The Plastic Problem

- We're surrounded by plastic

8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans.

Every day we discard single-use packaging, all plastic. Plastic consumer goods fill our stores, and our clothing sheds microplastic fibres.

Plastic usages are exploding. Every year, enormous amounts of plastic end up in the world's oceans. Studies estimate there are now 15–51 trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans — from the equator to the poles, from Arctic ice sheets to the seafloor. Not one square kilometre of the ocean anywhere on earth is free of plastic pollution.

The problem is growing into a catastrophe. The fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40 % over the next decade.

We need urgent action to address the global plastic pollution epidemic.

Unfortunately, plastic is so durable that every bit of plastic ever made still exists. As a result, all five of the Earth's major ocean gyres are filled with plastic pollution. The largest one has been named the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.