The Ocean and plastics
Knowledge is the key in fighting plastic.
Plastics origins
Plastics made from fossil fuels are just over a century old. Production and development of thousands of new plastic products accelerated after World War II, so transforming the modern age that life without plastics would be unrecognisable today.
Fact 1
Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years.
Plastic usage
The conveniences plastics offer, however, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s bad side: today, single-use plastics account for over 40 percent of the plastic produced every year.
Fact 2
There is now a monstrous 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in our ocean & 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean.
Plastic technology
Plastics revolutionised medicine with life-saving devices, it even made space travel possible, lightened jets and cars—saving fuel and pollution—and saved lives with incubators, helmets, and equipment for clean drinking water.
Fact 3
Worldwide, 73 percent of beach litter is plastic: filters from cigarette butts, bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, grocery bags, and polystyrene containers.
Plastic timescale
Many of these products, such as plastic bags, bottles and food wrappers, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for up to 450 years.
Fact 4
World plastic production has increased exponentially from 2.1 million tonnes in 1950 to 147 million in 1993 to 406 million by 2015.
Plastic movements
Rubbish is also carried to sea by major rivers, which act as conveyor belts, picking up more and more trash as they move downstream.
Fact 5
On UK beaches there are 5000 pieces of plastic & 150 plastic bottles for each mile.