Where Does Plastic Go in the Ocean?

Imagine you drop a plastic bag on the beach. The wind picks it up. It blows into a stream. The stream flows to the sea. Now that bag is floating in the ocean — and it could stay there for 450 years before it breaks apart. Right now, about 8 million pieces of plastic enter the ocean every single day. Let's find out where all that plastic comes from, what it does to ocean animals, and what YOU can do to help.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to: 1. Name two ways plastic travels from land into the ocean. 2. Explain how plastic harms ocean animals such as sea turtles and seabirds. 3. Name two actions you can take to help keep plastic out of the sea.

Look around you right now. A water bottle? A straw? A plastic bag? Plastic is light, cheap, and strong — great for many things. But it has one big problem: most plastic never goes away. A glass bottle breaks down in nature over about 1 million years. A plastic bag breaks down — never. Instead it breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, but stays plastic forever. Every year, people make about 380 million tons of plastic. Some gets recycled, but a LOT ends up somewhere it should not be — like rivers, streets, and the ocean.

Plastic does not have to be dropped in the sea to end up there. Here are two big ways it travels: 1. Wind: a plastic bag left on the ground can be blown into a stream or river — and rivers flow to the ocean. About 80 out of every 100 pieces of ocean plastic started on land this way. 2. Rain and storms: heavy rain washes plastic from roads and parking lots into storm drains. Many of those drains empty into rivers, which carry the plastic straight to the sea. Once plastic is in the ocean, currents carry it thousands of miles. There is even a giant swirling patch of plastic in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — it is bigger than the state of Texas!

Sea turtles love to eat jellyfish. Floating plastic bags look almost exactly like jellyfish from underwater! When a turtle swallows a bag, the plastic fills its stomach so it cannot eat real food and gets very sick. Seabirds called albatrosses fly far out over the ocean looking for fish. They spot colorful plastic pieces floating on the surface and think it is food. They bring the plastic back and accidentally feed it to their baby chicks. Whales and dolphins sometimes swallow large chunks of plastic that block their stomachs. Scientists have found more than 80 plastic bags inside a single whale. Even tiny animals called zooplankton accidentally eat microplastics — the tiny bits that big plastic breaks into in sunlight and saltwater. This puts plastic all the way into the ocean food chain, from the smallest creatures to the largest.

You do not have to be a grown-up to make a difference. Here are some things you can do RIGHT NOW: 1. Use a reusable water bottle instead of single-use plastic ones. 2. Say no to plastic straws — ask for a paper one or bring your own. 3. Pick up litter when you see it — even if it is not yours, you are helping. 4. Ask a grown-up to join or organize a beach or park cleanup. 5. Remind your family to recycle — plastic in the wrong bin can still reach the ocean.