- Plastic waste makes up 80% of all marine pollution and around 8 to 10 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year.
- Research states that, by 2050, plastic will likely outweigh all fish in the sea.
- In the last ten years, we have produced more plastic products than in the previous century.
- The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has stated that basically 100% of all plastics human beings have ever created are still in existence.
- Plastic generally takes between 500-1000 years to degrade. Even then, it becomes microplastics, without fully degrading.
- Currently, there are about 50-75 trillion pieces of plastic and microplastics in the ocean.
- This plastic either breaks down into microplastic particles (see below), or floats around and ends up forming garbage patches.