Making Waves: How Deep Does the Plastic Go?

Every second, your body produces approximately two million red blood cells. Blink and you’re almost at two million. Read this sentence. That's about four million. Read this slightly longer sentence. Now you’re close to six million.

In a minute, your body will have produced up to 120 million red blood cells. In that same minute, the International Space Station will travel about 465km in its orbit around the Earth and the Earth will travel about 1,775km in its orbit around the sun.

In a year, the Earth will have travelled 940 million kilometres. In the same year, 11 million tonnes of plastic will have entered the ocean. That’s about 21 tonnes every minute. So, blink and add 0.35 tonnes — or 318kg. Read this five-word sentence. Now it's up to 1,000kg.

At least that’s what some scientists say.

Others believe that this oft-cited number — which the World Economic Forum likens to a truckload of plastic being dumped into the ocean every 60 seconds — may not even be telling the full story.

Christopher Harley, ecologist and professor at the University of British Columbia, acknowledges that while we may not know exactly how much plastic enters the ocean each year, we know that it is far too much.

If you dove deep into the ocean, past where sunlight reaches, past the faceless fish and the 500-million-year-old comb jellies, and into the Mariana Trench — the deepest oceanic trench on Earth — you would find traces of plastic.

A 2022 study by researchers from BC-based Ocean Wise, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Capital Regional District, and from the University of Cádiz in Spain, found varying levels of microplastics, polyester, and polyethylene (the most ubiquitous plastic in the world) PolyethylenePolyethylene's high molecular weight, crystalline composition, and chemical inertness team up to resist breakage and decay, taking centuries to break down. Its persistence coupled with its widespread use in everyday products makes it a major contributor to ocean pollution. in mussels collected along the coast of BC.

On land — as in the ocean — plastic is omnipresent. “Imagine if plastic floated in the air and every time you went outside, there were just little bits of it drifting around,” Professor Harley says. “Sometimes it would be something big like a bottle of laundry detergent and sometimes it would just be a fine mist of particles” showering down on you.

When plastic ends up in the ocean, it stays there for a very long time, he adds, longer than it would on land. And it emits greenhouse gases that change the chemistry of the ocean and make it more acidic.

That’s why cities around the world (including Vancouver) are making policy changes regarding plastic use and researchers are working on developing “plastic” without fossil fuels. Like Ranah Chavoshi, a marine biologist and founder of PhyCo, a company working with Indigenous Nations to manufacture “plastic” packaging with seaweed.

Innovating Climate Solutions

with Ranah Chavoshi

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How do you turn seaweed into plastic?

Ranah tells us what inspired the project that won her first place in the Ocean Wise Innovator Lab—developing biodegradable, non-toxic and petroleum-free plastic plastic packaging from seaweed.

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Ranah Chavoshi

Ranah Chavoshi (she/her) is a first-generation Canadian-Iranian settler on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Currently, Ranah is completing her Master’s degree in Biology at Simon Fraser University. Ranah is passionate about addressing the emerging Canadian blue economy. With her environmental non-profit experience and other scientific findings, Ranah is learning how it can be decolonized, equitable and sustainable.

And we have a part to play as well! Small behavioural changes like beach cleanups and using less plastic can make an impact. In fact, Professor Harley believes that no individual action is too small. “All these little things add up,” he says. “Every little thing you're able to do on a day-to-day basis, take a moment and congratulate yourself for being a good citizen of the planet.”

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