Understanding the Plastic Garbage Problem in our Oceans

1) The oceans occupy nearly 71% of our planet's surface.
2) More than 97% of the planet's water is contained in the ocean.
3) Fish supply the greatest percentage of the world's protein consumed by humans.
4) Each year some 70 to 75 million tons of fish are caught in the ocean.
5) The global fish production exceeds that of cattle, sheep, poultry or eggs.
6) Phytoplankton in our oceans contributes 50 to 85 percent of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.

The Environmental Problems

The plastic pollution problem of our oceans is becoming a situation we can no longer turn away from. The bottom of our food chain is going through a catastrophic collapse; sea creatures are dying in massive numbers.

An estimated 27.9 million tons of plastic waste enter the oceans in 2025, adding to the estamated 199 million tons already in the world’s oceans. The majority of garbage is found floating in one of the five major ocean gyres around the world. These massive, slowly rotating gyres are result of ocean currents converging in such ways that they create these colossal oceanic vortices.

The vortex most concentrated with plastics, North Pacific Gyre, consists of two smaller gyres, the Eastern and Western referred to as The Great Ocean Garbage Patch.

The Eastern gyre was discovered by Captain Charles Moore, sailing from the Hawaiian Islands to Northern California in 1997. Concerned by what he discovered, he rigged up his sail boat and returned to the Eastern gyre to retrieve samples. Captain Moore’s research revealed some very alarming facts. Samples taken in 1999 revealed 6 times more plastic particles than plankton. Samples in 2009 revealed 46 times more plastic particles than plankton. Captain Moore’s latest voyage in 2014 revealed, 100 times more plastic particles than plankton.

The Plastic Problem

Plastic is not biodegradable, it literally lasts forever. However, while plastic doesn't biodegrade, it does photo-degrade.

UV light from the sun breaks the plastic down into even smaller pieces, known as micro-plastics. Micro-plastics break down into smaller and smaller pieces that are increasingly harder to clean up. Research is revealing that some of these small pieces eventually sink to the bottom of the ocean. Microplastics impair the ocean's ability to absorb CO2 and a 2026 study links microplastic to reduce ocean carbon absorption.

In marine ecosystems, microplastics interfere with phytoplankton, photosynthesis, and zooplankton metabolism. These are essential elements of the biological carbon pump that moves carbon from the atmosphere into deep ocean layers.

Plastic in the ocean affects oxygen levels by releasing toxins that harm photosynthetic bacteria like Prochlorococcus, which produce about 20% of Earth's oxygen, and by microplastics disrupting plankton and nutrient cycles, leading to less oxygen production and more decomposition consuming oxygen, ultimately contributing to ocean deoxygenation. These chemicals and microplastics interfere with photosynthesis and oxygen release, creating a double threat to the ocean's role as a primary oxygen source.

Plastics are not supporting Life

This photo-degradation continues right down to the microscopic level, where we can't even see the individual pieces of plastic with the naked eye. Instead, we see this viscous toxic sludge where water should be.

We are not only polluting our oceans, we are actually changing the chemical composition of them as a whole.

These micro-plastics act like sponges. They soak up and retain all kinds of toxic chemicals, such as DDT and PCBs.

Unable to distinguish their food from these micro-plastics littering our ocean, many marine animals end up dying with bellies so full of plastic that no food can pass through them. They literally starve to death with full stomachs.

Every year over 1 million sea birds and hundreds of thousands of marine animals; Turtles, Dolphins, Fish and Whales die from plastic ingestion.

1 million, one time use plastic water bottles are consumed in 60 seconds, that equals 1 Billion, 440 Million consumed in 24 hours, and less than 9% are being recycled.

It takes twice as much water to produce a plastic water bottle as the amount of water contained in the bottle.

One-liter plastic water bottle contains around 1/4 million pieces of micro plastic.

Concentrations found in brain tissue of average individuals aged 45 to 50 years old are the equivalent of an entire standard plastic spoon in their brains tissue alone.

An estimated 2 million to 10 billion pieces of microplastics our discharge from an individual rainstorm event. Storm water is a significant pathway for introduction of microplastics to the aquatic ecosystem.

Microplastics damage Intestinal wall and Kidneys causing systemic inflammation.

Microplastics are now found in women's breast milk and blood.

This is impacting everything from zooplankton to the Whale's.

We must ask ourselves; do we choose optimal health and wellbeing for our bodies and the Earth, or do we continue supporting more plastic and micro-plastic pollution, causing all different forms of health problems for all living beings, and a slow death for many generations to come?