Plastic & Our Oceans

We’ve all heard of the damaging impact of plastic in our oceans. How much do you actually know?

• A significant majority of all the plastic ever created, ends up in our oceans and it is accumulating at an alarming rate.
• The largest concentration of ocean plastic waste, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located between California and Hawaii, is estimated to measure three times the size of France.
• By 2050, the World Economic Forum predicts there will be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish.
• An estimated 129 billion disposable face masks and 65 billion gloves are used worldwide each month, according to a study from the research journal Environmental Science & Technology.
• The most evident and disturbing influence that marine plastics can have are the ingestion, suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of marine species.
• Marine wildlife such as seabirds, whales, fishes and turtles mistake plastic waste for prey, and most die of starvation as their stomachs are filled with plastic debris.
• Invisible plastic has been identified in tap water, beer, salt and are present in all samples collected in the world’s oceans, including the Arctic.
• Several chemicals used to produce plastics are known to be carcinogenic and interfere with the body’s endocrine system, causing developmental, reproductive and neurological disorders.