The Plastic Tide is growing by 8 million metric tonnes a year. If nothing is done, it is estimated that this figure will rise to 80 million metric tonnes a year by 2025.
Sadly this is a tide that does not recede. It consists of all sizes of plastics, with larger pieces taking at least 400 years to break down, into fragments known as microplastics. These and other tiny pieces of plastic, like microbeads, accumulate, forming an oceanic soup that recent estimates put at 15 to 50 trillion pieces.
Increasing numbers of marine animals die each year through starvation due to eating plastic that stays in their stomach making them feel full. This also affects sea birds; a recent study estimates that 90% of seabirds carry around 10% of their body weight in plastics. In the next 30 years this figure is expected to reach 99%.
To put this another way….out of 100 sea birds flying in 30 years from now 99 of them will have stomachs full of plastic.
We can all do more to reduce our dependency on plastic, the biggest of these is through our choice of products, and through proper recycling Voting with our money is one of the best way to minimise our contribution to the problem.
For more information about the plastic problem, please read more about our Plastic Relief Campaign
and have a look at the following two videos:
Plastic Pollution – Kurzgesagt
What really happens when you throw plastic away? –
