Facts and Figures on Marine Pollution

• The numbers are staggering: There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Of that mass, 269,000 tons float to the surface, while some four billion plastic microfibres per square kilometre litter the deep sea. 

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• Over 220 million tons of plastic are produced each year.

• Plastics can contribute to reduce our carbon footprint. They provide improved insulation, lighter packaging, are found in phones, computers, medical devices, etc. but appropriate disposal is often not addressed.

• Seven of the EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland recover more than 80% of their used plastics. However, waste and disposal remain an issue in most of the world.

• The United Nations Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.

• Once discarded, plastics are weathered and eroded into very small fragments known as micro-plastics. These together with plastic pellets are already found in most beaches around the world.

• Plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals.

• Plastic materials and other litter can become concentrated in certain areas called gyres as a result of marine pollution gathered by oceanic currents. There are now 5 gyres in our ocean.

• The North Pacific Gyre, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, occupies a relatively stationary area that is twice the size of Texas. Waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including coastal waters off North America and Japan, are drawn together.