Green Column: Raising Awareness of Plastic Waste

There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic trash in the world’s oceans, and each year, 8 million tons of plastic are added to the count. That’s equivalent to one municipal garbage truck pulling up to the beach and dumping its contents every minute. Though the oceans seem vast enough to stomach a lot of plastic, the level of waste is starting to reach a crisis point: According to a new report by the Ocean Conservancy, in partnership with the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, by 2025, the ocean could contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of finfish.

If Waste Ventures’ name does not spell out clearly enough what it does, a visit to its office surely does the job. Located behind a weighbridge on the outskirts of Hyderabad, the startup’s headquarters are at the entrance to a partially roofless, 13,000 sq ft warehouse. Home temporarily to a tiny fraction of the city’s plastic and paper refuse, most of the godown can be manoeuvred only by crushing soft drink bottles and wafer packs underfoot.

San José (United States) (AFP) - Shoddy waste management and littering across the globe likely added eight million metric tons (17.6 billion pounds) of plastic to the ocean in 2010, posing significant dangers to marine life, scientists said Thursday.

Thomson Reuters Foundation/ReutersPlastic bags have become an epidemic in Kenya, but as of today they are banned from use in the country by one of the most stringent laws in the world. Violations of the law are punishable by fines of up to $38,000 and up to four years in prison.

AdidasAdidas and Parley for the Oceans, an organization dedicated to reducing plastic waste in oceans, have collaborated to create a 3D-printed shoe made out of recycled ocean plastic.

Miami (AFP) - Most seabirds have already eaten plastic in the oceans, and scientists projected Monday that 99 percent will have done so by 2050.Plastics are pervasive in the world's waters due to pollution, and birds -- including albatrosses, penguins and gulls -- can mistake brightly colored bottle tops or other fragments for food.