Skip to main content

how bad is it?

It is estimated that within thirty years there will be more plastic by weight in the oceans than there are fish.  Most forms of plastic take an average of 800 years to break down, others more than 2,000.  An estimated eight million tons of plastic waste enters the world’s oceans each year.

into the foodchain

Degraded partially broken-down plastic is consumed by sea creatures that are unable to process them and suffer painful deaths. Then there are the micro-plastics which are so small that zooplankton confuse these particles with phytoplankton. Micro-plastics make their way upwards through the food-chain coming full circle when they arrive on our plates.

solutions in the making

New technologies are coming to market including engineering breakthroughs such as machines that sort and channel different plastics for different end-uses and pyrolysis which is the process of heating and treating plastic for re-use as marine fuel. A broad awareness of the plastics pollution problem leads to increased funding and innovation for lasting solutions.