Plastic in the Environment
Small pieces of microplastics are commonly confused by filter feeders as this type of organisms
Plankton
The cycle of animals in the ocean
Marine web
To put wastes, garbage, or the like, through a cycle of purification and conversion to useful products
Recycle
A candy wrapper is what type of plastic
single use
The first R
reduce
90% of the oceans plastic pollution comes from this many rivers
10
This species comes to shore to lay eggs and can mistake plastic bags as one of their main prey items, jellyfish
Loggerhead Turtle
Larges scale water movements that create gyres.
Currents
Plastic that can be used over and over again
multi-use plastic
The second R
reuse
The amount of metric tons of plastic that are thrown in the ocean annually
8 Million Metric Tons
This large mammal that gathers food from filter feeding involuntarily filters microplastics into its stomach
Humpback Whale
Name of plastic accumulation in the North Pacific
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Small pieces of plastic that are released into the water that are then eaten by sea life.
microplastics
The third R
recycle
When the amount of plastic increases with each level of the food web
bioaccumulation
This mammal which constantly frequents our coast and travels through our inlets may mistake large pieces of plastic as a prey fish
Bottlenose Dolphin
Eliminated or discarded as no longer useful or required after the completion of a process
Waste
Microplastics come from
body wash, facewash, make-up, and other things with "beads" in them.
Besides Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle what is something you can do to help the plastic problem.
Stop using single use plastic, help clean up, make sure that trash is securely placed in a recycle or trash bin, educate others about the problem.