The Ocean and Plastic Pollution

Points for discussion

Causes, impacts and solutions. This is a three-column table in the original, and it came out of the file as one run of text — print it from the original if you are handing it out. Cause: plastic thrown in the bin when it could have been reused or recycled · Impact: severe digestive problems, untreated, in animals that swallow it · Solution: ban single-use plastics, promote biodegradable and recyclable alternatives, make recycling work. Cause: plastic in the bin goes to landfill and blows away, because it weighs almost nothing · Impact: birds are fooled by the bright colours and get tangled in debris; research has found plastic in or around the bodies of 44 per cent of seabird species, and in cetaceans and sea turtles · Solution: carry a reusable cup or flask — around 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away every year in the United Kingdom, which is seven million a day. Cause: littering, with rain and wind carrying plastic into drains, streams and rivers and finally the sea · Impact: studies have found that half the sea turtles in the world have swallowed plastic · Solution: avoid plastic straws, which can take up to 200 years to break down. Cause: illegal dumping of waste · Impact: other animals in the food chain are more likely to eat plastic · Solution: avoid cling film and use reusable food wraps instead. Cause: things put down the drain, such as wet wipes and cotton buds · Impact: studies have found that toxins in plastics cause health problems, including damage to the immune system · Solution: carry a reusable water bottle, and ask shops to let people fill their own. Cause: microplastics and microfibres released into the water when clothes are washed in a machine · Impact: plastic pollutes water as it breaks down, and breaking down uses up oxygen, which makes survival harder for marine animals · Solution: use reusable containers and mugs. Plastic also carries species to places they could never otherwise reach, which threatens whole marine ecosystems. The consumption figures in this table are British.

A true-or-false round from WWF; the answers are below it. 1. Oceans cover about 70 per cent of the planet's surface. 2. Only 30 per cent of the ocean is protected. 3. About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. 4. Fishing line can take 300 years to break down in the sea. 5. By 2050 the oceans could hold more plastic than fish. 6. About 75 per cent of plastic waste is properly recycled. 7. Over 80 per cent of the pollution in the sea comes from activities on land. 8. Microplastics are found in over 75 per cent of sea molluscs. ANSWERS. 1. True — oceans cover 71 per cent of the surface. 2. False — only 4 per cent of the ocean has any form of protection. Ask the class what they make of that. 3. True — phytoplankton, the tiny plants of the sea, make about half the oxygen we breathe. 4. False — some sources put it at twice as long, 600 years. 5. True — we produce far more plastic than we did fifty years ago, and production is expected to double again in the next twenty. 6. False — just 9 per cent of all plastic is recycled; about 40 per cent goes to landfill and a third ends up in ecosystems. 7. True — most waste reaches the sea in the end. 8. True — research found microplastics in up to 80 per cent of mussels taken from British waters. These are WWF's global figures, except the last, which is British.