Plastic Poisoning Of The Oceans - The Ignored Catastrophe

     Everyday thousands of tons of plastics, styrofoam and other oil based contaminants and other non biodegradable garbage enter into the oceans. The failure to protect the oceans from this daily assault by thousands of tons of non biodegradable garbage is destroying the oceans, wildlife, and ultimately mankind itself.
      The garbage does not only come from coastal communities and cities. It comes from a variety of sources and places, including places hundreds, even thousands of kilometres from the oceans. Land based garbage often ends up in waterways, and much of it ultimately makes its way into the oceans. Many land based communities and the people in those areas burn their plastic and oil based garbage, which in and of itself is an ecological disaster from the toxicity released into the atmosphere, and which people breath.
       China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, in that order, are the major sources of plastics and other oil based contaminants that are destroying the Pacific Ocean. All the oceans are under threat. Massive amounts of plastics and oil based garbage from a wide range of nations, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey, Nigeria, and many others, are daily pouring into and contaminating and destroying the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. No ocean, no sea, is immune from this threat. The highly developed United States also contributes to this plastic and oil based poisoning that affects everyone. Garbage, waste and lost materials from container ships and other ships and boats, add to this mess, although most of the plastic and other non biodegradable trash originates from land sources.
         There needs to be a worldwide effort to ensure there is affordable, environmentally friendly packaging, including the packaging for chips, cookies, candies, crackers, and all food based items. Oil based materials used in clothing, cosmetics, packaging, medical supplies, and many other sources, also end up in the oceans. There has been little to no pressure on companies, researchers, universities and others to find alternatives.
       Single use styrofoam plates, cups and other single use styrofoam items need to be banned. Styrofoam does not degrade. It breaks down, like plastic, into smaller particles that are virtually impossible to remove once the breakdown process starts.
         Fishing gear, nets and lines need to be constructed in such a manner that they will degrade. Ghost nets and other fishing materials endlessly circulate in the oceans, killing marine life over and over precisely because they do not degrade.
            There has been minimal pressure on food manufacturers and other companies to change the way in which plastic and oil based materials are used and packaged. These companies know full well that much of their packaging materials end up in the oceans, along with many of their products, (including oil based microfibers and microplastics). There are not enough places in the world with the capability to properly remove and dispose of non biodegradable garbage.
            Modern society reaches for the stratosphere with its science, technology and medical advances, but fails to do anything to stop the destruction of the oceans and planet by non biodegradable waste. While some live in ivory towers, and while more ivory towers are built, the world turns into a sewer.
            Some believe technology, including current efforts to utilize technology and ocean currents in ocean garbage patches in order to remove plastics, will overcome this catastrophe. There is no substitute for real labor and grit. Technology must not be the excuse to do continue to do little to nothing. Furthermore, almost all plastics, styrofoam and other oil based contaminants never make it to the garbage patches. They disperse throughout the oceans, endlessly killing marine life, including dolphins, whales, manta rays, turtles, fish, and seabirds. These plastics and oil based contaminants make their way into the fish and foods people eat.
            A massive effort is needed, one that could employ millions of people, to do the hard labor necessary to remove plastics and other non biodegradable garbage from coastlines, waterways and the land. There is enough wealth in this world to ensure the proper collection and disposal of garbage. This is not a question of choice and desire. Human survival depends on making this commitment.