valuable, finding areas to throw out garage is becoming a problem.

  • More than 8 billion tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year