Recent analysis has revealed that more plastic is deposited on the ocean floor than on the surface.
Denis Hardesty from Australia’s government science agency CSIRO has conducted research where he concluded that there could be more than thirty times as much plastic at the bottom of the ocean than on the surface of it.
Ocean sediments collected from the depth of 3km in the ocean suggest millions of tones of plastic waste sitting at the bottom of our oceans which can be more than 5mm in width.
Experts working in CSIRO looked at 51 samples and measured microplastic pieces in the water from remote areas in the ocean around Australia to come up with the staggering numbers.
Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, Dr. Denise Hardestry says that finding microplastic in such depths of the ocean and in such remote locations suggests the “ubiquity of plastics, no matter where you are in the world.”
We need to pause and think about the world we live in and what damages our consumer habits have caused. The new deep-sea data and research from Australia could be combined with other worldwide efforts for future studies to get more accurate data.
A recent study revealed estimated 19m-23m tones of plastic being dumped in our water bodies just in the year 2016. A previous study estimated over 8.5 m tones of plastics are dumped on the ocean each year.
Leaders from 70 countries have pledged to stop plastic from entering the ocean by 2050.
