Up to 13 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean each year, threatening marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them. Retrieved from: lastbeachcleanup.org/countrylaws A comprehensive list of global laws relating to plastic products. Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBTs) chemicals or substances pose a risk to the marine environment because they resist degradation, persisting for years or even decades. OCEAN PLASTICS POLLUTION A Global Tragedy for Our Oceans and Sea Life. The particular affinity to sorb will depend on the PBT and type of plastic: polyethylene sorbs PCBs more readily than polypropylene does (Endo et al., 2005). Even at low concentrations, PBTs can be insidious in the environment due to their ability to biomagnify up the food web, leading to toxic effects at higher trophic levels even though ambient concentrations are well below toxic thresholds. Plastics that act as pollutants are categorized into micro-, meso-, or macro debris, based on size. The extent to which we, too, are being affected by the plastics that have become so ubiquitous in our environment—in our food, water and air—is a … We're surrounded by plastic. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, and humans. At current rates plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050. It’s in the single-use packaging we discard, the consumer goods that fill our stores, and in our clothing, which sheds microplastic fibers in the wash. The presence of plastics has been documented throughout the water column, including on the seafloor of nearly every ocean and sea (Ballent at al., 2013, Maximenko et al., 2012). We’ve petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking the government to regulate plastics as a pollutant under the Clean Water Act and will keep pushing for plastic pollution to be treated as the hazardous waste that it is. It is currently unknown how long traditional plastics persist in the environment, but degradation rates may be as slow as just a few percent of carbon loss over a decade. Although nearly every type of commercial plastic is present in aquatic/marine debris, the floating components are dominated by polyethylene and polypropylene because of their high production volumes, their broad utility, and their buoyancy. Plastic pollution is the most widespread problem affecting the marine environment. (Andrey Nekrasov/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) The coronavirus has worsened the amount of plastic polluting the world's oceans. It is estimated that up to 12 million metric tons of plastic enter our ocean each year.. Our oceans are slowly turning into a plastic soup, and the effects on ocean life are chilling. Toxicological Threats of Plastic | Trash Free Waters | US EPA The Last Beach Cleanup. Sign our petition to protect marine wildlife from deadly plastic pollution. These oil giants are rapidly building petrochemical plants across the United States to turn fracked gas into plastic. Plastics on the seafloor may sorb PBTs from the sediments (Graham, Thompson, 2009; Rios et al., 2007), in addition to sorbing them from the seawater. Last updated: July 28, 2020. Between 60% to 80% of all marine litter is plastic. The Center has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating plastics as a pollutant and is working to stop plastic pollution at the source, before it ever has a chance to reach the ocean. Plastic pollution is widespread throughout the planet ranging from the summit of the highest peak in the world, Mt. Generally PBTs have very low water solubility or are hydrophobic. Get the latest on our work for biodiversity and learn how to help in our free weekly e-newsletter. Recent information on the use of tiny plastic abrasives (commonly called microbeads or nanobeads), especially in personal care products and home cleaning products, and synthetic fabrics shedding during laundering has shown the prevalence of micro- and nanoparticle size plastics as being pervasive in some water bodies. For this reason, when in the marine environment, they tend to partition to sediment or concentrate at the sea surface (Hardy et al., 1990; Hardy et al., 1992) and not dissolve into solution. (OSPAR, 2009) 12 million tonnes of plastic are poured into the ocean every year. Buoyancy is dependent on the density of the material and the presence of entrapped air (Andrady, 2011). Plastic and synthetic debris are having horrific impacts on marine wildlife and systems. Ocean-plastics-related photos for media/public use. (2020, March 6). Plastic accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches has become a global crisis. The longer plastic is in the water, the more weathered and fragmented it becomes (Teuten et al., 2007). Country Laws on Plastic Products. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a gyre of plastic debris in the north-central Pacific Ocean. Plastic is everywhere: In your home, your office, your school — and your ocean. • Coral Conservation. The subset of PBTs known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are especially persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (such as DDT, dioxins, and PCBs) (Engler, 2012). The fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40 percent over the next decade. Plastic pollution is one of the greatest threats to ocean health worldwide. Ocean Plastic Pollution Our precious whales, turtles and seabirds need your help. Concentration of PBTs such as PCBs and DDE (the breakdown product of DDT) on plastic particles have been shown to be orders of magnitude greater than concentrations of the same PBTs found in the surrounding water.
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