Our oceans sustain life.
An abundant ocean
can feed a billion people a healthy meal every day forever.
But now they are being filled, killed by throwaway plastics.
The equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic
is dumped in the sea every minute -
17.6 billion pounds every year.
Plastic is everywhere in our ocean -
floating on the surface,
mixing in the saltwater,
and sitting on the ocean bottom miles and miles deep.
And once in the ocean,
it never goes away.
Over hundreds of years,
it breaks down into small pieces,
but those pieces,
even the tiny ones called micro plastics,
are still plastic.
Sea turtles are choking on them.
Scientists say that over 60% of whale and dolphin species are affected by it.
It's all plankton - the base of the ocean food chain eat it -
and so, do we?
It's in the water we drink.
It's in our food.
Microplastics have been found in our salt, our honey, and our beer,
and sometimes even in the air we breathe.
Companies are choosing to make something
that will be used just once,
from a material that lasts forever.
If you don't like what throwaway plastics are already doing to our world,
brace yourself.
We face a tsunami of throwaway plastic
in our and the ocean's future.
Four times more plastic will be produced
between now and the middle of the century
than has been produced in all of history.
Four times more.
What can we do?
Recycling?
Of all the plastic ever generated as of 2015,
only 9% was recycled.
Even when it is recycled,
plastic degrades.
Your plastic soda bottle maybe becomes a shampoo bottle,
then a floor mat,
even in the best case, it doesn't recycle,
it down cyclists.
And then it becomes pollution
that ruins our beaches and chokes sea animals forever.
We should not be forced to pollute the ocean every time we eat,
drink, or go shopping.
We need to be given a choice -
a plastic-free choice.
This is not hard to imagine.
Indeed, some responsible companies are already leading the way.
There are throwaway plastic-free aisles in supermarkets.
Beverage companies already offer plastic-free soda and seltzer water.
Restaurants offer plastic-free service.
There are plastic-free rooms and hotels
An airline is now offering a plastic-free flight
And Oceana and our allies are winning plastic-free victories.
Following campaigning by Oceana,
Peru passed the law
that keeps plastic out of national parks and beaches.
Belize is getting rid of styrofoam
And the European Union
has mandated reductions for throwaway plastic
throughout its 28 member countries.
But with your help, we can do the work.
Together, we can create a movement
to reduce throwaway plastic.
We can make sure
we're all given real plastic-free choices.
We can help our cities, towns, schools, and workplaces
establish zones that are free of throwaway plastic.
Let's stop plastic pollution from wrecking our beaches and our oceans,
and have healthy oceans, the delight, the sustenance for generations to come.
Please join our campaign!
Go to oceana.org/plastics today.
Subtitles by Carol Wang