Plastic accumulation kills the environment slow and steady. Wake up before it brings drastic changes.

1. Plastic Accumulation
Nowadays the use of plastics has been controlled due its drastic bad consequences. The dumped
plastic is harmful to wildlife, marine lifes, plants, soil and also us humans. The plastics are now
being avoided and they are paired with other decaying materials to reduce the accumulation of
plastic wastes. This is a good idea but still the already available plastic wastes around the globe
is being disposed of in any desired place which gets accumulated and they are called plastic
accumulation. The consequences are clearly visible, since this has created a world wide
discussion people around the globe had come into a group or also formed an organization to
control this plastic accumulation. There are non profit organizations and government aided
organizations.
Introduction
Plastic accumulation should be a most important topic of discussion due to the drastic changes
and plastic decaying affects the environment. It is estimated that 1.1 to 8.8 million tonnes of
plastic waste enters the ocean from coastal communities each year. Some environmental
activists suggest that by 2050 there could be more plastic accumulation than marine organisms
in the oceans. Living organisms, particularly marine animals, can be harmed by these effects such
as they get covered or get entangled in plastic objects, problems related to eating the plastic
items. They suddenly get trapped in a food pipe or a wind pipe so that the breathing or the food
get accumulated. So this plastic accumulation should be the most important context the world
should have a thought on to reduce its adverse effects on the environment.
Types of plastic debris
There are three major plastic accumulation forms which are
● Micro plastics
● Micro plastics
● Mega plastics
The micro plastics and mega plastics have accumulated the most in the marines, urban areas
and also this plastics accumulated on the islands which are near the big land masses due to the
ocean water current they carry them near to the islands. Plastic accumulation can be described
into two factors which are namely primary plastic accumulation and secondary plastic
accumulation. The primary plastic accumulation are the cigarette butts, microbeads, bottle caps,

2. packaging and other domestic products. The secondary accumulation is the account of smaller
plastics which are created from the slow degrading process of the primary plastic accumulations.
1. Micro plastic accumulation - The plastics can be of size of 3mm to 6mm in size. They are
usually too small in size to notice. This also can form due to the degradation and collision
of the smaller particles. They are also known to be nurdles. Nurdles are the broken down
plastic into small pieces before the recycling process.
2. Macro plastic accumulation - The plastics can be of size 20mm. They can usually be of
plastic carry bags, domestic wastes, and also the fishing nets in the marine environment
which also is a macro plastic accumulation. The fishing nets in oceans cannot be retrieved
after it breaks down due to the nets weight getting higher to 6 tonnes when it gets soaked
in the water.
3. Mega plastic accumulation - The plastics can be sized above 20mm. They can usually be
the footwears, shoes, pipe and certain other items. This type of plastic accumulation can
be easily retrieved from many land masses or even they can also be taken away form the
ocean waters for the recycling process.
Plastic Decomposition
The accumulation of plastic wastes have the least decomposing effect. Since this problem arose
the researchers have decided to stop the practice of using plastics. So here 9.2 billion tonnes of
plastic are estimated to have been made until 2017. More than half of these plastics were
produced in 2004. So far from all this plastic has been made only 14 percent of plastic has been
put to recycling. The other plastics are being dumped in large land masses to simply degrade and
the other half is in oceans which pollute the water bodies and also affect marine life.
Plastics accumulations already contribute to approximately 10% of discarded waste. Many kinds
of plastics exist depending on their precursors and the method for their polymerisation.
Polymerisation is simply the forming of the polymer chain in the making process of the plastics.
The polymer degradation only leads to the decaying of plastics. A survey was undertaken by
researchers that the plastics in saline water bodies decay faster and this is yet to be presented
true. The plastics usually break down on their own with the exposure to air, water, sun and other
environmental conditions.
Here there are two different plastic decomposing pollutants for the environment. These
pollutants are decaying plastics which have started their journey of decaying from the idle. The
both are as follows
1. Persistent Organic Pollutants - Persistent organic pollutants or POP’s are organic
compounds that are resistant to degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic
processes. These are more toxic in the environment as these are released into air and

3. wind. Persistent organic pollutants can also affect people around the globe even when it
is created from a single place in any country.
2. Commercial Pollutants - Commercial pollutants are the plastics which are being thrown
away from the companies with their brand names on it, it can be a carry bag, plastic
products such as footwears. In 2019 a group of people collected the carry bags with the
most common and popular brands at that time of the year.
Reduction Efforts for plastic accumulation.
Efforts to reduce plastic waste have been started on all sides of the world. The usage of plastic
leads to accumulation and researchers are finding the commencing point of the problem. Most
shops around the globe have started to charge for the usage of the reusable bags which are
biodegradable. The most important point of stopping the plastic accumulation is to stop it from
the starting point or budding stage of the problem. A company named “Global Alliance to End
Plastic Waste" was created by companies in the plastics industry. The alliance aims to clean the
environment from existing waste and increase recycling, but it does not mention reduction in
plastic production as one of its targets.
Action for creating awareness
The plastic accumulation should be stopped from the dumping of plastics at any places. They
should be regularized so that the people dump them in their respective places. So to preach these
ideas the awareness program should be created so we have centered on the dates such as Earth
Day, World Environment Protection Day and others. Besides, the government has taken many
actions to create awareness for the people on the effects of plastic accumulations.
Government should use plastic waste in road construction. They can make new reforms for the
people to follow, since the government can not do all the inspections. Some countries use
biodegradable bags for price to avoid the plastic bags.
Case Study
The Great pacific Garbage Patch
This great pacific garbage patch was an American based non profit organization. Launched in
September 2018, System 001 was the world’s first cleanup system to collect in the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch to retrieve the plastic accumulation from the marine water bodies. During its four-

4. month campaign, System 001 validated many aspects of the pacific ocean cleanup technology.
It also provided us with new learnings that we could later use into the design of the cleanup
projects in the upcoming years. This organization has now been validated by the government of
the United States for their consistent work progress.
The great pacific garbage patch usually works with a group of people with the vision to end the
plastic accumulation on the ocean water bodies. The wind directions and the accumulation
location gives a local idea on where the plastic accumulates. Then a group of people plan on the
route to achieve or complete the total movement. When moving they simultaneously collect the
plastics from the ocean body. The planned route is then confirmed with the accurate location
with the latitudes and the longitudes. The plan is then submitted to the authorities to get the
approval of the projects since it has been recognised by the government. A net’s both sides which
are connected to two different boats and pulled towards the required direction or the route in
which they had planned to set the clean up process. The boat moves at the required speed and
collects all the plastic accumulation. The plastic accumulated is collected into a smaller net
which has been hanging on the end tip of the bigger net.
The plastic collected were sent to Marine Research Laboratory which does the counting,
classifying, physical property and toxicity all would be determined. The ocean plastic data
analysis is taken to find the decaying material and what decays first to the end. This great pacific
garbage patch has also taken arial data on the plastic accumulation. The data collected are all of
the image type. This image type data can be taken into account by converting the plastics into
kilograms. The pixels are being converted to kilograms. The collected data has been converted
into kilograms or into interpreting data, then the data are all merged into a comprehensive
computer model.