The Plastic Crisis

Plastic Is Killing Our Oceans

Verified figures from the UN Environment Programme, the OECD, The Ocean Cleanup and peer-reviewed research.

01 The Annual “Dump”

Roughly 11 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean every year from land, about one garbage truck every minute. Without major changes, that flow is projected to nearly triple by 2040. An estimated 75–199 million tons have already built up in the ocean.

Sources: Pew Charitable Trusts & SYSTEMIQ, Breaking the Plastic Wave (2020); UNEP

02 The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The patch covers about 1.6 million km², roughly three times the size of France, and holds an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. Fishing nets make up much of its weight, but 94% of the individual pieces are microplastics.

Source: Lebreton et al., Scientific Reports (2018)

03 Impact on Marine Life

Plastic kills an estimated 1 million seabirds and over 100,000 marine mammals every year through entanglement and ingestion. Plastic has been found in the guts of all seven species of sea turtle.

Source: UN Environment Programme

04 The Invisible Threat

Much of the plastic that reaches the sea doesn’t float forever. It sinks to the seafloor, where it is nearly impossible to recover, and breaks into microplastics that have now been found in Arctic ice, the deepest ocean trenches, seafood and human blood.

Where it starts: our rivers

More than 1,000 rivers carry about 80% of the plastic that rivers deliver to the ocean. That’s why Oceans4Us works upstream, on Virginia’s James, Rapidan and Rappahannock. See the River to Reef connection →

Source: Meijer et al., Science Advances (2021)