Facts


  • Researchers have found Microplastics in every species of sea turtles, nearly 60% of whale species, and almost 60% of sea bird species.
  • Animals eats the plastics. Plastic looks like foods.
  • Plastic is killing more than 100,000 sea turtles and sea birds a year.
  • Plastics go around the coral and it gets sick or injured.
  • Micro-plastic is smaller than 5 mm so small animals can swallow them easily.
  • Plastic bags looks like a yummy jellyfish to the sea turtles.
  • If people through plastic to the storm drain, it will go all the way to the ocean.
  • ​If you weigh all the plastic in the ocean, it would weigh 38,000 African elephants.
  • All the plastic weighs all the fish in 2050.
  • 51 trillion pieces of plastic is floating in the ocean.
  • A river in China flushes 1.5 million plastics per year.
  • Years to break down:
    ​Fishing Line: 600 years
    Plastic bottle: 450 years
    Aluminium can: 200 years
    Plastic bags:  20 years
  • There were 5 trillion plastics in 2019.
  • Every minute, one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean.
  • 91% of plastic is not recycled.
  •   Rivers that flashes plastics into the sea:
Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) 1,469,481 tons
Indus 164,332 tons
Huang He (Yellow River) 124,249 tons
Hai He 91,858 tons
Nile 84,792 tons
Meghna, Brahmaputra, Ganges 72,845 tons
  • ​​Plastics in the ocean break down into micro-plastic because of waves and sun.
  • Americans use 500 million plastic straws everyday.
  • Half of plastics come from Asia.
  • If people throw trash to the storm drain, it will go all the way to the ocean.
  • These river carry more than 90% of the plastic waste that ends up in our oceans.
  • Cigarette butts, plastic bags, fishing gear, and food and beverage containers are the most common plastic in the oceans.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch
  • The great pacific garbage patch is the biggest garbage patch in the world.
  • There are 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in great Pacific garbage patch. This is 10x more than all the stars in milky way galaxy. It weighs 80,000 tons=3 statues of liberty.
  • ​Great pacific garbage patch is also known as the Pacific trash vortex.
Picture
Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Sources