What are the damage caused by plastic waste?

Answer 1

Generally considered no more than an aesthetic eyesore, waste plastic is a lethal marine pollutant.

• In Chemistry of the Environment, published by Academic Press in 2002, the author Ronald Bailey argues that, "The principal concern associated with plastic materials scattered on land is one of aesthetics, not toxicity or harm to ecosystems. Plastic articles dumped in oceans are not aesthetically pleasing when they wash up on beaches, but of even greater importance is their danger to marine life."

• In the October 2008 edition of the journal Environmental Research, an article, "Synthetic Polymers in the Marine Environment" by Charles Moore claims, "In the deep ocean, large high-pressure systems known as gyres tend to accrete the debris. In the largest gyre, located in the central North Pacific, neuston trawls lined with 0.333mm mesh yielded the astounding figure of six kilos of plastic fragments for every kilo of zooplankton 40.333mm in size."

• The UN Environmental Programme, in its 2005 publication, Marine Litter, claims, "Furthermore, it has been estimated that over 13,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square kilometre of ocean today."

• Michelle Allsop highlights the danger of waste plastic to marine animals in Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans, published by Greenpeace in November 2006 when she states, "Ingestion of marine debris is known to particularly affect sea turtles and seabirds but is also a problem for marine mammals and fish. Ingestion is generally thought to occur because the marine debris is mistaken for prey. Most of that erroneously ingested is plastic."