Plastic Pollution in the Oceans

During this past spring semester, we had a new course offered on ”Environmental Disasters – Lessons Learned”. The graduate students selected the topic of plastic pollution in the oceans for their class project.

The threat to marine life in the oceans comes in various forms such as dumping of waste, over exploitation and harvesting, pollution, invasive species, land reclamation, dredging, and global climate change. One particular type of human impact that represents major threat to marine life is the pollution by plastic debris. Plastic has become one of the most common forms of pollution in the ocean and is causing problems to become more and more severe each day, impacting both the natural environment and human life.

Plastic pollution has negative impact on our oceans and the health of wildlife, causes harm to the creatures that live in the ocean (from coral reefs to turtles gagging on straws, to whales and seabirds). These creatures starve because their bellies become jammed with plastic. Another recent concern regarding plastic pollution is the impact on food webs and marine ecosystems. The concentrated toxins of plastic materials might be delivered to animals via ingestion and transferred to their food webs. At least 26 species of cetaceans have been documented to ingest plastic debris.

This paper/presentation addresses how plastics end up in oceans, a brief history of plastic production and pollution, ecological effects of plastic pollution in the oceans, environmental impacts, health impacts, economic implications, ethical risks and concerns, and a discussion of lessons learned.