Everything We Know About Ocean Plastic Pollution So Far | The Ocean Cleanup

Ocean plastic pollution is a global emergency. Trillions of pieces of plastic waste are floating in our oceans right now - and solving a challenge so huge requires understanding the facts behind the problem. This is our understanding of ocean plastic pollution today.
Learn more about the problem of ocean plastic pollution here: theoceancleanup.com/ocean-pla...
Make sure to subscribe to our KZbin channel to stay updated: bit.ly/371k8sN
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:28 Plastic production and disposal statistics
01:14 Plastic usage and waste management infrastructure
01:51 Plastic emissions into the oceans through rivers
03:56 Plastic accumulation in 5 gyres in our oceans
04:47 Fishing gear - source of plastic pollution
05:38 Why we need to clean up the garbage patches
06:16 Conclusion
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Learn more and support us at www.theoceancleanup.com/
And follow The Ocean Cleanup on:
Facebook: TheOceanCleanup/
Twitter: TheOceanCleanup
Instagram: theoceancleanup
TikTok: tiktok.com/@theoceancleanup
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Sources used:
doi.org/10.1787/de747aef-en
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-02...
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz5803
iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
www.frontiersin.org/articles/...
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
www2.deloitte.com/content/dam...
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20724...
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16...
www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2...
doi.org/10.1038/srep03263
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
www.nature.com/articles/s4146...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs....
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[@theoceancleanup]

Learn more about the problem of ocean plastic pollution here: theoceancleanup.com/ocean-plastic/

[@NurilGamer999]

thanks for this. also Vox's video explaining this too

[@otakukj]

This is both enlightening and horrifying at the same time. In any case I'm so glad at least someone out there is doing real work on this. Keep it up!

[@phantomplastics6582]

See my comment - the information shown contradicts the latest scientific evidence

[@Misterdandamanify]

@Tobi Gibbons we need to do something about the source

[@Misterdandamanify]

Real work is when we do something about the source

[@otakukj]

@@Misterdandamanify you're not wrong but that seems unlikel for the average consumer. I think the only hope for that regard is AI/robots sorting trash and finding new materials/ways to recycle. Most people are too slow to change as it seems, and the big corporations definitely aren't going to go out of their way to fix the problem.

[@Misterdandamanify]

@@otakukj with the source I mean less production, less rubbish products, less less less

[@livenletlive7537]

Thank goodness there is a company that is actually doing something about the floating plastic garbage polluting our waterways and marine life. My family and I no longer purchase any single use plastic anything for 8 years. We bought glass bottles with stainless steel tops and we have a water distiller and reverse osmosis to purify our water of all contaminants. We fill up those glass bottles with water, or tea or coffee or home made juice. We no longer drink any soda for the last 8 years. We make our own chips/crisps and season it to our liking. I have made bees wax food covers instead of plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Leftovers go in glass bowls or jars. We buy our produce in bulk at farmers markets and it gets canned in glass mason jars that are used over and over again for many years. If an item at the grocery store comes in plastic and glass, I will buy the one in glass. I can reuse that glass for years. Just imagine if every family did that globally....how much of a reduction in plastic that would be.

[@dustintacohands1107]

Laws need to change people buying 30 pack of water in plastic bottles and throwing away the bottles everytime doesn’t work.

[@pippigreenheart]

Thank you! Down here in Olon, Ecuador we have beach cleanup weekly. We can always use more help. Lots of fishing rope is found.

[@tomtechno827]

very educative and clean animations. please consider translating this video into as much languages as possible, for people to learn.

[@JessmanChicken86]

This is such a great overview of the plastic problem. There's so much foggy information out there, but this gets to the root of the issue.

[@TakingtheTRASHOUTwithAaron]

Thank you for this informative summary and all the research and hard work The Ocean Cleanup is doing.

[@aquejuegas]

Another masterpiece from TOC. I follow you from the very beginning while living in the NL and see the improvements in how you communicate the progress. The only downside is that TOC hiring process experience does not seem the best. I have struggled to get proper feedback, even for volunteering positions!

[@lp-gv1fc]

same experience

[@DanielPetukhin]

Excellent summary of a complicated subject.

[@CombatPlasticPollution]

Thank you for this excellent presentation, and thank you for working on neutralizing the ticking time bomb of plastic! Beyond that we think that taxes on plastic production and consumption are a must have, in order to accomplish an industry shift towards better solutions.

[@philipfuchshartmann]

I love what you are doing for our environment. Please keep up the good work. God bless.

[@ChrisBigBad]

Beautiful! Excellent animation.

[@besanzaz]

Very important info. Good job. Thank you.

[@sylrider]

Great video with tons of useful information. Though I think it is sad that it doesn’t speak about a few important things: - plastic cannot be recycled forever. Most plastic will be recycled a few times only and then they become useless - how much plastic is burried in landfields and end up pollution the soil (as horrible as plastic in he ocean and not a long term solution either) - it looks like only a very small percentage goes to the ocean: yeah but it still represents millions of tons every year which is too much Only fully biodegradable and recyclable solutions can be a long term solution. Continuing to use plastic by billions of tons and taking a few millions out of the ocean (with environmental cost) is just trying to put a bandaid on a cut head. I’d love to see alternative solutions to plastic that are ok for the environment!

[@TheLRider]

Agree totally menwhile we all feel good that someone is doing something still allowing us to carry on with business as usual.. And BTW plastics don't reoresent the biggest threat to our beutiful oceans, climate change does and no one seems to be feeling happy that we're doing anything significant to avert that disaster.. CO2 emissions continue to grow as does the average global temperature including our oceans.

[@reinaldomartinez13]

This gives me hope in the world

[@Per_Ragnar]

Great video

[@justinmas299]

Knowledge is power

[@ZorcoLP]

what a great animation + narration

[@grugruu]

Really brilliant video, all there is to know on this topic. I'm definitely sharing this.

[@AcheForWake]

Thank you for the facts - video production was nice too.

[@joepio2989]

Always a fan of this organization. These mini animated videos are a smart way to get the message out and understood. Keep up the good work. Thank you for all that you do.

[@IanAgrimis]

Fascinatingly terrible. Super challenging problem, but extremely well presented and succinct way of looking at it.

[@krake-cgn]

Great summary on the issue! Keep up the good work.

[@auroraRealms]

Thank you. This is very educational. I would like to add my 2 cents. The plastic is being produced at excessive rates because: it is a by product of oil refineries. It sits somewhere between gasoline and diesel. Also, since it is between these two, it cannot be processed and used as anything else. Its uses are either heat energy (in the form of external combustion) or plastic.

[@josefinematildehansenvonki2384]

Love your research. Please continue the great work❤

[@tejbirsingh5661]

Great video, thank you very much. I am concerned about plastic in the ocean, and this helped me understand the problem much better than before. Keep up the good work!

[@Dysiode]

I appreciate the consistent stress that our understand is evolving and changing and we may learn something new tomorrow

[@DriftBros]

Love what you guys are doing for the world! Peace and Love to you!

[@nasyawman9827]

Thank you ocean clean-up .

[@lcaraballos]

Thank you for sharing this ❤

[@Boasske]

Wondering how possible it is to clear out the micro plastics from the ocean. Guessing that's a real hard nut to crack but an important one for the following decades after collecting the 'bigger' pieces and stopping inflow at key points. Looking forward to everything you guys will continue to do.

[@polmonroig1182]

Thank you for all the work you are doing. This video is amazing!!! It explains so much. I'll definitely donate anything I can

[@JayKumar-fo1ns]

Love the work. Keep it up. 🎉

[@Frankiewizard]

Well done good video. Are there subtitles for it in French, Spanish & German so my friends can understand it ?

[@OceanGoodVibes]

Very interesting! Thanks to share this video!

[@richardfewer9348]

Keep it up . Thanks

[@A-ge6fr]

Really interesting!

[@robri87-hh4gr]

There are millions of people who at one time lived without plastic and plastic pollution. I’m 88 years old and was brought up during the 30s’ 40s’ and 50s’ before plastic appeared on the scene. There was simply no plastic rubbish anywhere. Plastic bags did not exist. I went to 2 different schools, in the 1940s and 50,s each with about 200 students. Neither school had council rubbish collection. We didn’t need it. Both schools didn’t have garbage cans. All we had was a wooden box, and the only thing thrown in the box was paper lunch wrappings and a few bread crusts. In the afternoon one of the older boys, if there was paper in the box, would empty the box into a small hole at the back of the school ground and burn it. The only thing left was a few bread crusts, and the birds would clean those up. Kids took their lunch to school in a brown paper bag, and would carefully fold the bag up, and take it home to be used the next day. Today a school with 200 students would fill an industrial garbage bin with plastic waste every day. Things like milk bottles and soft-drink bottles were returned to the factory, washed and used over and over again. One of the biggest plastic polluters today is plastic toys. Toy manufacturing is up in the top 10 as one of the world's worst polluters. Back in my time kids had 5 toys and played with 5 toys. Today kids have, on average 112 toys, but only play with 5, or none, as they prefer to play with their mobile phone or tablet. Most of the bits and pieces of plastic that kill birds come from plastic toys.

[@kiha6702]

Well done 👏

[@0517-uj4vx]

Feel the seriousness of marine litter and we need to pay attention to solving this problem!

[@beachchickensmedia]

Great work on this video, super clear and straight to the point! Does anyone know what studio animated this video?

[@richard_beerens_designs]

It was me! ✌️

[@beachchickensmedia]

@@richard_beerens_designs bravo! love the animation. it's a dream of mine to work with them as well.

[@John-zi4ii]

"GO OCEAN CLEANIP 2024" AWESOME VIDEO ! 😊

[@ludadubrovina3045]

Thank you for Interceptor 007! The movie is awsome!

[@rahulpujari3632]

I am working on a ocean bound plastic renewal recycling startup in mumbai , india, would love to connect with people working on similar projects and similar startups and companies

[@mediumsmoke7823]

More people need to see this and need to understand what they can do to reduce their plasic emmisions and/or their eating habits. Not eating fish can have a big impact f.e.

[@marilynnorourke56]

I saw that the sunglasses that you created from ocean plastic sold out several months ago.- and I'm glad to see you get funding. Now I'm wondering if you are going to be selling any other items to raise funds for more Interceptors-- coaster sets, picture frames...maybe...or make material that can be used in a 3d printer. hope to hear back soon Thank you for saving the planet. Don't know what would happen without you.

[@misterkillroyklassen9796]

Why is this only watched 300k times yet?

[@universe......8591]

It is just heart breaking to see nature suffering like this😢

[@grondhero]

Nice to see a factual summary of the ocean plastic problem instead of the 'doom & gloom and all plastic ends up in the ocean' propaganda others put out. It would have been nice to have added where the major contributors are located (China, India, and an African country whose name I forget) as part of the report. I would also be interested to know how much the problem was exacerbated when China stopped recycling plastic due to costs.

[@kirstenviers7928]

Thank you. My biggest concerns still are that we have chemical war weapons on the bottom of our ocean, seeping out and warming up/suffocating our wild life. It would be like swimming in glue instead of oxygenated water. To add insult to injury one fishing line can drag one of our animals down. The hypocrisy of hearing people talk about saving lives while completely disregarding the rest of the creatures in our animal kingdom some days, is to hard to contain.

[@ponesty]

China is the biggest contributor to this problem

[@javierchavez5095]

para seguir pensando...

[@Mart77]

In human history we acknowledge 4 distinctive periods - stone age, iron age, bronze age and plastic age

[@findbluesky]

Clearly the industry whose primary activity involves throwing plastic into the ocean (fishing) need to be brought onboard to create a solution to this problem

[@overover..]

People are desperate to believe that we are all awful, so they can feel virtuous about their reusable coffee cup... if fishermen are exposed as the real problem, then why did I spend so much time Instagramming my virtuous green coffee cup?

[@shif06]

why is this not on BBC every week.

[@thehoodie7740]

Can you dive deeper into microplastics?

[@v0ort]

Great video! One remark though, found it hard to listen to this voiceover. It was a bit too much. PS. would be cool to do a collab with Kurzgesagt!

[@originator4649]

Too much?

[@magnerodland6694]

Very good, illustrated film, but I don’t agree with all your conclusion. For instant you said several times that most plastic waste stay on the cost it was dropped. That is not true. Huge amount of plastic floating in the upper sea layer along the costs is being transported to other destination often fare away in the millions of tonnes ocean going ships carry in their ballast. Ship load between 25 000 to 50 000 tons of sea water after compilation discharging their cargo most microplastic floating around I ports and the coast end therefore up in next load port. My hope is that all ocean-going ship asap are forced to have a so called Ceobas doble bottom. In this way microplastic can also be collected before the it ends up in the food chain.

[@yusufbuluhndapyusuf-mp7kf]

Wow, the plastic waste is good for recycling

[@wickerske]

I wonder though, WHY do we use oil-based plastics?

[@videogalore]

Industrial scale fishing is to the ocean as industrial scale farming is to the land - detrimental!

[@MrMonsteryoyo]

Great ... I dont feel shit at all after watching this

[@robri87-hh4gr]

One of the big plastic polluters is plastic water bottles. A million plastic bottles are purchased across the world every minute of the day. Why would you buy water in a bottle, if clean tap water is available. Where does this bottled water come from and how pure is it? There have been tests done that proves bottled water is not as clean as it says on the bottle. It’s mostly ground water. City tap water goes through a filtration system that costs up to $15, 000,000. So would you rather drink groundwater, or water from a 15 million dollar filtration plant?

[@MrCalbber]

Landfills are not a viable solution either (anymore)...

[@DavidShepheard]

Nice presentation, but I don't think you should be grouping recycled plastics and incinerated plastics together. As a planet we should be increasing the amount of plastic that is recycled, to lower the amount of petroleum based products we harvest from below the ground. And we should be avoiding burning plastics, as it's not good to be releasing those chemicals into the atmosphere. Ocean Cleanup itself, made some stuff from recycled ocean plastic. And, if you want to avoid having plastic end up in the sea, then pushing people to recycle as much plastic, as possible, has to be the way to manage the problem. If we don't push for better recycling of plastic, then the Interceptors are either going to end up supplying plastic to places that pollute the atmosphere, or we are going to have more and more plastic being landfilled, with microplastics breaking down under the ground, instead of in the sea. So, I think that part of the video goes a bit against what Ocean Cleanup is trying to do. Next time you do something like this, I think you should separate out recycling from incineration. And, when you talk about developing countries and middle-income countries I think you should do a bit of investigation into their ability to create their own plastics. Are some countries creating a non-closed loop plastic system? Or are those countries importing goods, from more developed countries and finding themselves stuck with a bunch of imported plastic packaging? You have done some very good research, and found out that thing about the thousand rivers. But if the plastic going into those rivers is mostly imported plastic from more developed countries, the world might need people in developed nations to start pressuring their governments to set up export laws that reduce the amount of plastic sent overseas. (We might also need multinationals to buy back their plastic waste from developing nations and middle-income nations, and take it to places where it can be recycled correctly.) You say you want the Ocean Cleanup to go out of business. Assuming you can make the Great Pacific Garbage Patch small enough to be uneconomical to harvest, that might work...for a while. I can see you needing to switch to the other gyres and the problem would be smaller and smaller. But ultimately, the world needs to understand what countries are creating plastic, what countries are exporting plastic, what countries are recycling plastic and what countries are "loosing" plastic from the system. Plastic needs to have its own equivalent of the way that water goes from the sea to clouds. It has to do what the food chain does. But, as an artificial substance, it needs to have a closed loop system that is funded by the people who create plastic products. And, I don't say that as a "finger wagging" blame-storm thing. I say it because, if the Ocean Cleanup is going to eventually make itself go out of business, the long-term solution to the problem needs to be self-funding by then. And, as much as I think the Ocean Cleanup is awesome, we can't all be buying expensive sunglasses made from audited plastic, rescued from the ocean or from some other place. This stuff has to be "normal". We need it to be cheaper to protect the environment than to damage it.

[@user-wp9ye7wn9w]

Topic! Of plastic 🙆

[@robri87-hh4gr]

One of the worst things thrust on the human population today is Online Shopping. It’s grown to an estimated 24 million online shops. Most of the stuff bought online is pointless plastic junk. The amount of non-recyclable packaging online shopping generates is staggering. Returned items from online shopping is either smashed up, burnt, or thrown to landfill. The amount of fossil fuel burnt to deliver online articles is far greater than if you were to purchase the item locally. Drug dealers setting up fake online sites is a problem for police worldwide. Highly skilled drug dealers on the dark web know how to keep one step ahead of the police.

[@Godzzbinzz]

I dont believe only 0.5% end up in the ocean. I beliebe its much more than that. Dont forget we cant see how much has sunk..nonetheless great video and great organisation.

[@dsweedler]

This video makes clear that removing floating plastic that has accumulated in floating gyres is not a long term solution to stopping the plastic waste stream accumulating in our oceans and waterways. Even if you succeed in keeping our ocean gyres super clean, the greater mass of plastic will continue to accumulate, but isn't visible. So calling it the "Ocean Cleanup" is a misnomer as it is really only the visible oceanic gyre cleanup and nothing more. Keepinour oceanic gyres clean will encourage doing nothing by most middle income countries as rich countries fund a solution to their inactivity on change.

[@theoceancleanup]

Our vision for The Ocean Cleanup was to combine the legacy cleanup with preventive interventions in rivers, which avoid for more plastic to enter the oceans. As for the plastic in coastal zones, they will beach relatively quickly and can then be removed to avoid them re-entering the ocean.

[@dsweedler]

@@theoceancleanup Your progress is incrediable and your research has contributed greatly to our understanding of plastic sources and sinks. But by cleaning up low or middle income country rivers, you are creating a future lose - lose for all of us as these countries need to STOP DISPOSAL OF PLASTICS AND GARBAGE IN THEIR OWN RIVERS. And this plastic barrier will allow no action to occur while rich countries feel guilty and "solve these internal problems at our own cost. Cleanup of ocean gyres allows Chinese fleets to continue overfishing our oceans with zero consequence and a future environmental disaster. Nets must not be abandoned at sea.

[@anneshaughnessy2754]

If we (those who do not need to rely on fish for survival, which is 99% of the population) could stop supporting the devastating fishing industry, this would be a huge help. Unfortunately, our species seems to be too selfish to try to protect our one and only home.

[@overover..]

Political unpopular, it would require asking the non western world to pull finger... hard to feel virtuous about that hence so little momentum on the problem

[@Cristi55]

la música no deja oir el texto

[@stevebrierley9806]

Aahhh ! That would be gibberish then !

[@Manjunathnswamy]

What’s dangerous to us ,mother earth kept hidden under we digging out like gold to plastic

[@trippydalejr]

We should stop waisting money fighting carbon and start focusing on plastic waist management.

[@bertdekievit1240]

fishers....

[@tipltopl3104]

The speech could be improved. I cannot understand everything the best way. Please make a new recording if possible.

[@cembora4849]

I could never imagine fishing gear is kind a problem. But as I see from your videos yea, fishing is complete disaster. They overfish also put their trash to ocean which kills more fish.

[@jude999]

I have been to poor and developing countries and they just throw it directly into the water environment.

[@Sync5121]

If we’re paying carbon tax due to use of car that uses gasoline instead of EV, why aren’t companies like Pepsi and coke being taxed for plastic pollution.

[@user-yb9ie7iu2j]

Я просто хочу быть здесь русским комментарием.

[@valeriacocchi4875]

God does exists

[@driezzy]

Voiceover isn't great

[@Felyrion]

Yeah, didn't want to finish watching this because of it.

[@treesandfishing6532]

Not sure who is narrating this i could only listen for about 20 seconds now im writing this comment. Its a shame cuz i like the title and the thumbnail caught my eye but then i click on it and the person talking sounds like they been drinking bud light...

[@driezzy]

Same, voiceover isn't great. Crackling voice on so many words.

[@pp2475]

It sounds good to me. You can always turn on captions anyways so that's not really a problem

[@Felyrion]

Yeah, sound like this "vocal fry" hype... so annoying

[@Its_elena2]

More that 50% of pollution in ocean is due to fishing and your are the only to speak about that

[@crgiganti8827]

Yea, you know better than people literally testing this for decades

[@Its_elena2]

​@@crgiganti8827It is the waste that we find the most

[@thecoi7672]

What do you all do with 100% of the garbage collected? This should be stated in every video and short created. You've fund raised 10's of millions to collect trash. Not 1 video nor short explaining where it all goes?

[@oskoloff8363]

проплачено гретой тунберг

[@forestrun8092]

Сразу видно, это реальный сигма, не то что другие.

[@EpicR_NL]

Great video but what a terrible voice of the voice over.

[@rabinderluhana1496]

PLEASE BAN PLASTIC GUYS ON EVERY COUNTRY !! && USE MORE BIO DEGRADEBLE THINGS!!

[@sualK2456]

It's all fake....the greate pacific blablabla get mi a video of it !