The World’s Seas in Plastic Peril

Our lives are filled with plastic items: the bottles containing our drinks, the bags that contain the items we just bought, and all sorts of stationery and other household items. These inexpensive things have brought convenience to human lives, but at what cost? As we throw them away as easily as they come into our lives, they make their way down rivers into the world’s oceans, where they become nonbiodegradable threats to the marine biosphere that supports all of our existence. These articles explore the threat that plastics pose to the marine ecosystem and ways we can minimize it.