Plastics have brought many conveniences and benefits to mankind, however, a large amount of unmanaged discarded plastic supplies are polluting our planet at an alarming rate, from the deepest Mariana Trench to the highest Mount Everest, there are plastic fragments left behind by human activities.
It should be clear that plastic itself is not a pollutant; the essence of plastic pollution is that plastic waste leaks into the natural environment such as soil and water and is difficult to degrade, bringing visual pollution, soil destruction, microplastics and other environmental hazards.
Global annual production of more than 200 million tons of plastic waste
According to the data released by the United Nations, human beings consume about 1 million plastic bottles per minute and use as many as 5 trillion plastic bags per year; the global annual production of plastic exceeds 400 million tons, of which 2/3 are short-lived disposable plastics; more than 200 million tons of plastic waste is produced/year, of which less than 1/10 is recycled; and as much as 19-23 million tons of discarded plastics flow into the lakes, rivers, and oceans/year. The amount of waste plastic flowing into lakes, rivers and oceans is as high as 19 million - 23 million tons/year.
In addition, more than 800 marine and coastal species are affected by plastic pollution and are at risk of ingesting and becoming entangled in plastic.
Global marine microplastic pollutants have increased rapidly since 2005
Microplastics refer to plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in diameter that find their way into food, water and air, and their accumulation in the oceans poses a threat to ecosystems. It is estimated that every person on Earth swallows more than 50,000 plastic particles per year - and even more if inhalation is considered.
Analyzing a combination of existing observations and new data obtained, the U.S. researchers found that global microplastic levels in surface seawater did not change significantly between 1979 and 1990; that some fluctuations ensued, with a downward trend in the years leading up to 2005; and that microplastic levels continued to rise rapidly after 2005, with both the number of microplastic particles and total mass of microplastic particles, on the basis of estimated averages, growing from 2005 to 2019. Both the number and total mass of plastic particles increased by a factor of about 10. The model estimates that the average total mass of microplastics in surface seawater globally in 2019 will be about 2.33 million tons, and the estimated average total number of particles will be about 171 trillion.
