The Ocean's Future is in Trouble

The oceans are in trouble. The animals and plants are in danger of being killed. People are also being harmed by toxins in the water. Why is this happening? The ocean is full of trash and other forms of pollution from humans like noise pollution. The ocean is not a garbage can, people! People are creating too much trash and a lot of it is ending up in the oceans. What can be done about this? People could create less garbage. The environment could be helped by taking simple steps like bring your own bags to the grocery store or carry a reusable water bottle. These simple steps will help stop so much garbage going into the ocean. Pollution is killing the life in the water, the animals and the plants etc. Therefore people need stricter laws.

The garbage problem started first in the densely populated Northeast, but it is really a national problem. Communities are looking for solutions. More than 180 million tons of solid waste is generated each year and 70% of that goes into landfills. In the future, we will not be able to use the landfills. The (EPA) estimates that some 18,500 municipal landfills were operating in this country in 1979. Today there are less than 5,000--and experts project that EPA regulations announced last fall will force the closure of an additional 2,000 dumps over the next three years. By the end of the decade, three-quarters of the nation's existing landfill space will be exhausted or closed.

There is a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas. It is called the Pacific Trash Vortex. It is the worlds largest trash area. Cargo ships sometimes spill garbage, and some of it floats out to sea from the shore. 80% of the trash that ends up in the ocean comes from the shore. (Kostigen pg....

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...ough. People can clean up the ocean to by simply changing some of their ways by bringing their own bag when they go grocery shopping and using a reusable water bottle. These simple steps will help stop so much garbage going into the ocean. The ocean trash problem is a growing concern. Maybe if everyone took simple steps, or helping out in anyway maybe the garbage problem could stop. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. These are some ways to solve the problem: Bring bags to the grocery store, use a metal reuseable water bottle, cut up the plastic rings, use reusable travel mug for coffee and pop, bring own containers to restaurants for leftovers, stop using plastic bags in the garbage and just set the garbage can on the curb, recycle as much as possible, and the most helpful thing people can do is spread the word about the problem and the solutions.