Plastic In The Ocean Facts Bbc

But half of the plastic we produce is designed to be used just once and then thrown away and even plastic that can be reused or recycled gets chucked out too.

Plastic in the ocean facts bbc. There is now 5 25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean 46 000 pieces in every square mile of ocean weighing up to 269 000 tonnes. As producer on the original planet earth for bbc and discovery mark oversaw its two underwater episodes shallow seas and freshwater. Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic makes. All the bbc s news on plastic pollution it is estimated debris takes about six years to reach the centre of the north pacific gyre from the coast of the us and about a year from japan.

Plastic rubbish doesn t biodegrade. Never miss a moment. Shocking ocean plastic statistics. Much of our unwanted plastic ends up in the ocean around 8 million tonnes of it every year in fact.

Article share tools facebook. In 2014 or 315 bottles per person. More than 1 million seabirds and 100 000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year. Find out lots of facts about plastic in the ocean.

Your email country. Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. To enjoy the cbbc newsround website at its. Sign up for hand selected playlists topical articles and the very best from the bbc earth community.

100 of baby sea turtles have plastic in their stomachs. According to the container recycling institute 100 7 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in the u s. Plastic rubbish can be incredibly harmful to fish and other sea life. Experts think that by 2050 the amount of plastic in the ocean will weigh more than the amount of fish in the ocean.

Plastic is an amazing man made material it s cheap to produce and has many uses. Mark series produced ocean giants a three part series on whales and dolphins and produced two intrepid episodes for south wild pacific. Do you know your microplastics from your single use. The facts about plastic pollution.

A plastic bag has an average working life of 15 minutes. A vast ocean sieving expedition across the atlantic has revealed that there is as much as 21 million tonnes of plastic particles in the ocean much higher than estimated. Bbc earth delivered direct to your inbox. The old fashioned metal boxes that have been dragged around the ocean since 1931 have accidentally created a record of the history of ocean plastic.

All animals whether they live on land or in the sea can be hurt by plastic. It can stay in the ocean for thousands of years if it isn t recycled.