3 . As we all know, plastic products like bags, bottles, toys and various other products end up in our oceans daily. They then pollute and kill marine animals, which ultimately affects humans because it causes widespread starvation among sea life which we depend on for food sources. With global levels of plastic waste in the ocean at an all-time high, there has never been a better time to consider making your swimwear from alternative sources.

It’s time to end the plastic waste polluting our oceans, but we’re not going to wait for someone else to do it. Creating swimsuits and other clothing items out of plastic collected from our oceans might seem pretty far-fetched, but Seamore (after Seamus Malone, our founder) is doing just that. We aim to make people more aware of how much plastic they use every day by providing stylish swimsuits made entirely from recycled ocean plastics.

The process is simple. Gather plastic waste from oceans and waterways, clean it, and turn it functional. Manufacturers (生产商) receive recycled plastic pellet (团粒) material and they press those pellets into fiber sheets; and then they die-cut, sew, or print those fibers into whatever products they want. It’s manufacturers who can decide whether their final product will be recyclable or not. Swimwear collections made from recycled materials found in our oceans illustrate how much impact we can have on our world when we set out to do so with pure intentions.

Today, as more and more people are taking part in water-centric activities, there is greater demand for water-friendly clothing options, especially among individuals looking for alternatives that meet their needs for comfort and functionality in and out of water. But the sad truth is that most of us have no idea where our clothing comes from — and if a recent report is accurate, one-third of all clothing purchased isn’t even worn before it ends up in a landfill.

5 . As Plastic Chokes the Ocean, Technology Can Help

Some 8 million tons of non-recyclable (不可回收的) plastic end up in the ocean each year. At an alarming rate, the seas may have more plastic than fish by the middle of the century.     1    

Require a global solution to a global problem.     2     The developed countries and most of developing countries show their leadership in this process by setting goals, encouraging other member states, and offering support for poor countries.

    3     Although they are helpful to protect clean water and air, as it is known, non-recyclable plastic is widely used in the markets. Therefore, non-recyclable plastic still can be bought in our daily life. Its disappearance needs much more time and efforts.

Pay more attention to the new studies on plastic and technologies. Some of researchers are aiming to make replacements for plastic.     4     For example, “interceptors” can remove river pollution before it reaches the ocean.

Expect more responsibility from manufacturers.     5     As a start, they should be encouraged to simplify complex packaging. And their working with world governments will support poorer nations to improve waste collection and landfill (垃圾场) management.

The world doesn’t have enough time in trying to solve the problem. The sooner these efforts start, the better.

6 . Many of the world’s largest consumer product companies, including Coca-Cola, Unilever and PepsiCo, have set ambitious targets for replacing original plastics with recycled ones-typically 25% of their total packaging by 2025. So far, however, most companies have made modest progress and will need to accelerate their efforts to reach these high goals, according to a new cover story in Chemical& Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society.

In the U.S., only about 10% of plastics are recycled into new products, compared with nearly33% in Europe, writes senior editor Alex Tullo. Facing increasing consumer pressure, many companies have made big promises to increase the amount of recycled plastics they use in packaging to 25%-50% by 2025 or 2030. However, most currently hover at a recycling rate between 2% and 12%, meaning that they will need to greatly speed up their efforts in order to succeed. Meeting the goals will require new technologies to help make plastics easier to recycle, as well as widespread collaboration and investment among brand owners, consumers, recycling facilities, chemical companies and others.

In traditional mechanical recycling, facilities sort through consumers’ recyclables collected local trash porters, separating plastics from metal, glass and other materials. To ease this dud process, AMP Robotics has developed a machine with learning-based technology that identify different types of plastics and pulls unwanted materials off the line with an inflated(充气的)arm. Next, the separated plastics are cut, washed, melted and reshaped. Then, plastics intended for food packaging undergo additional finishing steps.

Although recycling firms have developed new technologies, such as solvent extraction(溶剂萃取), to recycle different types of plastic more efficiently, consumer product companies must redesign their packaging, for example, by removing various plastics and metalized layers, to make them easier to recycle. Also, experts say that consumers need to do their part by putting more of their used plastics into recycling bins.

7 . With the outbreak of the COVID-19, multiple kinds of protective medical equipment, such as disposable(一次性的)masks, have been consumed. Market research indicates a sharp increase rate of 53% in the mask market alone. People often use these types of protective equipment and then throw them without thinking of the consequences, both on the ecosystem and human beings.

Disposable surgical masks are severely affecting the ecosystem. When improperly-handled masks enter the water system, they break up into smaller pieces. Complete masks can trap marine animals, resulting in their impaired mobility and even death. Meanwhile, the poisonous plastic particles will cause marine animals to be poisoned to death or weakness when they consume plastic. Furthermore, these harmful pollutants can severely affect reproduction, growth, and the development of the young. Just like their effects on marine animals, these pollutants can also contribute to severe harm in human bodies, especially in the neuron system. Exposure to micro plastics may cause particle poisoning, cellular damage and neuro-degenerative (神经退化的) diseases like Alzheimer’s disease(阿尔茨海默症).

Despite the potential harm to the ocean system and human neuron system, improperly-handled disposable masks will likely become a dangerous public health threat under the environment of a global pandemic. Instead of helping us fight against the COVID-19, to some extent, micro plastic pollution also causes the potential risk of speeding up the spread of the virus. Micro plastic particles in the ocean can be mixed up with water vapour to form aerosols in the atmosphere because they are small enough to enter the water cycle, where they are transferred from the marine system to the atmosphere in vast amounts and become a source for the disease COVID-19. thus causing the virus to speed up the spread of the global pandemic.

Humans will eventually suffer from the wrongdoing in the ocean systems because humans are nothing but temporary residents of the planet. Just like what the famous English anthropologist, Jane Goodall, has said, “Every individual matters. Every individual makes a difference.”

10 . The coronavirus pandemic (新冠疫情) has brought with it the rise of a new kind of single-use plastic in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE), like face masks and gloves. Experts warned that these sharply increasing single-use items could cause a new wave of plastic pollution and kill wildlife.

The charity Ocean Conservancy reported that volunteers had collected more than 100,000 PPE items from coasts and waterways during the last six months of 2020. They sent out a survey to more than 200 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) coordinators and volunteers asking about their experience with PPE. The results show that it is a real problem. Volunteers collected 107,219 pieces of PPE in 70 of 115 participating countries. Of those surveyed, 94% reported seeing PPE at a clean-up, and 40% found five items or more. Further, 37% found the items had already sunk into the water.

“During one of our clean-ups in the canals of Leiden, our volunteers found a latex (乳胶) glove with a dead fish trapped in the thumb,” said Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a study coauthor from Leiden University. “Also, in the Dutch canals, we observed that a water bird was using face masks and gloves in its nests.” Other animals that have gotten trapped in face masks include a fox in the UK, a pufferfish in Florida, and two crabs in France. Numerous dogs and cats have been observed eating PPE as well.

The danger posed by PPE goes deeper than what the eye can see. Luckily, there are ways that all of us can be part of the solution to the problem of PPE pollution. Hiemstra suggested using reusable PPE instead of single-use products. In that case, we should deal with them properly by cutting the ear loops to prevent animal entanglements (缠绕物) and throwing them away in a bin that is not overstuffed. “We definitely think it is important for citizens to understand how much PPE is ending up in the environment and impacting animals,” Hiemstra said.