Marine Plastic Pollution and Marine Debris
Plastic water pollution affects ecosystems around the world. Today, plastics are the most common type of marine debris polluting rivers, lakes, and oceans. Items like discarded plastic water bottles break down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which persist in the environment for years. Some pollution also comes from manufactured microplastics, known as nurdles, which are used to produce many plastic goods.
Most plastic debris starts on land. It enters waterways through storm drains, wind, surface runoff, and human activity. Common sources include litter, packaging, and industrial waste. Once in the water, this pollution often travels downstream to the ocean. Strategic barriers such as debris booms can intercept and contain plastic water pollution before it spreads further. Preventing pollution at its source remains one of the most effective ways to protect waterways.
Plastic Water Pollution Problems
- Large Debris: plastic bottles, plastic cutlery, plastic bags, fishing lures, nets, fishing lines
- Microplastics: cigarette butts, nurdles, broken plastics
Marine Plastic Pollution Solutions
Water Pollution from Plastic
Marine Plastic Pollution Solutions
Plastic water pollution takes many forms. Some plastics, such as bottles and bags, float on the surface. Others, including microplastics and certain packaging materials, sink to the bottom. The size and behavior of plastic debris can vary by location, making each body of water a unique challenge. Storm drains and stormwater runoff often carry plastic waste such as plastic water bottles, microplastics, cigarette butts into rivers and oceans. The right containment solution depends on your site and the type of pollution you need to manage. Floating containment booms can help capture marine plastic pollution before it spreads. We offer several types of boom, including debris boom, net boom, seaweed boom, aquatic plant boom, and steel mesh boom. These barriers can intercept and contain plastic waste, making collection and recycling more efficient. For calm water areas, a floating trash skimmer such as the Seabin provides an additional layer of protection. The Seabin captures microplastics and small debris directly from the water’s surface, helping to reduce pollution in marinas, harbors, and docks.
Where Marine Plastic Pollution is Born
Most of the marine debris found in the ocean originated from a land source that found its way into the ocean and bodies of water. How does this marine plastic pollution occur and where does it come from? Storm drains make it easy for stormwater runoff, which carries debris and trash, to deposit plastic-filled water into large bodies of water and rivers that carry them into the ocean. Storm drains gobble this debris up, getting clogged with trash and litter as a result. The solution? Storm drain grate filters. Whether an over grate storm drain filter or an under grate catch basin filter, catching plastics and trash as they flow toward and into a storm drain is now an easy reality. Storm drain guards can even catch oils and sediments.
Microplastic Pollution in Water Bodies
As plastic water pollution passes through storm drains it empties into other bodies of water and eventually marinas and harbors. Still, capturing this plastic pollution in water bodies is doable. Through the deployment of debris boom, large containment barriers that float on the surface of the water, you can corral and contain the floating marine debris that finds its way into the marina by way of boats or stormwater runoff. This water pollution due to plastic waste can then be skimmed from the surface of the water by hand or with a floating trash skimmer like the Seabin, a sleek, low-profile floating container that sucks polluted water from a marina or harbor, retaining it in a catch bag.
Robust Plastic Pollution in Waterbodies
When you have plastic water pollution that has large pieces, a steel mesh boom or a trash mesh boom, is a great investment for cleaner waters free from plastic pollution. Steel mesh booms are marine plastic pollution solutions best used in rivers, docks, intakes, dams, marinas, and harbors.
The problem of plastic water pollution doesn't just exist in isolated garbage patches that only consist of litter. Sometimes mats of seaweed can contain litter that floats into it and gets caught. Capturing this mixed floating plastics trash and sargassum with a seaweed boom or an aquatic plant boom will ensure that both litter and invasive aquatic plants are controlled. Deploy an impermeable debris boom to control plastic water pollution.
