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Almost everything we dump eventually goes into the sea…
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Each foot of coastline contains five bags of plastic, say scientists
For the first time the scale of the problem has been quantified
Each foot of coastline contains five bags of plastic, say scientists http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11410220/Each-foot-of-coastline-contains-five-bags-of-plastic-say-scientists.html …
The tiny pellets of plastic form as plastic bottles, bags and other debris break down Photo: Alamy
7:24AM GMT 13 Feb 2015
More plastic is now dumped in oceans and seas annually than was produced globally each year in the 1960s, new figures show.
Each foot of coastline in countries including Britain now contains on average the equivalent of five shopping bags full of plastic.
Discarded bottles, food wrappers, toys and gadgets and increasingly ending up on shorelines, estuaries or uncontrolled landfill, from where they way to the oceans, scientists have warned.
For the first time the University of Georgia has quantified the scale of the problem.
Experts found that in 2010 around eight million metric tons of plastic entered seas and oceans as a direct result of people living within 30 miles of coastlines.
“We’re being overwhelmed by our waste,” said Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor and study leader.
“Eight million metric tons is the equivalent to finding five grocery bags full of plastic on every foot of coastline in the 192 countries we examined.
Plastic is such a problem in the oceans because it takes so long to biodegrade. It has been estimated that a plastic shopping bag can take five to 10 years, or even longer, to disappear.
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