How much plastic is in our oceans?

According to UNESCO, between 8 and 10 million tons of plastic end up in the sea every year. On World Ocean Day, Al Jazeera visualizes what that looks like.

Every year, about 400 million tons of plastic products are produced worldwide. About half is used to make single-use items such as shopping bags, cups and packaging materials.

An estimated 8 to 10 million tons of this plastic end up in the ocean every year. When squashed to the thickness of a plastic bag, it’s enough to cover an area of ​​11,000 square kilometers. That’s about the size of small countries like Qatar, Jamaica or the Bahamas.

At this rate, over the course of 50 years, the plastic waste could grow to cover an area of ​​more than 550,000 square kilometers (212,000 square miles), about the size of France, Thailand or Ukraine.

To raise awareness about the importance of the ocean and promote its sustainable use and protection, the United Nations has designated every June 8 as World Ocean Day.

How does plastic end up in the ocean?

Plastic is the most common form of marine litter, accounting for 80 percent pollution of the sea. Most plastics that end up in the ocean come from improper waste management systems that dump waste into rivers and streams.

Plastic in the form of fishing nets and other marine equipment is also dumped into the ocean by ships and fishing boats.

In addition to plastic bags and containers, small particles known as microplastics also find their way into the ocean. Microplastics, which are less than 5 mm (one-fifth of an inch) in length, pose a major environmental problem because they can be ingested by marine life and cause harm to both animals and humans.

An estimated 50 trillion to 75 trillion pieces of microplastic are in the ocean today.

While research on the health effects of human consumption of microplastics is limited, some studies have shown that microplastics can accumulate in organs such as the liver, kidneys and intestines. There are concerns that microplastic particles could potentially lead to inflammation, oxidative stress and cellular damage.

“These tiny particles in the ocean broke into tiny pieces and were eaten on an almost unimaginable scale by the wildlife that lived there. The main problem is that pieces of plastic contain toxic chemicals and these chemicals are already known to interfere with human hormones and animal hormones. They can cause the accumulation of toxins in the body that can lead to adverse effects over time,” science writer and author Erica Cirino told Al Jazeera’s The Stream program.

Which countries are the source of the most plastic in the ocean?

According to a 2021 study published by Science promotes research80 percent of all plastic found in the ocean comes from Asia.

The Philippines is believed to be the source of more than a third (36.4 percent) of all plastic waste in the ocean, followed by India (12.9 percent), Malaysia (7.5 percent), China (7. 2 percent) and Indonesia (5.8 percent).

These amounts do not include waste that is exported abroad and is at greater risk of ending up in the ocean.

What makes plastic so dangerous for the environment?

Plastics are synthetic materials made from polymers, which are long chains of molecules. These polymers are usually derived from petroleum or natural gas.

The biggest problem with plastics is that they don’t biodegrade easily, meaning they can stay in the environment for hundreds of years and cause serious pollution problems.

Plastic that ends up in the ocean floats on the surface for a long time. Eventually they sink to the bottom and are buried in the seabed.

Plastics on the ocean surface represent 1 percent of the total plastics in the ocean. The other 99 percent is microplastic fragments far below the surface.