While it may feel like plastic has been around forever, it has really only been in widespread production for a little under 70 years. When plastics first hit the market around 1950, the global annual production was 1.5 million tonnes. At that time there were about 2.5 billion people on our planet. Today, the population is 7.6 billion and 300 million tonnes of plastic is produced each year. By 2050, if this trend continues, another 33 billion tonnes of plastic will have accumulated.

As the global standard of living has grown, so has the amount of plastic entering the oceans. Marine litter has been recorded in 100% of marine turtle and more than half of whale species. A lot of seals and seabirds have also been negatively affected, for example when they eat or become entangled in marine litter.

The problem is not that we use plastic products. The problem is that too much of it is used once and then just thrown away. In Europe, 40 per cent of all plastic is intended to be used only once. Think about a trip to the grocery store: berries, small tomatoes, single red peppers and many other products, all wrapped in plastic. You bring them home and dispose of the plastic. Even where recycling programmes exist globally, only about 10 per cent of the plastic used is recycled. Some of the rest eventually makes its way, in one form or another, into the marine environment.

John Crump

Siri Olsson

Miriam Mannak*