One of the biggest problems that the world faces would be the amount of plastic that humans use on a daily basis, as well as how much litters the oceans. Plastic can be defined as a polymeric material with the capability of being molded. Everyone knows how plastic helps to make the lives of humans easier; however, the amount of plastic used everyday that ends up in the ocean creates problems for other organisms. According to The Ocean Cleanup, “Over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently litter the ocean.” Many organisms such as birds and sea turtles mistake plastic for food and then consume it; Carleton College states, “Plastic is killing more than 100,000 sea turtles and birds a year from ingestion and entanglement.” Plastic presents itself as a troubling issue, however, the problem can be solved.
As previously mentioned, Boyan Slat, the CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, makes it his mission to clean up all of the plastic from the ocean. As of 2020, The Ocean Cleanup created sunglasses purely made with plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This will help with funding their cleanup operations in the future. They also created a boat called the Interceptor, which collects plastic and other materials that end up in waterways. They delivered Interceptors to the Klang River in Malaysia and the Cengkareng Drain in Indonesia. Other Interceptors will soon be sent to the Dominican Republic and Vietnam. Another method used to solve the problem with plastic comes with the creation of biodegradable bags. Kevin Kumala created a biodegradable bag made out of cassava root and natural starches, and when dissolved it becomes drinkable.
The problem with plastic pollution increases as the world progresses into the future, but limiting the amount of plastic in the oceans cannot be impossible. As a student, this may seem to be a daunting issue, but with people and new technologies helping to prevent the amount of plastic pollution, a better understanding of how to clean the ocean at the fraction of the cost, and simply showing determination, the world will be closer to achieving a cleaner ocean.
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