The recent findings from a six year international plastic pollution research study revealed that the minimum number of plastic particles currently floating on the oceans is 5.25 trillion. Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea explains all that plastic pollution adds up to 269,000 tons.
CityLab defined that amount equivalent to the weight of 2,150 adult blue whales, and the folks at grist put together a visualization to give a better perspective on what that amounts to.
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One adult blue whale weighs between 100 and 150 tons. Here’s what 2,150 look like:
Grist / Shutterstock
If you thought that was disturbing research, Newsweek reported a recent investigation where it’s estimated that there is even more than that amount of plastic on the ocean floor. In samples from a very deep part of the southwest Indian Ocean floor there are 4 billion plastic fibers within one square kilometer, an area less than a third of the size of New York’s Central Park. And it’s likely that many other ocean locations are equally polluted as the team found similar amounts of plastic in sediments from sites in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
There is no doubt that the plastic pollution problem worldwide needs to be addressed by everyone. You can make a difference with little effort by cutting down on your plastic consumption along with reusing and recycling all the plastic you do use to prevent it from being thrown away. Using a reusable Glasstic shatterproof glass water bottle is a good place to start. Use coupon code ‘DEC14’ and save 10% off any glass water bottle purchase through December 31, 2014.
