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WHY?
A truck’s worth of plastic is dumped into our seas every single minute, and with each passing second, more and more precious marine life is placed in danger.
An estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic – everything from plastic bottles and bags to microbeads – end up in our oceans each year.
Up to 12 million tonnes of plastic is entering the oceans every year. This is affecting sea life - one in 3 turtles and 90% of seabirds are now estimated to have ingested plastic. Plastic is even ending up in the seafood on our plates.
Scientists have estimated that there are 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the world's oceans.
Turtles are confusing plastic bags for their usual food - jellyfish, this is resulting in very painfull deaths for the turtles as their bodies are unable to process the harsh plastics.
By the year 2050 it is estimated that all seabirds will have plastic within their stomach's.
Animals cannot digest plastic, and if enough of it accumulates in their stomachs, they can die. Plastic can also contain toxins like DDT and PCBs. Once ingested, these chemicals do not break down, but build up in an organism’s body fat. As these organisms are consumed by larger and larger organisms, the levels of toxins increase dramatically, until those at the top of the food chain, including humans, are eating fish and fowl with dangerously high levels of toxins.
In the ocean there are islands made up purely of accumulated rubbish, the biggest being The great pacific garbage patch which is twice the size of Texas. It weighs roughly 7 million tons and it is up to 9 feet deep at points.
In the Great Pacific Ocean Gyre there is 6 times more plastic than plankton, which the main food for many ocean animals.
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