A new study analyzed surface plastic pollution data from 11,777 ocean stations in six major marine regions, covering the period 1979 to 2019.
The presence of plastic in the world’s oceans has reached “unprecedented levels”. The conclusion is from a study led by 5 Gyres Institute, an American organization that campaigns to reduce plastic pollution, estimated that in 2019 there were 171 trillion plastic particles floating in the oceans, a figure that in 17 years could rise 2.6 times.
The study’s conclusions were reached after analyzing surface plastic pollution data from 11,777 ocean stations in six major marine regions, covering the period 1979 to 2019.
The results were published in the US journal PLOS One. Researchers estimate that 170 billion pieces of plastic, mainly microplastics, have been dumped into the sea since 2005. The total weight of these plastics represents 2.3 million tons.
Plastics on the rise in all regions of the planet
Although the study covers the period from 1979 to 2019, there was no clear trend recorded until 1990, when there is “a very high increase due to rapid production growth and a limited number of release control policies,” Lisa Erdle, one of the authors, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The pollution results mainly from fishing equipment and buoys, while clothing, car tires, and single-use plastics usually pollute closer to shore. However, high concentrations of plastics were found everywhere studied, regardless of the region of the planet
Marta Cerqueira is from Minho and vegetarian. Luckily, she lives in Lisbon, where there is more tofu than curd. She has been a journalist for over 15 years, the last of which writing about food and sustainability. Now, out of the newsroom, she continues to write whenever she can, be it in magazines, journals, post it, or on her Instagram page, which she uses to share a life that is divided between being a mom-person-foodie-traveler. Still, she created Peggada so she could write about what doesn't fit in a magazine, journal, post it or Instagram: a better world.
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