Ocean Plastic Pollution: Why International Policy Worked Before (And Can Work Again)
170 trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans right now.
That's what scientists counted when they analyzed 12,000 sampling stations across every major ocean over 40 years.
170 trillion plastic particles. Weighing 2.3 million tons total.
This marine debris is everywhere. From coastal waters to the deepest ocean trenches.
For a long time, I’ve heard people talking about this and being concerned. I’m concerned. But, honestly, I haven’t done much in my life to understand it or do something about it.
So, let’s learn together and explore the problem of plastics in our ocean. Maybe if we understand it, we can do our small part to impact change.
Microplastics: The Hidden Threat to Marine Life
Most of it isn't the big stuff you see in beach cleanup photos. It's microplastics. What are microplastics, you say? They’re particles smaller than a sesame seed. Many times, you can’t even see them, which makes the issue hard to grasp for most people.
One of the main problems is that everything from plankton to whales mistake these bits and pieces for food.
88% of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs.
One sea turtle in Brazil had over 3,000 pieces of plastic debris in its intestines.
Plastic pollution has been found at every ocean depth. Surface waters to the Mariana Trench, seven miles down.
It's in the seafood we eat. In human lung tissue.
Ocean Plastic Pollution Statistics: The 2005 Turning Point
Plastic in the ocean stayed relatively stable until 2005.
Not low. Not good. But stable.
Scientists tracked pollution levels at thousands of stations across all the major oceans. For over two decades, the numbers fluctuated but didn't really increase. The ocean had a certain amount of plastic in it, and that amount stayed roughly the same.
(See the world’s population patting each other on their backs and celebrating.)
Then 2005 hit.
And everything began to change.
Ocean plastic pollution is now doubling every six years.
Think about that. Every six years, we're adding as much plastic to the ocean as currently exists there. By 2040, without major intervention, marine plastic could triple from today's levels.
So what happened in 2005? Why did a problem that had been relatively contained suddenly spiral out of control?
International Policies That Reduced Ocean Plastic Pollution
Turns out, binding international laws in the 1970s through 1990s actually kept ocean plastic pollution somewhat under control:
1972 - Convention on Prevention of Marine Plastic Pollution by Dumping
1982 - UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
1988 - MARPOL Annex V got 154 countries to legally end plastic discharge from naval, fishing, and shipping fleets
These were legally binding international agreements to reduce marine debris.
And they worked. For decades.
Why Ocean Plastic Pollution Increased After 2005
After 2005, global plastic production exploded. International trade of plastic products and single-use plastics accelerated faster than those policies could handle. This was surprising to me because plastic has been around forever.
And old plastic that was already polluting the ocean? It kept breaking down into smaller microplastics. Getting resuspended in the water. Overwhelming the natural systems that had been filtering it out.
The early policies got overwhelmed.
But here's what this tells us: policy can work.
It did work.
We just need policy that matches the current scale of the problem.
How to Reduce Ocean Plastic Pollution: Solutions That Work
This week: Check if your local grocery stores have refill stations for common products. A lot more places are adding them than you'd think.
This month: Switch one regular plastic purchase to a reusable alternative to reduce single-use plastic waste. Not everything at once. Just one thing.
This year: Let companies know you care about their packaging choices. They actually do track this feedback. Comment on their social posts. Send an email. It gets logged and reported up.
I recently bought a product that I’ve purchased previously. The last time I purchased it, the product came in a big plastic tub. This time it came in a cardboard tub. I’m going to keep buying this product because it’s good. But I’m also going to keep buying it because of this small change.
Most importantly: push for stronger plastic pollution policies. Contact your representatives when plastic-related bills come up. Support the Global Plastics Treaty. These international agreements have worked before to reduce marine debris. We can make them work again.
The Global Plastics Treaty: Our Current Moment
Right now, as you're reading this, countries are negotiating the world's first Global Plastics Treaty.
175 nations agreed in 2022 to create this legally binding international agreement. The goal was to address the full lifecycle of plastic - from production to disposal - and have it finalized by the end of 2024.
But here's where it gets complicated.
The negotiations have stalled. Countries are deeply divided.
Over 100 nations want binding caps on plastic production. They want to phase out toxic chemicals in plastics. They want rules that actually reduce how much new plastic gets made.
But major oil and gas producing countries are pushing back hard. They want the treaty to focus only on recycling and waste management. Not on production limits.
The latest round of talks in Geneva (August 2025) ended without agreement.
This matters because plastic production isn't slowing down on its own. It's expected to increase 70% by 2040 without stronger policies. Only 9% of plastic globally gets recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, incinerators, or our oceans.
The treaty could be as transformative as the Montreal Protocol, which phased out 99% of ozone-depleting substances. Or it could end up being too weak to actually solve the problem.
The difference? Public pressure.
These negotiations aren't happening in a vacuum. Your voice counts. When you contact representatives, when you make noise about this issue, it gives negotiators pushing for stronger measures the backing they need.
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