There are approximately 268,000 tonnes of plastic floating in our oceans, which equates to an average of five trillion individual pieces. It is now believed that plastic waste can be found on every beach in the world, from the busiest beaches to the most isolated and uninhabited islands.
The plastic debris not only harms ocean ecosystems but also find its way to the world's coasts and into the food chain. More than one million seabirds and over 100,000 marine mammals die every year from ingesting plastic - and these numbers are set to increase. [...]
One of the ways Ocean Legacy is attempting to address the growing interest in plastics is by using an inclusive and multifaceted approach with the aim of developing a complete zero waste clean-up programme. This includes spatial mapping, which involves communities exposed to plastic waste and allows them to report and act on the situation.
Practical clean up expeditions around Canada's west coast are also one of Ocean Legacy's methods. They organise teams from a pool of up to 5,000 volunteers to get together and physically collect plastic debris from shorelines across the country which is then transported for recycling and repurposing.
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