Mermaids Tears: Oceans of Plastic

Plastic revolutionized our life, but at what price? It has infiltrated in our everyday products, but it has also exponentially polluted our oceans. Mammals, birds and fish are strangled, mutilated and suffocated by our garbage. Eighty percent of what we throw away is made of plastic and we are only the third generation using this product. The trash vortex that pulls garbage into the open ocean creates a plastic soup because plastic does not dissolve easily, but breaks into little parts that stay around for hundreds of years. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation tries to create awareness about the pressing issue of the oceans of plastic and researches what the effects are of the infiltration of these chemicals in the food chain.

Social Interest

This documentary shocks people who have not been aware of the plastic problems in our environment. Our individual actions do have impact. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation researches the effects of us using our creeks, rivers and lakes as rubbish dumps for coffee cups and water bottles. Through a trash vortex this trash ends up in the ocean and on our shores, polluting all wildlife. Scientists such as Marcus Eriksen and Jan van Franeker contribute to the knowledge of this plastic disaster showing that it wil only get worse.

Historic Relevance

Plastic has been around for more than a hundred years. In the 1920s it began being used extensively in consumer goods. From that time on we have produced millions of tons of plastic waste. Plastics such as nylon, PVC, synthetic rubber and PET used for plastic bottles are creating a plastic soup in our oceans. Plastic does not dissolve easily and fragments, infiltrating every life form and even the sand on beaches consisting one third of plastic. From 1995 plastic recycling has become common in the United States and elsewhere and plastic is sorted according to the resin identification code developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry in 1988. Unfortunately recycling plastic is far from perfect on an industrial scale.