Is it too late to clean our oceans? Every minute, a lorry full of plastic is discarded in the sea. Scientists say if we do not act now, a fragile ecosystem will be destroyed forever.

Q: What exactly is plastic?

Plastic is a constant part of our everyday lives. The syntheticAn artificial substance or material. It is made by humans using chemical processes, rather than occurring naturally.  material, made by humans from fossil fuels, is used in food packaging, computers, clothing and more.

Plastic revolutionised life in the mid 20th Century. It transformed medicine, lightened cars and even made space travel possible. But it also contributed to throwaway culture. Today, single-use plastics account for 40% of all plastic pollution. 

Q: How much plastic is in our seas?

Every day, an astonishing eight million pieces of plastic pollution enter the oceans. By 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean could outweigh all the fish. 

Scientists have discovered plastic bags at the bottom of the Mariana TrenchThe Pacific Ocean trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is nearly 11,000 metres deep.  and microplasticsMicroplastics are fragments of degraded plastic that are less than five millimetres in length. They are blown into the atmosphere and transported by ocean currents.  embedded deep into the Arctic ice. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge mass of floating plastic created by ocean currents, covers an area three times the size of France. 

Q: How did it get there?

The oceans act as a huge sink for plastic worldwide. It falls from cargo ships and is abandoned by fishing boats. Up to 10% of all marine plastics are "ghost" fishing nets.

But by far the biggest source of marine pollution is the land. China's Yangtze river emits 1.5 million metric tonnes of plastic every year. Scientists say this is not surprising; until 2018, China imported nearly half of the world's plastic rubbish. 

Q: Why is plastic so bad for the environment? 

Unlike most naturally occurring materials, plastic was designed to be durable. It can take millions of years to disintegrate. Nearly every piece of plastic ever manufactured still exists.

Today, 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds are killed by plastic pollution every year. Dolphins and whales become trapped in fishing nets while fish who mistakenly eat plastic think their stomachs are full and starve. And plastic pollution is bad for people too. Toxic microplastics in the food chain have already been linked to several health problems in humans. 

Q: Who is responsible?

Every country in the world produces plastic waste. But in 2020, one study concluded that the US and UK contribute more per person than other major countries. 

"The US needs to play a much bigger role in addressing the global plastic pollution crisis," declared one researcher.

Others say the blame should not fall on countries, or individuals, but on plastic manufacturers. This May, new research revealed that 20 companies produce more than half of the world's single-use plastic waste. 

Q: Can we solve this crisis?

Change is possible, say activists. Researchers around the world are working on innovative solutions to the plastics crisis, from bioplastics that degrade in seawater to a floating boom that could siphon floating plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

But campaigners say the most important step is cutting down on single-use plastics and recycling the plastic we do use. In the UK, introducing a charge for plastic bags cut down sales in major supermarkets by an incredible 95%.