11 million tons of plastic could have accumulated on the ocean floor

There could already be 11 million tons of plastic accumulated on the ocean floor. This follows from the first study of bottom debris, which noticed Malaysian media Sinar Daily.

By estimates Scientists from the CSIRO scientific agency and the University of Toronto estimate that the mass of plastic debris on the ocean floor can range from three to eleven million tons. These figures were given to them by a model based on data from remotely operated vehicles and bottom trawling. The study concerns only large waste: cups, bags, nets.

“We knew that millions of tons of plastic waste ended up in the oceans every year, but we didn’t know how much of that pollution ended up on the ocean floor,” says researcher Denise Hardesty.

Scientists have found that 46% of plastic waste settles around the continents, the rest goes into the ocean and sinks deeper.

• Every year humanity produces about 400 million tons of plastic waste. Of these, according to various estimates, from 9 to 14 million tons end up in the ocean. People leave plastic products on the coast, throw them from fishing boats into the sea, and they are also carried away from the land by rivers.
• Animals ingest plastic in their food, causing illness and death. In 2023, scientists first diagnosed plasticosis in birds, a fibrosis of the stomach caused solely by the ingestion of plastic.
• Microplastics rise from the surface of the ocean, spread across the planet, and end up in water and food. Scientists have calculated that the average person on Earth “eats” a plastic bank card per week. In March 2022, microplastics were first discovered in human blood.