Plastic Pollution and Marine Ecosystems

erikabassovisionfa
Jun 16
3 min read

Updated: Jun 20

Author: Erika Basso

Marine plastic pollution is one of the great themes of our time. The amount of plastic that ends up in the sea and plastic in the oceans has reached alarming proportions. Marine pollution knows no boundaries and borders, and affects all areas of the world’s seas.

- 450mln tons of plastic is produced every year;

- 8mln tons of plastic waste end up in the oceans every year;

- 700 species have been affected by plastic pollution phenomena.

Pollution by plastics

Plastic pollution is one of the most worrying types of pollution in our time. But let’s go with order, what is plastic? Plastic is a long-lasting synthetic product made from polymers. Among the products of human activity, it is one of those that degrades less quickly. It takes hundreds of years to fully degrade.

Plastic is part of our daily lives and is contained in many of the products and packaging we use every day. It is estimated that 8300 million tonnes have been produced in the last 65 years.

How does plastic end up in the sea?

If not properly recycled or incinerated the plastic accumulates as waste on land and in water and ends up later in the marine environment (sea pollution). Marine litter causes marine pollution, also known as marine water pollution.

It is estimated that 4 to 12 million tons of plastic end up in the world’s seas every year, causing 80% of marine pollution. This is due to plastic pollution.

4/5 of the plastic waste in the sea comes from the wind or is carried away by urban discharges and rivers. The rest is produced directly by the vessels that sail the seas, whether they are fishing vessels, dedicated to transport or tourism.

The ocean has a great self-purifying power both for its composition of sea water and for its mass, which often allows an effective dilution and oxygenation. This does not mean that there is no ocean pollution. However, in closed seas and along coasts the spread of pollutants can cause damage to both the marine ecosystem and human health, so that bathing is prohibited in some areas.

The plastic in its biodegradation process passes through different states and sizes. Mistaken for fish or plankton, it is ingested by living beings and endangers their health. Plastic polymers have been found in all the world’s polluted seas, from Arctic ice to closed seas.

How does marine plastic pollution work?

What are the causes and consequences of marine pollution? Bottles, packaging, fishing nets, bags, handkerchiefs, butts and any other plastic object once in the water breaks into smaller fragments due to erosion of the water and currents.

According to the most recent studies, there are 115 marine species at risk, ranging from mammals to amphibians and birds. The causes of death are suffocation and ingestion, but also entrapment and injuries.

Possible solutions and concrete proposals:

Plastic pollution has become one of the most urgent environmental problems to deal with, both because of its severity and because we have ignored it for too long. In recent decades, the production and consumption of plastic objects has seen an exponential growth and has led to pollution phenomena on land and at sea, especially in many countries in Asia and Africa, where waste collection systems are often inefficient or non-existent.

The solutions and remedies to reduce the problem of marine plastic pollution must include a reduction in the production and consumption of plastics.

The consumer himself must not underestimate the relationship between plastic and the environment, and between plastic and pollution. Should opt for products with less packaging, for cloth bags, rechargeable batteries etc...

The watchword is re-use and recover: choose the void to make, glass instead of plastic, invent new uses for an object that has lost its function.

Adopting separate collection and doing so carefully helps to ensure proper recycling of plastic.