Plastic Pollution
Background
The overuse of plastics in today's society has become major environmental issue for our oceans. Plastic pollution is the dumping, littering, or disposing of any type of man-made plastic that has been produced and has ended up in our ocean and has not been recycled.
History of Plastic
"Plastic" entered the world through chemistry in 1909 and was originally coined to describe Bakelite, the first fully synthetic resin. What make's plastic so unique is when it is heated it can be molded but it retained its shape when cooled (Reddy, 2010). The modern plastic bag was not possible until the accidental discovery of the first industrially practical method of polyethylene synthesis in 1933. Fast forward to today, the use and manufacturing of polyethylene have seen rapid growth and has come from four percent of the world's petroleum(Sang, 2011). It's been less than 30 years since the introduction of the plastic grocery bag but experts estimate that our current use of plastic bags is 500 million to 1 trillion per year.
Problem With Plastic
Plastic, which we now know is a by-product of petroleum production has been in use for over 100 years and has no real end in sight. The plastic we produce has four key characteristics that make -up there identity:
Sang, Anita. "Plastic Bags And Environmental Pollution." 63.3 (2010): 39-43. 28 Mar 2012.
• Geometry. The shape of the debris is important from the point of view of entanglement. Products such as six-pack rings and netting represent more of a potential hazard than an equivalent mass of the same polymer in the form of a laminate. (Takada, 2011) • Durability. The likelihood of encounter between a given item of marine debris and a marine animal depends upon the life time of the material. The duration available for the encounter is crucial in determining the potential hazard posed by the plastic material. Unfortunately, little information is available on the lifetime of plastics at sea. Lack of this
The overuse of plastics in today's society has become major environmental issue for our oceans. Plastic pollution is the dumping, littering, or disposing of any type of man-made plastic that has been produced and has ended up in our ocean and has not been recycled.
History of Plastic
"Plastic" entered the world through chemistry in 1909 and was originally coined to describe Bakelite, the first fully synthetic resin. What make's plastic so unique is when it is heated it can be molded but it retained its shape when cooled (Reddy, 2010). The modern plastic bag was not possible until the accidental discovery of the first industrially practical method of polyethylene synthesis in 1933. Fast forward to today, the use and manufacturing of polyethylene have seen rapid growth and has come from four percent of the world's petroleum(Sang, 2011). It's been less than 30 years since the introduction of the plastic grocery bag but experts estimate that our current use of plastic bags is 500 million to 1 trillion per year.
Problem With Plastic
Plastic, which we now know is a by-product of petroleum production has been in use for over 100 years and has no real end in sight. The plastic we produce has four key characteristics that make -up there identity:
Sang, Anita. "Plastic Bags And Environmental Pollution." 63.3 (2010): 39-43. 28 Mar 2012.
• Geometry. The shape of the debris is important from the point of view of entanglement. Products such as six-pack rings and netting represent more of a potential hazard than an equivalent mass of the same polymer in the form of a laminate. (Takada, 2011) • Durability. The likelihood of encounter between a given item of marine debris and a marine animal depends upon the life time of the material. The duration available for the encounter is crucial in determining the potential hazard posed by the plastic material. Unfortunately, little information is available on the lifetime of plastics at sea. Lack of this
Cited: Dyck, Christine, and Brittany Mathies. "Go Green -- Go Plastic." Canadian Young Scientist Journal 2010.2 (2010): 17-20. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Moore, Charles James. "Synthetic Polymers In The Marine Environment: A Rapidly Increasing, Long-Term Threat." Environmental Research 108.2 (2008): 131-139. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Reddy, Christopher M. et al. "Plastic Accumulation In The North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre." Science 329.5996 (2010): 1185-1188. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Sang, Anita Ng Heung. "Plastic Bags And Environmental Pollution." Art Education 63.6 (2010): 39-43. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Takada, Hui. et al. "Diffuse Pollution By Persistent Organic Pollutants As Measured In Plastic Pellets Sampled From Various Beaches In Greece." Marine Pollution Bulletin 62.2 (2011): 312-317. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. "Plastics in Our Oceans." Home : Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Picture of 5 Five Gyre 's: www.5gyre.com