What is the ocean actually to us? Is it a place to relax? Maybe somewhere to swim and do recreational sports? To some people it might even be called a home. The ocean covers 71% of the earth’s surface and containing 97% of all the water on our blue planet. Between 50% and 80% of all the air we breathe comes from the ocean. Life began there, and life might end there too.
Since the consumerism started using plastic as their main product it became a huge problem to the ecosystem of the ocean. In the last ten years we’ve produced more plastic than we’ve ever produced in all the years before combined. Half of all the plastic will only be used once and only 9% will ever be recycled. After that it’ll either be burned or end up in nature. About 10 million ton of plastic enter the ocean every year. Every single person in Europe buys food packed in plastic packaging, 50kg of that plastic ends up in the ocean every year. All that plastic together is killing 100.000 marine mammals annually. That’s not including birds and fish. Life in the ocean is dying, this might not be our worst problem, or at least not right now. According theories of several scientists, fish might be our last source of food that currently is available in mass production. The ocean is life; it can provide the whole world population with drinking water and food. Plastic is washing up by the shores now more than ever before. Nearly all products we use in our daily lives have some kind of plastic included in them. From packaging to electronics we use. Plastic is everywhere around us and most of it ends up in the wrong places. All bits of plastic in the ocean will take between 500 and 1000 years to degrade. With other words; if we don’t clean it up, then it’ll be floating around for the next 1000 years. If all plastic that floats around in the ocean would be floating together it would be the size of Russia. That is a big patch of plastic. In the Pacific, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is estimated to be the size of Texas. This only counts for the plastic that we can visually see floating around. The worst problem comes from the micro plastic. There is more micro plastic in the ocean than there are stars in the Milky Way. Researchers expect that this amount of plastic will multiply by 10 in the next few years if we don’t take steps against the pollution of our own mother earth. The plastic comes back directly to us. 93% of Americans age six or older test positive for BPA (Bisphenol A), which is a chemical that comes from plastic.
What can we do about it? Some steps to a better future for us and the next generations would be to avoid using as much plastic as possible. Instead of buying a new plastic bag every time you go shopping, take your own with you. We don’t need a plastic lock on a coffee cup you buy. We don’t need straw to throw after drinking your soda. Don’t buy plastics you know will end up in places it doesn’t belong. You could be amazed how much plastic you could reuse by yourself. Plastic is everywhere, don’t let it run your life. There are also several products that can be used to replace plastic. Examples are fungus, algae, potato starch, millet, rice, wheat, shrimp shells and hemp. All those products are natural degradable and can be used for several reasons, from making cutlery to plates and cups. Not forgetting they can be a big replacement to packaging. Those things, if farmed in an environmental friendly way, could provide us with a solution to the waste that ends up in our ocean. That could stop further pollution, but neither can take away the pollution that will be floating around for at least the next 500 or 1000 years. That would 3018 before the micro plastic is gone again. Don’t make it any later as it already is.
Our planet has been our helper and provider for generations that passed, now the planet needs us to be her savior. Don’t let her down.
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