The World's Ocean are Filling Up with Waste Plastic

Oceans cover three quarters of the earth’s surface, contain 97 % of the earth’s water. Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. Unfortunately, no ocean on earth is unaffected by plastic pollution.

The common problem caused by plastic pollution in the ocean which is many marine organisms can’t distinguish the plastic items from food. Animals who eat plastic often starve because they can’t digest the plastic and it fills their stomachs, preventing them from eating real food. According to several kinds of research, 44 % of seabirds, 43% of ocean mammals and 86% of sea turtles are ingest the plastic material. The United Nations Environment Program estimates there could be as many as 51 trillion microplastic particles in the oceans already. Plastic waste in the oceans comes from land, predominantly as a result of mismanaged waste disposal.

The initial effort to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean should be focus on preventing it entering the ocean. Government has an important role to provide regulation about limiting the using of single-use plastic and then conducting campaigns about biodegradable plastics to increase public awareness for marine protection. Local government also should improve the waste management infrastructure so the local residents will not able to do littering. Retailers should eliminate single-use plastic from their own-brand packaging and changes it into recycled plastic. And all that we need is start to use eco-friendly product for daily activities.

In conclusion, the current condition of world's ocean are very concerned because it's already contaminated by plastic pollution which endanger to the marine ecosystem and biodiversity. Although we do not live in ocean, as human we are fully responsible to preserve the balance of the ocean and land through maintain a good management for producing, using, and wasting plastic.