A major new study of the world’s oceans has reached a shocking conclusion:
Thanks to humans, there are more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing more than 250,000 tons, floating in water around the world. With a global population of about 7.2 billion, that’s nearly 700 pieces per person.
The study, published in the journal PLOS One by Marcus Eriksen of the Five Gyres Institute in Los Angeles and a large group of colleagues, is based on data from 24 ocean expeditions, conducted between 2007 and 2013, to sample plastic pollution.
Plastic was either observed from boats, or hauled up from the ocean by nets, in 1,571 locations. The data were used to run an ocean model to simulate the amount and distribution of plastic debris.
The result not only yielded the estimate of more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the global ocean, it also cast light on how plastic changes within the ocean — breaking down into smaller pieces — and circulates around the globe.
Pieces between 1 millimeter and 4.75 millimeters were by far the most prevalent. However, by weight, really large pieces of plastic, larger than 200 millimeters, were the most significant.
“What we are witnessing in the global ocean is a growing threat of toxin-laden microplastics cycling through the entire marine ecosystem,” said lead study author Eriksen of the Five Gyers Institute.
Even though far fewer people live in the Southern Hemisphere, the research found that its oceans have about the same amount of plastic, suggesting that winds and ocean currents transport trash all around the world.
The authors stress that they suspect their estimate is “highly conservative.” There is a “potentially massive amount of plastic present on shorelines, on the seabed, suspended in the water column, and within organisms.”
In particular, the authors cite a figure from the trade group Plastics Europe, which suggests that 288 million tons of plastic are produced annually. Compared to a figure like this, the 250,000 tons described in this study represent “0.1 percent of the world annual production.”
Plastic gets into the oceans because humans use it and throw it away, properly or otherwise.
For the vast majority of people, that’s where their relationship with plastic ends.
How does it end up in the oceans? Most simply, plastic bags might literally blow there. Some plastic gets dumped there. And then there’s runoff: Plastic on land can wind up in the water, or flow into the oceans from rivers emptying to them.
Once in the oceans, plastic breaks into smaller pieces and circulates. It travels into five major ocean gyres, which spiral in large circles, winding the trash inward.
Some of it accumulates in great Pacific Ocean “garbage patches,” which have particularly high plastic concentrations.
The ecological consequences of ocean plastic pollution are severe. Marine animals might not only get entangled in plastic but might ingest this long-lasting material, thinking it is food. That’s not only bad for fish, it could ultimately be bad for humans who consume fish that have consumed plastic.
“It is imperative that the use of plastics include a 100 percent recovery plan, or choose 100 percent environmental harmlessness in your choice of material,” Eriksen said. “The status quo is no longer acceptable.”
