Plastic world ... plastic oceans of this earth

in #nature5 years ago

People do a lot of filth. But who knows exactly what happens to the waste produced of us? Although some places are used for proper disposal and recycling, many things reach the seas of the earth transported by rivers and lakes to form tons.
Fatal are the hard-to-decay plastic parts that are slightly larger and more recognizable and sometimes tiny. Again in the ocean, these plastic parts are eaten by the animals living there and comes through the food to us humans.
Another point is that the plastic affects the water quality and purity. As a result, surfers and other water sportsmen can get ill. Be it nausea, diarrhea or even fever.

The packaging is mainly made of microplastic, even clothing is more and more made of it. In everyday life, plastics are used constantly and are omnipresent.
Buckets are made of plastic, toothpaste tubes and various creams as well. Fleece is often processed.
For these products mainly petroleum is used and this is not biodegradable. Thus, the removal of a grocery bag takes about 20 years and a plastic bottle takes about 450 years.
The pollution of our oceans with this plastic parts has reached enormous proportions!
Every 60 seconds, plastic parts, the size of a whole garbage truck load, reach the seas of the world. If humankind across the globe does not improve the disposal of waste, according to some statistics, the plastic waste used to date in 2050 will outweigh any fish we currently have.

Scientists have found that around 5 billion plastic parts are currently being drifted around in the oceans.
According to the scientists, the weight of the circulating plastic parts is about 268,000 tons.

Oceans full of microplastics!
Yes, quite rightly read; So far, one has found no place in this world, which was spared by microplastic.
According to data disclosed, no river would be found in southern Germany or even West Germany, which is free of it. Each river has microplastics in varying amounts.
So it is said that 88% of the found microplastics in the rivers PE (polyethylene) and also PP (polypropylene) has. Even in the still waters, that is lakes, with or without river inflow, microplastics have been found.
Since nature is a closed circuit, this microplastic is absorbed by the water intake or contact with water from all animals. Investigations revealed that every animal has this microplastic or plastic parts in the digestive tract.
In addition, the plastic not only settles in the stomach of the animals, it also gets into the tissue.
It has been shown that 75% of plastic pollution in Germany is microplastic.
Measurements showed that the microplastic can also be detected in the air.
Microplastic was also found in the snow and ice of the Antarctic.

If so much microplastic has deposited, one should briefly consider how this could arise.
Microplastic arises e.g. through the tire wear of the cars. Likewise in waste disposal. In a street and building rich world also by bitumen from asphalt. Think of all the sports and playgrounds worldwide.
Where sawed chips fall, also building sites form microplastic.
Banal things like shoe soles or plastic packaging (After a while, macroplastic becomes microplastic).
The daily laundry has as a waste product plastic fibers that has been processed in the clothing.

Plastic world instead of pure nature ... because plastic is everywhere around us. Especially in the (Ant) Arctic this was proven.
The Alfred Wegener Institute dealt with the exploration of the polar regions of the Arctic and the Antarctic. In the period from 2002 to 2011, plastic waste on the seabed of this region has doubled.
The load on the seabed there is 300 times higher than at the surface. It has been measured that 53% of the waste is plastic and 27% glass. But how does the garbage get there?
Go with the flow..the well-known Gulf Stream brings all the plastic with its current up in the north. As soon as the ice thaws and withdraws, it uses the shipping traffic. Above all, this is the point in time that the fishery uses. Especially this industry is considered one of the main causes of plastic waste in the oceans. According to all data, the microplastic flows from the North Pacific and is transported with the rivers from Siberia into the Arctic. According to scientists, the Arctic is a kind of dead end for the plastic parts.
Thus, 41% of the garbage found comes from nearby sources, 43% from Europe, of which 9% of the waste is from Germany and 9% from distant sources such as South America. Thus it is clear that The world's man-made waste can overcome extremely long distances in the sea and even sinks to the bottom of the sea.

The bottom line is that there is an urgent need to change things and that knowledge and research from the child's shoes will hopefully soon outgrow, so that sensible methods of disposal will be developed.

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