Ocean Plastics The Perils of Plastic

Marine debris is a common pollution problem in oceans and waterways around the world. Plastic debris constitutes one of the most serious threats to ocean health.

Up to 90 percent of trash floating in the ocean and littering our shores is plastic. Plastics can harm wildlife, damage coastal habitats, impact local economies, and even threaten human health.

How Does Plastic Get into the Ocean?

Even if you don’t live near the coast, your plastic waste can still find its way to the ocean. A plastic water bottle blown into the street can travel down a stormwater sewer, into rivers and streams, and out into the ocean. Since plastic never completely biodegrades, almost every piece of plastic ever produced is still in the environment in some form.

Types of Plastic

Consumer products. Plastic debris comes in many different types and sizes that we buy and use ourselves, including disposable water bottles, plastic grocery bags, fishing net, fishing line, plastic cups and lids, packaging, water balloons, and straws. In the marine environment, these types of debris can harm wildlife when animals mistake plastic for food, or accidentally entangle themselves in plastic littering our shorelines or floating in the ocean.
Microplastics. Plastic does not biodegrade. Instead, once discarded into the environment, it breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces the longer it is exposed to the sun; a process called photodegradation. Any plastic particle less than 5 mm in diameter is categorized as a microplastic. Although small, these plastic pieces can have huge effects on ocean health.
Effects of Plastic

Plastic poses a serious threat to our oceans and waterways. Birds, turtles, fish, and other marine life ingest the plastic pieces, mistaking them for fish eggs, plankton, jellyfish, or other food sources. Every year, hundreds of thousands of sea creatures, both large and small, die from complications relating to plastic debris—they may have a stomach full of plastic that they cannot digest, or they may become fatally entangled in debris.

Harmful chemical pollutants can also attach to plastics and add to the toxicity of plastic debris consumed by animals. Risks to human health from microplastics in seafood are currently being assessed.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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