marine animals

If you’ve ever laid on a blanket and looked up at the night sky, you know how mind-blowing it is to consider the sheer number of stars in our galaxy – between 100 and 400 billion, according to scientists. Now, think about how heartbreaking it is to find out that there are more microscopic pieces of plastic in our oceans than there are stars in the Milky Way. [1]
Source: National Ocean Service

The world’s oceans are filled with plastic. More than 5 million pieces of it are floating around, being eaten by fish and passed up the food chain. Every year, more than 100,000 marine animals and seabirds are killed by plastic waste.
Illustration: P. Huey. Sourced from U.T. Bornscheuer, Science 351:1154 (2016).
Of the 342 million tons of plastic produced each year, a tiny fraction of it – about 14% – is recyclable.