According to the latest study, more than five trillion pieces of plastic are littering in the global seas. The findings were found by an international team of scientists who made the calculation after gathering data from 24 expeditions between 2007 and 2013.
The total weight of the five trillion plastic pieces that are floating in the seas is estimated to be almost 269,000 tons or weighing as much as two large cruise liners. The Daily Mail reported a computer simulation of floating debris dispersal was used to indicate the oceans contain at least 5.25 trillion plastic pieces.
The researchers have said the plastic has spread all over the world's oceans with as much in the southern hemisphere as the northern. They also added the findings were surprising as more of it originates in the north. The plastic ranged from tiny particles less than a millimeter wide to macro fragments more than eight inches across.
In a PLOS One Journal article, the volume of plastic which is over five trillion pieces, largely derived from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing. According to The Guardian, it was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period.
"There are chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water, it acts like a magnet for oily pollutants," University of Western Australia researcher Julia Reisser said.
The study did not only yield the estimate of over five trillion plastic pieces in the global ocean but it also underscored how plastic changes within the ocean and circulates around the globe.
"What we are witnessing in the global ocean is a growing threat of toxin-laden microplastics cycling through the entire marine ecosystem," Five Gyres Institute lead study author Marcus Eriksen said.
In response to the new study that found over five trillion of plastic afloat the oceans, the American Chemistry Council released a statement emphasizing the significance of recycling plastics. According to The Washington Post, the council that represents US plastic makers pointed in pledging to work to reduce marine waste.
"America's plastics makers wholeheartedly agree that littered plastics of any kind do not belong in the marine environment," the statement said. "Even after plastics have fulfilled their initial purpose, these materials should be treated as valuable resources and recycled whenever possible or recovered for their energy value when they cannot."
Plastic gets into the oceans because of improper disposal and for most once plastics are thrown away, that's where the connection ends. But what happens next?
The five trillion pieces of plastic that afloat the global seas are evidences of increasing threats for plastic pollution. And the ecological consequences are serious. It is a greater threat than climate change where it chokes the future in ways majority of the world's population are barely aware.
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