(ORDO NEWS) — According to the environmental research project 5Gyres, the amount of plastic in the marine environment has been growing at an unprecedented rate in recent decades.
Experts argue that the situation can change the global agreement on the fight against polymer waste at the UN level.
Scientists from the American organization 5Gyres Institute to combat plastic pollution said that by 2040 the amount of plastic debris in the ocean could increase by more than 2.6 times compared to the current level.
According to Reuters, citing a study by the company, by 2019 there were about 171 trillion plastic particles in the oceans of the Earth.
The data of the report is based on information on plastic pollution of the sea surface provided by 11.7 thousand scientific stations in six main sea regions from 1979 to 2019.
The study found that the level of marine plastic pollution in the oceans has been underestimated.
“We have found an alarming trend towards the exponential growth of microplastics in the world‘s oceans since the turn of the millennium.
We need a strong legally binding UN global treaty on plastic pollution that eliminates the problem at an early stage,” said Markus Eriksen, co-founder of 5 Gyres.
Microplastics are especially dangerous for the ecology of the oceans, as they not only pollute the water, but also damage the internal organs of marine animals and birds, which mistakenly take them for food.
Last November in Uruguay, the UN began negotiations on an agreement to combat plastic pollution, with the goal of developing a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024.
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