Our oceans are in crisis. Plastic waste dumped in our waterways and spilling out into the oceans was estimated at eight million tons last year. That’s equivalent to a dump truck full of water bottles, nappies, and other discarded plastics every minute. The more frightful part, though, is that this volume could reach staggering proportions such that the plastic finding its ways into the oceans would be more than the aquatic sea life by 2050 – that is, if nothing drastic is done. The observance of World Environment Day a fortnight ago highlights the need for humans to rethink how they use and dispose of plastics. Coastal cleanups help, but new studies have shown that these have best accomplished to collect less than a percent of the debris now accumulating in the oceans.

Gamboa, R. (2018, June 21). Saving the oceans. The Philippine Star, pp. B8, B9.