Research shows single-use plastic contaminating our oceans

Original story by Beau Pearson, ABC News

An academic studying Australian water pollution, is encouraging people to use less single-use plastic products in order to reduce marine pollution.

The University of WA’s Julia Reisser says every square kilometre of Australian surface sea water is contaminated by around 4,000 tiny pieces of plastic.

The research found most of the particles were a result of a breakdown of disposable products such as water bottles, plastic cups and fishing gear.

‘The sun and the heat makes the plastic weaker and it breaks down with time,” she said.

“So let’s say a plastic bottle that someone throws at the beach goes into the ocean and as it gets older and older it breaks down into little particles.”

Ms Reisser says the plastics soak up pollutants, are harmful to marine life and also humans that ingest the seafood.

“When they are in the ocean it acts like a sponge for oil pollutants, for example fertilisers, so any oil pollutants that float in the water with the plastic will be attracted to the surface of the plastic and then this plastic is loaded with many kinds of pollutants,” she said.

“When an animal eats it, it can be released to the animal and will intoxicate the animal, not only in the animal that ingested the plastic but also any predator of this animal, so this problem can even come to us as we eat seafood.”

She says water bottles and plastic cups are a large part of the pollution.

“The solution is not simple and can involve more than one action, but I still believe that one important point is to decrease the amount of plastic waste that we are producing and to do so perhaps one of the easiest ways will be to decrease the amount of single use throwaway plastics that we use,” she said.

“We need to decrease plastic waste and toxicity, regulate plastic disposal on land at an international level, and better enforce the laws prohibiting dumping plastics at sea.”