Recently I watched the documentary A Plastic Ocean that showcased the effects of plastic towards marine life. It's mind boggling to discover the statistics of what really goes on with the plastic we use on a daily basis and amount of ignorance (I regretably admit that I have as well) that we as humans hold. I've tried to track my plastic usage and it's crazy. Just one month in, for January this year, I've accumulated a drawer-full of plastic bags from just simple take-aways (tapao) for breakfast; and I'm just ONE person!! We've pretty much heard and read about all this pollution in school and throughout the news, but when you make it personal, you'd realize that it really is a staggering amount of waste that needs to be dealt with before it really becomes too late.
If it took you one minute to read the above paragraph, by the time you've read this sentence, studies have shown that one garbage truckload of plastic waste has been dumped into the ocean. That's a LOT of plastic. Multiply that over and over with the number of people and amount thrown, it's no surprise we are gearing towards an inevitable problem.
The video below, shows how ocean currents have come to form 'garbage islands' that are high concentrated areas of garbage debris found, and it's no surprise a lot of it consists of plastic products that have been thrown over the years.
A quote from the movie,
Every single plastic ever made.. to put that into perspective it has been estimated that there is an accumulated total of 9,000,000,000 TONNES (roughly 1.2 billion elephants) of plastic that has ever been made. And only 9% of that has ever been recycled.
We may ask, but the ocean's so big! Why worry about it? Googling the ocean, it's estimated at 1,370,000,000,000,000,000 tonnes. What's 9 billion tonnes worth of plastic against that much of water?? Well, when plastic gets into the ocean, this happens...
Plastic breaks down into even smaller pieces that create: micro-plastics And these can be a cause for concern especially when, well, we need water to survive. Recent studies claim that 83% of drinkable tap water tested from countries among five continents have been contaminated with micro-plastics.
If that's not a cause for concern, it should be. These little buggers will latch on micro-organism that are harmful to living things. Plankton eat them, fish eat plankton, we eat fish, we get them into our body. I'm not a doctor nor a biologist, and there's probably a load of paperwork that can debunk or support these claims, but regardless, it doesn't change the fact that it's definitely a matter that needs to be addressed. Like it or not, we're destroying this amazing planet with our ignorant consumption and irresponsible disposal of waste.
It will affect us, and we won't even realize it.
There are attempts and efforts to reduce and clean up the ocean, such as 4Ocean and The Ocean Cleanup and as uplifting as it is, there are entire countries that will continue to dump and dump and dump.
The point being for this post, is merely a chord of awareness raised, that each of us as we share this planet, we are held accountable to what has been given and entrusted to us. Small personal responsible steps can make a difference when it amounts to more. A total shift in mentality and culture needs to happen, and it starts with each of us. For starters, do take time to be aware, how much plastic do we actually use?
What can we do today that will change tomorrow?
VL
