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Plastic Polution

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Plastic Polution
5/23/2012

Plastic Pollution

• History • Quantities • Marine life • Toxicity • Research • Solutions

FOR A PRIZE

Precautionary Principle (in this context)
• When/If an action or choice has the potential to be harmful to ourselves or the environment, that action should be avoided.

1955 Life article“Throwaway Living”

AMRF

How is plastic made?

Nurdles Pre-production plastic pellets

1

5/23/2012

Ballona Creek after a rainstorm

Why should a disposable product outlast its user by generation after generation after generation?
In the U.S. we go through: -274 million plastic bags per day …or… 100 billion annually -45 million water bottles per day …or… 16.5 billion annually

Formation of the Gyres

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
A giant, eternal swirling spiral of floating trash - “2-4X the size of Texas” (the whole Pacific Ocean) - 90% plastic - 80% land-based (NOAA)

Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) - 2009 Captain Charlie Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation finds this area is like a plastic soup.

AMRF

2

5/23/2012

Hawaiian Islands

Kamilo Beach, Big Island Hawaii

Black-footed Albatross at Midway Atoll

Jay Holcomb-IBRCC

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5/23/2012

Gregg Segal

What do you see in the stomach of this albatross chick?

“Litter does not distinguish itself between biodegradable or non-biodegradable.”
American Chemistry Council letter to the City of Monterey, 2/6/2008

What does this look like?

A jelly

Turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies.

Many species suffer from ingestion and entanglement of plastics bags.

A mother sea otter tries to free her pup from a plastic bag. Elkhorn Slough - Moss Landing, CA Photo by Terry McCormac

Entanglement of plastic six-pack holders and rings…

Transport of invasive species and larvae

©Dino Ferri http://www.auduboninstitute.org/zoo

NOAA

Jason Hogle

NOAA

4

5/23/2012

Plastic also sinks to


Links: Use Agreement (June, 2010) •This material may be viewed and displayed for educational use only. •Content may be copyrighted and/or owned by individuals and entities other than, and in addition to, Surfrider Foundation Monterey Chapter and NOAA.
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