Every minute, two garbage trucks of plastic are dumped into our oceans. Currently, 8 million metric tons of plastic winds up in the oceans. That’s enough trash to cover every foot of coastline around the world with five full trash bags of plastic…compounding every year. The amount of plastic trash that flows into the oceans every year is expected to nearly triple by 2040 to 29 million metric tons.
There are five massive patches of plastic in the oceans around the world. These huge concentrations of plastic debris cover large swaths of the ocean. One patch in particular, known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” covers 20 million square kilometers of water.
That’s bigger than the combined area of the United States’ five largest states! By 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than there are fish (by weight). As of 2021, there are at least 363,762,732,605 pounds of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
Source to use: Fact Sheet: Plastics in the Ocean - Earth Day
