While the billions of tons of plastic products produced in the “Plastic Age” of the last half-century have drastically changed the way we live for the better, the plastic waste that has made it into the environment is posing new challenges for nature.
While the billions of tons of plastic products produced in the “Plastic Age” of the last half-century have drastically changed the way we live for the better, the plastic waste that has made it into the environment is posing new challenges for nature.
Seeking to simulate the fate of plastics that have made it into our oceans, a new study led by Kyushu University estimates that 25.3 million metric tons of plastic waste has entered our oceans and nearly two-thirds of that cannot be monitored.
Even more alarmingly, the analysis suggests that this may only be the tip of the plastic-waste iceberg, with another 540 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste—nearly 10% of all plastic produced so far—still trapped on land.
While scientists have been surveying the oceans’ surfaces and beaches to determine how much plastic waste has made it into the oceans, copious amounts of ocean plastics are thought to be well below the surface or on the seafloor, hidden from the reach of scientific observation using common sampling gear.
Read more at: Kyushu University
Plastics on the beach. (Photo Credit: Kyushu University)
