Did you know that the first kind of plastic was created at the beginning of the 20th century. His inventor was a Belgian who moved to America, Leo Hendrick Arthur Bakeland. He made it based on a synthetic polymer. Bakeland called his invention in his honor - “Bakelite”. Until the 60s, people did not find anything extraordinary in plastic, until someone came up with the idea to use it as packaging material. After that, the process of commercializing plastic began, most of which replaced wrapping paper.
Plastic gained popularity both among suppliers of goods, and among consumers. It was cheap and easy to manufacture. But plastic has one huge minus: it is not subject to biodegradation. Almost 60 years after the start of commercialization of plastic, humanity is beginning to understand what damage it causes to the environment around the world.
The results of its use are simply terrifying: clogged drainage systems, clogged rivers, a huge accumulation of plastic waste in the ocean. If this continues further, we run the risk of encountering an environmental disaster, of which we ourselves are the culprits.
Plastic production volumes
According to analysts, the annual production of various types of plastics is about 300 million tons. Moreover, only half of this plastic is intended for reusable use, the remaining 50% is disposed of immediately after use. A tenth of the recycled plastic is recycled, and 12% are incinerated. Since the middle of the last century, about 8 billion tons of plastic have been produced. The uncontrolled production of plastics has led to the opening of many factories with cheap labor in developing countries. They use low-quality equipment, and the enterprises themselves do not require huge investments, which only contributes to the production of plastics.
The amount of plastic in the oceans
Although it is not possible to determine the exact amount of plastics in the ocean, according to some estimates it is about 150 million. It turns out that such an amount of plastic just floats in the oceans of the world. Each year, 8 million tons of new polypropylene waste is added to this amount. If the dynamics continue, then by 2030 over 250 million tons of plastic will be in the oceans, and by 2050 the total weight of the plastic will exceed the mass of all fish living in the oceans.
Plastics do not just float in water, they do more harm to marine animals than any other element. The number of victims of underwater inhabitants from the networks of sailors is already growing every year, and the destruction of entire species of fish due to plastic is added to this. Lack of food at a depth makes deep-sea fish rise higher for food, where they take plastic for food, which causes their death.
Garbage spots in the ocean
Half of the plastics found in the oceans have a lower density than water, which is why they are pulled together by a current into one large “spot”. This leads to the formation of areas with accumulation of plastic and other debris. Now there are 5 such sites, among which the largest is the Big Pacific garbage spot.
It is located between the Hawaiian Islands and California, covering an area approximately equal to the area of the Tyumen Region or 3 times the territory of France. From 1.1 to 3.6 trillion floats inside the spot. units of plastic products, the total mass of which exceeds 100 thousand tons.
By the way, about the largest islands of the Earth, read the article on our site thebiggest.ru.
And in order to show the scale and tragedy of this disaster, we post photos of plastic garbage in the ocean.
What do you think about the problem of plastic debris in the ocean? How should humanity solve this problem? Write the answers in the comments.
Posted by: gunner1886