The Ocean Plastic Crisis
Here a few things everyone should know about the Ocean Plastic Crisis:
1- Single use plastics are the most prevalent debris found in the ocean. The top items found are: cigarette butts, plastic bottle caps, plastic bags, food wrappers, styrofoam and plastic straws. 🥤
2- More than 80% of marine debris comes from land-based resources. Rivers and streams serve as “highways” that transport land-based pollution into the ocean. So no matter how far away someone lives from the ocean, they can take steps to stop plastic from entering the ocean. 💙
3- Most of the plastic we produce is used to manufacture single-use plastic products. 40% of all the plastic produced globally is used for single-use packaging. Plastic is made from petroleum - a precious, non-renewable resource that is being used to create products that are used for just seconds or minutes 🙁
4- Plastic does not break down or go away- it breaks down into smaller pieces, but remains in the environment forever. 🐟
5- Plastic poses 3 significant threats to marine life- ingestion, entanglement and entrapment. 👎
6- Only 9% of plastic is recycled in the US and reducing is not the end all solution to our plastic waste problems: Refusing plastic, reducing our everyday consumption of single use plastics and becoming less dependent on this material, will have the biggest impact. 👏🌎
2- More than 80% of marine debris comes from land-based resources. Rivers and streams serve as “highways” that transport land-based pollution into the ocean. So no matter how far away someone lives from the ocean, they can take steps to stop plastic from entering the ocean. 💙
3- Most of the plastic we produce is used to manufacture single-use plastic products. 40% of all the plastic produced globally is used for single-use packaging. Plastic is made from petroleum - a precious, non-renewable resource that is being used to create products that are used for just seconds or minutes 🙁
4- Plastic does not break down or go away- it breaks down into smaller pieces, but remains in the environment forever. 🐟
5- Plastic poses 3 significant threats to marine life- ingestion, entanglement and entrapment. 👎
6- Only 9% of plastic is recycled in the US and reducing is not the end all solution to our plastic waste problems: Refusing plastic, reducing our everyday consumption of single use plastics and becoming less dependent on this material, will have the biggest impact. 👏🌎
* Info derived from 4ocean