June 27, 2009

Plastic pollution in the sea and land

The plastic bags you bring home from the supermarket probably end up in a landfill. Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. They are typically made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that emit harmful greenhouse gases. Reducing your contribution to plastic-bag pollution is as simple as using a cloth bag (or one made of biodegradable plant-based materials) instead of wasting plastic ones.

A lot of plastic products are produced annually. Obviously quite a lot of that material goes into landfill and small quantities are recycled. However quite substantial amounts do enter the environment as litter or debris. It's estimated that about eight million items of litter go into the sea every day, and much of that is plastic.Most of this plastic in sea found floating on the surface.A lots of plastic on the deep sea bed as well now. As plastics stay in the sea, they become fouled by marine organisms and this alters the overall density of the plastic object so that plastics that floated when they first entered the sea become negatively buoyant and sink to the seabed.

It's a big problem not only with animals in the sea but animals in general.


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3 comments:

  1. The plastic bags and other plastic products do not become one with the soil and the soil is thus polluted in away ... and also the water bodies with plastic floating all over blocking the earth and not allowing it to breathe.

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  2. Since the ocean is downstream from nearly every terrestrial location, it is the receiving body for much of the plastic waste generated on land. It has been estimated that 6.4 million tons of debris end up in the world’s oceans every year and that some 60 to 80 percent of that debris, or 3.8 to 5 million tons, is improperly discarded plastic litter. Plastic pollution was first noticed in the ocean by scientists carrying out plankton studies in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and oceans and beaches still receiveing

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  3. I think it is right to have a law on this in the government. Its natural resources and I also think it is the community task to do the right thing.

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