The Plastic Tide 🌊

We are turning our beautiful ocean into a “plastic soup”.

A simple walk on the beach anywhere and plastic is there. All around the world the statistics are continuing to grow rapidly. Tons of plastic is discarded poorly every year, everywhere causing pollution to land, rivers, lakes, beaches and oceans. 

The world's population is living, working, vacationing, increasingly along the coasts. 

They are standing in the front row of the greatest plastic waste tide ever faced.

The plastic pollution drama unveiling on our beaches is only the beginning of the greater story that unfurl further away in the world’s oceans, yet originating from where we stand: the land.

For approximately 50 years, global production and consumption of plastics have continued to rise. An estimated 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012.There is an  upward trend over the past years. In 2008, our global plastic consumption worldwide has been estimated at 260 million tons, and, according to a 2012 report by Global Industry Analysts, plastic consumption is expected to reach 297.5 million tons by the end of 2015.

At this rate, we face a future with more plastics than fish by 2050. The solution is a combination of enhanced awareness, reduced use of plastics and improved waste management. 

Plastic pollution and marine debris, South Sentinel Island, Bay of Bengal. Photo source: © SAF — Coastal Care

Reference: 

Guern, C. (2009) When the Mermaids Cry: The Great Plastic Tide