No Time to Waste:

Rethinking Our Path to a Plastic-Free Ocean

By: Mitch Sorensen

QUANTITY OF CONSUMER PLASTIC

ITEMS
35%
Abstract Methods
30%

Data on consumer plastic items was gathered from multiple sources, which
Plastic pollution has been a particularly complex and troubling issue, due 25%

20%
includes data gathered from over 100 countries at nearly 6,000 sites. Nearly
to most of the pollution congregating in international oceanic waters. 750,000 volunteers have assisted in the collection and classification of these
15%

Ocean plastic pollution has been input at an estimated 5 million metric 10% materials at these sites.
tons annually, since people first began observing the issue. This means that 5% The determination of the impact (low/medium/high) behind the possibility
since the 1970s, over 250 million metric tons of plastic pollution has ended
0%
Cigarette Food Wrappers Plastic Bottles Plastic Bags Caps/ Lids Plastic Straws Beverage Cans
of banning the production of the items in the case studies comes from
Filters
comparing the number of items in the data collection to the overall plastic
up in the ocean, and it has become so saturated there are actually patches Graph displaying the % abundance of
characterized plastic pollution items that had pollution issue.
of debris that can be seen from miles away. There have been several come from the oceans, from GESAMP.

attempts to address this issue, but thus far, none have been successful. I
attempt to show that the most well-known plastic pollution movements Case Existing
Impact of Ban Details Conclusion/ Recommendations
Studies Legislation?
have been failures due to the approach methods they have taken and that, After reviewing these case studies, I have determined that the small wins
if anything, they have actually been more of a distraction than a solution for the ocean plastic pollution issue have been more distracting than they
Plastic straws peaked in popular interest in the summer of
2018 (seen below). This is a perfect example of the problem have been beneficial to solving the problem. It is important to note that
to the overall issue. Using three case studies, (plastic straws, plastic bags, with the ad hoc plastic pollution campaigns. Straws make up this project does not discount other forms of plastic (besides consumer
a very low percentage of total pollution numbers. plastic) from the overall issue. Rather, it highlights the fact that a majority
and microbeads) I show the problem behind these bottom-up movements
Media attention caused of mainstream knowledge about marine plastic pollution is based on
and why the small win/ incremental approach will not work to cleaning Plastic Straws Low No
companies like Starbucks to consumer plastics when they are only a portion of the issue. This is due, in
take advantage of the hype large part, to the majority of the movements being taken from a bottom-
and maintaining our world’s oceans. and implement superficial
solutions. up approach as opposed to a more centralized top-down approach. There
are several methods that have been implanted across the globe in order to
correctly manage and control the issue, but overall the most important
California and Hawaii are currently the only U.S. states that
have enacted bans, but several countries have passed strict aspect of the pollution control is prevention. While there are proposed
bans. Plastic bags make up ~16% of consumer plastic clean up methods, many experts agree that we need to limit the input (of
pollution, according to multiple sources. Bags have been the over 5 million tons) of plastic waste to most efficiently manage the issue.
Plastic Bags Medium Yes center of the plastic debate for years and larger government
entities have begun to unify in the discontinuation of this In order to ensure that prevention measures are done efficiently and
-Kenya product. effectively, a uniform top-down approach is required.
-California
Many people are familiar with microbeads and may not
even know the harmful effect they have on aquatic
environments. While it is very difficult to measure the
actual input of plastic from this product, it is estimated that
Yes these microplastics were being added at a rate of up to 500
Microbeads Medium tons per year in the U.S. The U.S. passed a law in 2015
called the Microbead-Free Waters Act, stopping the
Still image of a sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose production and sale of microbeads in rinse-off cosmetic
-Microbead-Free
Waters Act 2015 products.

Eriksen, Marcus, Laurent C. M. Lebreton, Henry S. Carson, Martin Thiel, Charles J. Moore, Jose C. Borerro, Francois Galgani, Peter G. Ryan, and Julia Reisser. "Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans:
More Than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea." PLoS ONE 9, no. 12 (2014): 1-15.
GESAMP. "Sources, Fate and Effects of Microplastics in the Marine Environment." GESAMP Reports and Studies 93 (2018).
Monteiro, Raqueline C. P., Juliana A. Ivar do, Sul, and Monica F. Costa. "Plastic Pollution at a Sea Turtle Conservation Area in Ne Brazil: Contrasting Developed and Undeveloped Beaches | Image of a sea horse carrying a plastic cotton swab
Relative interest

Springerlink." (2018).
Monteiro, Raqueline C. P., Juliana A. Ivar do Sul, and Monica F. Costa. "Plastic Pollution in Islands of the Atlantic Ocean." Environmental Pollution 238 (2018/07/01/ 2018): 103-10.
Pietrelli, Loris, and et. al. "Characterization of Plastic Beach Debris Finalized to Its Removal: A Proposal for a Recycling Scheme | Springerlink." (2018).
Smith, Stephen D. A., Kelsey Banister, Nicola Fraser, and Robert J. Edgar. "Tracing the Source of Marine Debris on the Beaches of Northern New South Wales, Australia: The Bottles on Beaches Program."
Marine Pollution Bulletin 126 (2018/01/01/ 2018): 304-07.

Google Trends search history results for “plastic straws”