How Much Plastic Do You Eat? #OurBluePlanet | Earth Science

For more information on this fascinating science check out the following links from the University of Exeter:

This video was made as part of #OurBluePlanet, a digital partnership between BBC Earth and Alucia Productions that aims to get people talking about our oceans. Join the conversation over on Twitter @OurBluePlanet.

We must apologise as there is a spelling mistake which was spotted after the video was uploaded and set live on YouTube. At 8:50 it should read as contaminant.

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[nursyahidah]

I am a teacher in malaysia and awareness regarding these issues are very low. I share your videos with my students and its geat to see the impact it has on the students. Thank you very much for these well researched and in depth topics. However, can you please include english subtitles? It would help even further in their confidence with english and increase student participation

[DivingWithMatt]

Its so scary, I spend a ton of time in the ocean and we always find plastic. I've talked with people who have done deep sea research and they have found plastic on the bottom, in places that have never been seen before.

[EdwardAbrilTV]

Being from Miami it isn’t unusual to go on your family’s or friends boat every weekend or going to the beaches. One thing I noticed here is that in the 90’s and early 2000’s was that you couldn’t go several feet without seeing plastic in the water or the coast. My family, friends and I were always taught to pick up everything you saw, And we did all the time. Going back to shore or back home with huge bags of mainly plastic every time. But I noticed something ever since mid 2000’s I can’t remember picking up anything anymore. I never see plastic or garbage on the water or the coast. I know people are going to say ooh yea but Miami takes care of that because of tourism. It’s true but only in the main Miami Beach area. We have the Everglades and many other waterfronts that no tourist has gone or will know about. Being part of a coastal city that loves the sea I’ve seen changes for the better in my part of the world . I have traveled to other places in the world that have the same problem we did but I hope one day we can all pitch in and save our home. Long comment I know but Greg if you read this I have a question. Even tho the estimate is 1 garbage truck load going into the sea today, do you think I could of been higher years or decades before? And also like you always do with all your videos now i can’t have my daily fish without thinking of plastic.

[cbflazaro]

ironic on how that lab has plastic bins, plastic bottles, plastic tubs, cupboards with plastic handles and so on.

[ayszhang]

This is inevitable if we want efficiency and economies of scale. We as individual consumers are so detached from the production and delivery process and then the disposal process that we don't realize what we are doing. Out of sight out of mind

[hasiebambina]

I have a question. As a consumer, I re-use every plastic bag and put all my used plastic items in bins provided. How come that my plastic ends up in the ocean? Isn't it the responsibility of each county/government to make sure that trash is collected and getting rid of in the correct way to avoid pestering the environment? So when micro plastic is not filtered in our current water filters, why don't you put in filters that do filter out micro plastic? If there are tons of plastics in the ocean, why don't you find ways to filter them out of the ocean? I've seen projects that invented those filters for plastics in oceans. Or why don't you establish laws to only use degradable plastic bags, which are also already invented? I don't get Why it is the consumer responsibility alone to change something, when it is clearly out of our hands to do so here. Why don't you establish laws to address the issue on a bigger level? The consumer can't establish laws to protect environment and punish polluters.

[DrDeathAribertHeimHk]

What about tiny particles of metals that are 100x times smaller than a blood cell being sprayed into our atmosphere? And coming back down, caught up in weather currents and raining back down on us & travel in/among the wind currents?

[allan.n.]

OMG that's embarrasing .. Dane here.. and one of the bottles are a danish "Red bull" kinda energy drink thingy (the alien green bottle - Faxe Kondi) - a beaverage I believe sold only here in DK.. the story I imagine must be that of it beeing disposed at one of our (wonderful btw) sand beaches .. and then it floated to England... so embarrassing.. so very very embarrassing

[sulliadi]

Wait. I just think about this. Traditional salt processing is simply evaporating seawater in a pond like thingy. So is that mean our table salt is contaminated with microplastics?

Edit: So yeah, I did a quick search on google. And yes, microplastic has been found on salt. So I'm just thinking. Is there any technologies available to degrade these plastics like a particular microbe or enzyme that can be implemented in large scale?

[gallendugall]

But what kind of wine goes with plastics?

[codidecodi]

Imagine when this guy realizes that he's breathing in plastic, and drinking water that's also contaminated.

[Harrave]

This is an amazing discovery that the world needs to learn about. I may have not lived in this world for a long time but I sure do feel guilty for what humankind has done to Earth and all the other species of animals affected by our waste and the disregard we have for their life. i know effort counts and always trying to be kind to nature and environmental wary is important but an individual effort is not going to seem like it has an impact on the world without the rest of the entire world doing the same. What can or should we do?

[moustafa]

11:30, one should not lean on lab coats like that

[zdrux]

I wonder why they don't dump any plastics in my backyard? Maybe because it's private property and people take great care to secure their private property.

[sheldonaubut]

I have a question about the relationship of "plastics" we are talking about here to the artificial rubber used in tires. I'd be quite confident to deduce that tires are thrown into the ocean every day which I'm sure is part of the problem. And everyone who drives a car knows that their tire wear out. The tires on our cars are constantly depositing very fine rubber particles on every road we drive, massive amounts of tire dust every day, month and year. Much of this tire dust ends up being blown on the winds of the earth, washed into rivers and deposited in the world's waterways and oceans. Is there any research being done into the hazards of these fine particulates?

[Nobody-U-Want--Know]

Plastics release estrogen-like hormones as they degrade; Could plastics in the food chain be the reason for Male testosterone levels declining 50% in 50 years?

[Eirini]

Hello! I am a student and doing research on the field of microplastics in marine ecosystems. I would like to add Greek subtitles to your video, so that I can share it with friends and my University community. Could you add the open link for adding subtitles?

[brothernick]

It becomes a non-toxic mineral in nature just like limestone sand. There are a ton of minerals like sand. No evidence of harm. Also, buried plastic bottles have been found to turn into a slug breaking down into their natural elimines. The thing to do is to require plastic to be buried in land fills and like wood planks, not dumped in oceans cause they float.

[whittenaw]

I'd like to know how it's going with that fungus they discovered ib Ecuador that has adapted to consume the plastic. I feel like there could be a solution there as long as that same fungus wouldn't act like an invasive species if we were to put it to good use

[esssquire]

Please note that nano-plastics are also found in bottles of water all over the world, according to a study. The study included bottles of water in most countries around the globe and included most water companies. Solution: DRINK WATER FROM GLASS BOTTLES and avoid plastic bottles of water.