Washington: An ocean conservationist has claimed that there is approximately 315 billion pounds of plastic in the oceans as of today.
Stiv Wilson of the ocean conservation group 5 Gyres has made the first attempt to tally how much plastic is in the global ocean.
According to him, if one visualizes a ‘super tanker’ that could skim plastic 500 million at a time, one would need 630 of them to do the job, or about 17 percent of the planet`s current fleet of oil tankers.
To put it another way, every American produces about 600 pounds of garbage each year.
"What I really fear is a barge full of plastic coming in under the Golden Gate bridge, the media taking pictures and people thinking oh good, we`ve solved that problem,” Discovery News quoted Wilson as saying.
"I really want to see people`s efforts focused on beach cleanups," he said.
"They`re free, can be organized in a grassroots way, and they can make a massive difference. A hundred people on a beach picking up plastic for a weekend can clean up as much as a barge can hold," Wilson added.
ANI
