Every day, huge masses of litter enter the sea. The main form of debris that enters the ocean are plastics. The amount of plastics entering the ocean every day is steadily increasing which is bringing about real problems. The biggest problem we are dealing with currently is that there is no extremely effective way to deal with this. According to the NASU (National Academy of Sciences in the United States of America) around 6.4 tonnes of of garbage litter the ocean every year. But that was concluded in 1997, here in 2018 it’s hard to tell but the numbers are marginally higher.
The best way, currently, to help prevent this problem is just to be mindful of what you do with your trash. Always make sure to recycle your plastics being that plastic is a substance that can not be completely removed from this earth. Remember that marine animals that inhabit our oceans can choke on your trash, so you shouldn’t throw it right into the middle of their habitat.
You may not think that this is a big deal because it “doesn’t directly impact us as humans” but it does impact us a lot more than you would initially think. These marine animals are swallowing the trash that you throw into the ocean, and then we as humans are eating these animals. In other words, we are eating our own trash. This reason shouldn’t be the only reason you’d want to prevent ocean debris, but it should definitely be in the back your mind next time you think about throwing your garbage in the ocean.
To learn more about ocean debris and how it is affecting our planet, you can visit:
https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-1/pollution/litter/
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Global Issues, Written by Carson Land 