Ocean Plastic Pollution

Plastic almost started as a wonder material when it was first polymerized between 1838 and 1872 with
major breakthrough being achieved in 1907 when Leo Baekeland created Bakelite, the first mass-
produced plastic. It was not only cheap and easy to produce but had some wonderful properties like
insulation from heat and electricity, elasticity, light weight and not easily breakable that made it popular
instantly popular among the masses which slowly but gradually was using it everywhere from food to
clothing to electronics. It is not wrong to say that plastic still holds its importance more than 100 years
later.

These once wonderful properties are what that is coming to haunt us as we deal with the problem of
plastic pollution. Plastic is the major contribute when it comes to land and water pollution as it is not
biodegradable and stay in nature for 100s of year. It is estimated that simplest of plastics take almost
450 years to breakdown into smaller simpler pieces that get mixed with soil leading to degradation of
soil quality as well as soil pollution.

This being said the major problem that plastic pose to the human society is their involvement in water
pollution. The plastic items like polythene bags, disposable cups, plates and spoons, etc. all end up in
small water bodies from where it gets rinsed to rivers, seas and finally ocean where it remains until
some organization decides to clean the ocean, posing as a threat to life and health of aquatic animals,
while indirectly affecting the humans as well.

Since plastic waste ends up harming the aquatic animals, who end up getting injured by it or consuming
it, indirectly ending up in the food chain, the major question hence becomes what can be done to make
oceans free from plastics? What will be the most efficient waste management system that will reduce
the extent to which plastic waste ends up in the large water bodies like oceans?

This research is quite relevant as account to IUCN, over 300 million metric tons of plastic gets produced
every year for different use cases of which almost 8 million metric tons ends up becoming part of the
marine debris, which can range from surface water to deep-sea sediments. IUCN also goes on to suggest
that plastic pollution not only affects the aquatic life which often gets tangled up in such plastic debris
ending up seriously injured or even dead, but also causes a threat to food safety and quality for human
being as small bits gradually get accumulated in the food chain affecting the health and life of human
beings. Plastic being a petroleum product also leads to global warming as often the method of removal
of plastic waste from the system involves burning it at very high temperature, a method also know as
incineration. This causes production of green house gases like carbon dioxide and other harmful gases
like carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide which can lead to acid rain. These effects further combined
with problems like loss of habitat for animals, loss of tourism, harm to soil, overload of landfills making
plastic pollution a menace that needs to be dealt with effectively and immedietly.