As I was preparing the previous post, I realised that I have been focusing greatly on plastics in my recent series on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Surely plastics cannot be the only form of garbage present! After all, there are all kinds of trash that gets washed out into sea.
As such, I looked up the International Coastal Cleanup Report 2019. It was found that the top 10 items collected were:
1. Cigarette butts – 5,716,331 pieces
2. Food wrappers – 3,728,712 pieces
3. Straws & stirrers – 3,668,871 pieces
4. Fork, knives & spoons – 1,968,065 pieces
5. Plastic beverage bottles – 1,754,908 pieces
6. Plastic bottle caps – 1,390,232 pieces
7. Plastic grocery bags – 964,541 pieces
8. Other plastic bags – 938,929 pieces
9. Plastic lids – 728, 892 pieces
10. Plastic cups & plates – 656,276 pieces
International Coastal Cleanup found that ever since 2017, the top 10 items found were all made of plastics!
While it is true that there were many other types of trash collected like light bulb glass, metal keys and enough fishing nets and ropes to form a 230-kilometre lasso, plastic trash was by far the most. As what Janis Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Conservancy said, there is so much plastic ending up in our oceans that it is akin to having a dump truck containing plastic going into the ocean every minute, of every hour, of every day.
That is so much plastic ending up in our oceans that I need to give a special focus on plastics when discussing about the garbage patch.
Reference:
International Coastal Cleanup, 2019. The Beach And Beyond. International Coastal Cleanup Report 2019.
