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Plastic Can Take 500 Years To Bio-Degrade In The Ocean
Plastic Can Take 500 Years To Bio-Degrade In The Ocean
Oct 25, 2018
Yesterday, the European Parliament overwhelmingly backed a sweeping ban on a range of single-use plastics in an effort to curb maritime pollution. The proposed directive will ban items such as plastic straws, cutlery, plates and cotton swabs by 2021 and ensure that 90 percent of plastic bottles are recycled by 2025. MEPs backed the legislation by 571 votes to 53.
According to the European Parliament, the products that will be banned account for over 70 percent of maritime litter. MEPs also agreed that measures need to be taken to reduce pollution from tobacco products, particularly cigarette filters that contain plastic. They are the second most littered single-use plastic item and one butt can pollute between 500 and 1,000 liters of water, taking up to a decade to bio-degrade. Under the directive, waste from cigarette filters containing plastic will have to be reduced by 50 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2030.
The following infographic uses data from NOAA and Woods Hole Sea Grant to show just how long it takes for a range of other plastic items to bio-degrade in a marine environment. Governments have been highly active banning plastic grocery bags and they can take twice as long as cigarette butts to bio-degrade. Other items are far worse, however, with plastic beverage holders, plastic bottles and disposable diapers all taking 400 years or longer to finally break up and disappear.
The Countries Polluting The Oceans The Most
The Countries Polluting The Oceans The Most
Aug 7, 2018
A team of researchers in the United States and Australia led by Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia, analyzed plastic waste levels in the world's oceans. They found that China and Indonesia are the top sources of plastic bottles, bags and other rubbish clogging up global sea lanes. Together, both nations account for more than a third of plastic detritus in global waters, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The original source data can be found here.
In 2010, 8.8 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste came from China with an estimated 3.53 million metric tons of it ending up in the ocean. A total of 3.2 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste came from Indonesia and it is estimated that 1.29 million metric tons became plastic marine debris. The United States is also guilty of polluting oceans with plastic, but at a much lower level than China. Annually, 0.11 million metric tons of waterborne plastic garbage comes from the United States.
Originally this infographic incorrectly labeled the total amount of mismanaged plastic waste as the amount found in the water. It is now been updated to show the total amount of mismanaged plastic waste and the total amount of plastic marine debris.
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