Abstract

Try to spend a day not touching plastic and you find that plastic is everywhere: in cups, plates, packaging, toys, computers, phones, clothes, cars, bikes … the list goes on and on.  So where does the plastic go when we are done with it?  Some gets recycled, some goes to dumps, and some, unfortunately, ends up as litter on land and in the ocean.  How much plastic trash is in the ocean?  The short answer is: a lot.  Tons, in fact.  But there are very few scientific estimates of plastic waste.  Further, not every piece of plastic is the same: some pieces are big and some are too small to see.  It is important to determine the different kinds of plastic, as they can have very different impacts on wildlife and ocean health.