Biopolymers & Bioplastics

Ocean plastics

Ocean plastic research is a comparatively new field, the billions upon billions of items of plastic waste choking our oceans, lakes, and rivers and piling up on land is more than unprepossessing and harmful to plants and wildlife. About 8 million metric tons of plastic are pitched into the ocean annually. Of those, 236,000 tons are micro plastics– tiny pieces of broken-down plastic smaller than our little fingernail. There is more plastic than natural loot at the sea surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which means that organisms feeding at this area are likely to have plastic as a major component of their diets. For instance, sea turtles by-caught in fisheries managing within and around the patch can have up to 74% (by dry weight) of their diets composed of ocean plastics. By 2050 there will be large amount of plastic in the oceans than there are fish (by weight).