Ocean plastics, along with industrial sludge accumulates around oceanic gyres. While the great pacific garbage patch is the most well known, there are similar accumulations in every ocean. The plastics accumulated here break up into smaller and smaller pieces, and enter the food chain. Contributing to the problem are microplastics used in cosmetics that are dumped into the sea without any processing or filtering. Cleaning up this mess will require a lot of concentrated effort by world governments, and environmentalists are calling for a global treaty to control indiscriminate plastic waste “disposal” in oceans, that can take up as much as 400 years to disintegrate.
Take along your own shopping bags, or use paper bags
Reduce detergent use as much as possible
Don’t buy synthetic clothing, use reusable sanitary pads, and cloth diapers for babies
Avoid disposable cutlery, eat at restaurants instead of ordering
Look for plastic free packaging
Do not use disposable cups or plastic straws
Use electric shavers or at least don’t use disposable razors
Find out about cosmetic products with microplastics and avoid using them
Do not purchase drinking water, refill your own bottle
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Aditya Madanapalle
Aditya Madanapalle, has studied journalism, multimedia technologies and ancient runes, used to make the covermount DVDs when they were still a thing, but now focuses on the science stories and features. View Full Profile
