Researchers at the 5 Gyres Institute warn that, by 2040, the rate at which plastic enters the world’s oceans could increase 2.6-fold. But the trend can be reversed if people around the world act.
5 Gyres is a scientific organization dedicated to fighting plastic pollution and holds a special consultative status with the United Nations.
In their latest study, scientists from 5 Gyres found about 4.9 million tons of plastic floating in the oceans.
How They Found Out
The team analyzed a global dataset on ocean plastic pollution covering 40 years, from 1979 to 2019. The data came from 11,777 sampling stations across six key marine regions: the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea.
The analysis showed a sharp increase in both the amount and spread of plastic since 2005.
In 2019, researchers estimated about 358 trillion plastic particles were floating in the oceans — roughly 4.9 million tons — a figure reported by the Daily Mail.
Marcus Eriksen, co-founder and lead researcher at the 5 Gyres Institute, called the findings a global call to action.
Eriksen expressed particular concern about the exponential rise of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans in the early 2000s. However, the exact cause of that surge remains unclear. In a concluding article for the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers said the trend could be influenced by political interventions, plastic production, fragmentation of existing plastic in the water, and the quality of waste management and trade.
The researchers warned the situation could get significantly worse without immediate action.
The increasing prevalence of plastic in the ocean’s surface layer (OSL) calls for urgent intervention from global political leaders. Without such action, the team concluded, it will be impossible to reduce the ecological, social, and economic damage caused by plastic pollution.
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Last year, around 200 countries, including the United States and China, approved a new United Nations agreement that calls for reductions in plastic production by 2024.
“Plastic pollution has escalated into an epidemic,” said Espen Barth Eide, President of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA). Many viewed the approval of this agreement as a step toward addressing the crisis.
This historic agreement aims to protect the planet’s ecosystems from collapse driven by the global spread of plastic and microplastic particles.
It represents the most significant environmental agreement of its kind since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, which tasked governments with limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
