A new report released by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation claims that there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish by the year 2050, according to the Guardian. Dame Ellen MacArthur, a record-breaking sailor, is calling on the industry to clean up its act and also claims that within 35 years, new plastics will eat up 20 percent of the world's oil productions, which is up from the 5 percent that we see today.
The report claims that each year "at least 8 million tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean - which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute. If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050."
Although there is a constant, growing demand for plastics, a meager 5 percent of them are recycled properly, 40 percent end up in a landfill and approximately one-third end up in ecosystems such as the world's oceans. Still, plastics production is 20 times the number that was observed in 1964, with 2014 counts reaching 311 million tonnes. Furthermore, this number is expected to double in the next 20 years and by 2050 it will be almost quadruple what it is today.
Plastic is one of the world's most popular materials due to its functionality at a very low price due to its small production costs, according to CNN. If current trends are any indication, its use will continue to grow and without drastic actions, pollution of oceans worldwide will continue.
"In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish [by weight]," reads the report.
In a separate study, researchers searched for a solution to our current plastic pollution problem and used computer modeling to determine that utilizing collecting devices near coasts would help remove approximately 31 percent of microplastics, which stem from the breakdown of larger plastic items, according to the Independent.
