Over five trillion pieces of plastic float in the oceans
The plastic weighs an estimated 270,000 tons
There are an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating in
the world's oceans, weighing nearly 270,000 tons, according to a new
study.
Plastic has "spread throughout all the world's oceans" with as much
in the southern hemisphere as the northern, the researchers said, adding
that this was surprising as more of it originates in the north.
In an article, they said the figures were "highly conservative" and
did not take into account "the potentially massive amount" that is no
longer afloat. Julia Reisser, a researcher with the University of
Western Australia, said: "We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish
that ingested fishing lines.
"But there is also chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water
it acts like a magnet for oily pollutants.
"Bigger fish eat the little fish and then they end up on our plates.
It's hard to tell how much pollution is being ingested but certainly
plastics are providing some of it."The article cited trade body Plastics
Europe as saying 288 million tons of plastic were produced worldwide in
2012.
"Our estimate of the global weight of plastic pollution on the sea
surface, from all size classes combined, is only 0.1 per cent of the
world annual production," it said.
"However, we stress that our estimates are highly conservative, and
may be considered minimum estimates.
"Our estimates of macroplastic are based on a limited inventory of
ocean observations ... they also do not account for the potentially
massive amount of plastic present on shorelines, on the seabed,
suspended in the water column, and within organisms."
- The Independent
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