More than 171 trillion pieces of plastic are now estimated to be floating in the world's oceans, according to a new study. A team of international scientists analysed records collected between 1979 and 2019 from nearly 12,000 sampling points in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. They found a "rapid and unprecedented" increase in ocean plastic pollution since 2005.
"Today's global abundance is estimated at approximately 82-358 trillion plastic particles weighing 1.1-4.9 million tonnes. We observed no clear detectable trend until 1990, a fluctuating but stagnant trend from then until 2005, and a rapid increase until the present," the study, published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, read.
Scientists warned that without urgent policy action, the rate at which plastics enter the oceans could increase by around 2.6 times between now and 2040. "This observed acceleration of plastic densities in the world's oceans also reported for beaches around the globe, demands urgent international policy interventions," they wrote.
Speaking to CNN, Lisa Erdle, director of research and innovation at the 5 Gyres Institute and an author of the report, explained that only 9% of global plastics are recycled each year. She said that once plastic gets into the ocean, it doesn't decompose but instead tends to break down into tiny pieces. These particles then are "really not easily cleaned up, we're stuck with them," she told the outlet.
Therefore, figuring out exactly how much plastic is in the ocean is a hard exercise. "The ocean is a complex place. There are lots of ocean currents, there are changes over time due to weather and due to conditions on the ground," Ms Erdle said.
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Further, the researchers noted that the highest concentration of ocean plastic is currently in the North Atlantic sea. They said that more data is still needed for areas including the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic and South Pacific.
"This research opened my eyes to how challenging plastic in the ocean is to measure and characterize and underscores the need for real solutions to the problem," Win Cowger, a research scientist at Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research in California and a study author, said in a statement.
The study also noted that the changing levels of pollution before 2000 may be due to the effectiveness of treaties or policies that govern pollution. In the 1980s several legally-binding international agreements mandated countries to stop discarding fishing and naval plastics in the oceans, as well as to clean up certain amounts. However, as these were followed by voluntary agreements, the authors of the study believe that they may have been less effective and could explain the rise in plastics from around 2000 onwards.
Now, in their study, the authors have argued that solutions must focus on reducing the amount of plastic produced and used, rather than cleaning up oceans and recycling plastics because this is less likely to stop the flow of pollution.
