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Careful with the plastic

The amount of plastic in the ocean baffles me. There is about 150 million tons of plastic in the ocean currently. And we keep increasing that number. Eight million pieces of plastic go into the ocean EVERY DAY! This is not good for marine life.

If we don’t fix this we are going to lose many species that are already facing extinction from over-hunting and habitat loss.

You might think “Oh it’s the other countries that are dumping all of their plastic into the ocean.” Well, you are wrong. The U.S. contributes 38 million tons of plastic a year! That’s a lot! Plastic doesn’t disintegrate easily. And it can break into pieces called microplastics. Microplastics are 5mm long. These tiny fragments of plastic can easily be ingested by an animal, causing the animal to get really sick or die. So if we want to keep our oceans healthy, we need to start thinking about where our plastic goes.

Bethany Yarbro

Spokane

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