Plastic pollution has been
a menace to our society for decades due to continued rise in human population
combined with consumption, degradation through abiotic and oceanic factors
(fragmentation due to Ultraviolet radiation, mechanical abrasion) and their
wide applications in every human endeavours; packaging, agriculture,
automobiles, biomedical, telecommunication, building and construction,
furniture, plumbing works, transportation, etc.This is clearly evident in the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a ring of marine litter, containing large amount
of plastic wastes, in the central North Pacific Ocean located between 135-155°W
and 35-42°N .
Plastics are still in high demand in this modern era to improve
the quality of life but undoubtedly have changed the way we live. In coastal
areas, the marine pollution of plastic is increasing at alarming rate due to
indiscriminate disposal by the consumers (beach visitors, tourists,
shipping/maritime companies, fishery operators, etc.). Records have shown that
on a global scale, over 300 million metric tons of plastics are produced
annually out of which 50% of this are disposed indiscriminately into the
environment and about 4.8-12.7 million tons end up in marine ecosystem (water
column, sediment and biological tissues) as microplastics (plastic materials
<5mm), arising from degradation of larger plastic litter. (Read more)
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