The Problem with Plastic Waste in the Ocean – The Harm It Does and How to Help
The vast majority of marine pollution, some 80%, comes from residential, commercial, and industrial waste on land. This is household garbage, litter on the streets, construction site debris, and trash from factories, ports, and marinas. Plastic packaging, food containers, and bags account for a significant portion of this waste polluting our oceans.
The problem for marine life
Since plastic is not biodegradable, it remains in marine environments, where it causes a host of problems.
Fish, marine mammals, and seabirds—some 700 species in total—often ingest or become entangled in pieces of plastic debris. And, if they survive their encounter with this type of pollution, it can still present a threat to their survival and that of their offspring. For instance, gulls and other birds that live on ocean shores are known to eat floating plastic garbage and feed it to their chicks, putting their lives in jeopardy.
Plastic pollution can be so destructive to marine species that it can contribute to them becoming endangered. This is true of Pacific loggerhead sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals, for example. In fact, some 17% of the marine life that is hurt by plastic trash in the ocean also appears on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.
Other animals, from gigantic blue whales to the smallest shore birds, die when their bodies are caught in plastic items and they can’t move properly, or they eat large quantities of plastic that causes internal injuries. Contact with this kind of garbage in their environment may result in species sustaining life-threatening lacerations and infections.
Furthermore, invasive species can move quickly to different parts of the seas by hopping aboard floating plastic detritus carried by ocean currents. This puts marine ecosystems at risk, impacting local biodiversity and available food sources.
The risk for humanity
There is a growing understanding of how damaging this sort of pollution is for people. Plastic is persistent. While some types of plastic may take only a few decades to degrade under optimal conditions, others can last hundreds of years. Even so, plastics don’t entirely disappear, as they break down into very minute particles called microplastics or nanoplastics. These tiny pieces range in size from the width of a pencil eraser to less than the width of a human hair. Microplastics find their way into our food chain and many products that humans use every day.
When fish ingest microplastics, they remain in their tissues. This means that some seafood consumed by humans may contain microplastics. Additionally, these minute pieces of pollution have shown up in everything from beer to drinking water to salt, and even the soil where produce is grown. This can have a detrimental effect on people’s health.
Since many plastics are considered carcinogenic (having the potential to cause cancer) and can affect the body in other ways, the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans is a serious cause for concern. That amount is impossibly high—over 170 trillion particles, according to a 2023 study.
Scientists are still exploring exactly how exposure to plastics affects human health. However, microplastics are thought to disrupt the immune response, affect neurological development, and harm the endocrine and reproductive systems. It should be noted that people aren’t only exposed to microplastics by eating seafood, though this is a significant source of exposure. We can also inhale microplastics in the air, especially in high-traffic areas, and they can enter the body via skin contact.
The tiny size of microplastics makes them particularly concerning. Some particles are so small they can cross the blood-brain barrier and accumulate in the brain, or penetrate the alveoli, the tiny sacs in our lungs that facilitate the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the lungs and the blood.
Another, more general risk that comes with our reliance on plastics is that of climate change. The manufacture of plastics uses fossil fuels and is responsible for around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
What can be done
Once plastics enter the marine ecosystem, they can be extremely difficult to remove. There are many efforts underway around the world to develop innovative technologies to retrieve plastic trash from the ocean. That said, scientists have not found a definitive way to deal with the large number of smaller plastics and microplastic particles in the water.
Preventing plastics from entering the oceans in the first place is essential to combat the problem. Individuals can help by using fewer single-use plastics like plastic bags, utensils, and water bottles, and by choosing food and other items with less plastic packaging.
Industries can look at where they can make changes in their manufacturing processes by focusing on things like redesigning packaging. For cities, implementing robust waste management practices where any plastics are recycled is important.
In closing
The enormity of the problem of marine plastic pollution cannot be overstated. The damage to marine species and potential health risks to humans are sobering. However, by taking measured steps in the right direction to reduce plastic waste, the tide can be turned in the right direction and the challenge addressed.