99% of Missing Plastics

A new study finds that 99% of ocean plastic is hidden within layers of deep sea sediment

We often recognize plastic waste like bags and bottles floating around
on the surface of the ocean. However, did you know that we can’t find
the vast majority of ocean plastic? In fact a new study finds that 99%
of ocean plastic is what is called “missing plastic”, meaning it's
hidden within layers of deep sea sediment.

Scientists decided to examine these plastic pieces and found
interesting results based on their conclusions. As years passed they
found more and more plastic layers . As they searched the sediment,
they realized that when the plastic layer started was near the
nineteen-fifties.

According to the scientist Van Sebille, from 1950 to the present day
more than 196 million tons of plastic could have been deposited into
the ocean.

What caused such a major increase in plastic use? Due to World War II,
aluminum, copper, and iron became valuable for military use, and the
demand for plastic rapidly increased for the purpose of resource
conservation.

Until then, plastic was never an inexpensive product. However, during
wartime, research, development, and production of industrial plastics
significantly progressed. This led plastic products to expand in the
market as affordable materials, replacing many household items with
plastic products instead.

The massive production of plastic goods during the war resulted in an
era of high consumption of plastic products after the end of World War
II as well. It is said that from the 1950s to the 2010s, the
production of plastic increased 190 times.

Plastic was inexpensive, flexible and tough. It was the perfect thing
to use for literally everything, but what people didn’t realize was
that plastics take hundreds of years to decompose. It is forever
trash.

As scientists and researchers took a closer look at the samples of
sediment they collected, they found microplastics, plastic fibers that
are smaller than one millimeter. In the great pacific garbage patch,
scientists found that microplastics were not only found in the water,
but were found in even tiny animals like plankton. As years went on,
more layers of plastic were added to the ocean floor. The OFOBS, a
camera that goes under the ocean floor, has captured pictures of
underground plastics and animals using them as food, homes, etc.
Animals continuing to rely more and more on these plastics could
jeopardize most if not all species of animals in the future. This
could lead to major problems in humans' future, too.

People have created a world where they cannot live without plastic.
But it was not always this way. We started to mass-produce plastics
nearly 70 years ago. We should be able to muster the desire to break
free from this dependency and help heal our planet.