Ocean Plastic: It starts and ends with us

Every minute, a garbage truck's worth of plastic enters our oceans. 

Right now, between 75 and 199 million tonnes of it is already in there. This is not a problem for the future. It is happening now, and the choices we make today are part of the story.

Here is what the numbers actually say, and what we can all do about it.

How much plastic is actually out there?

The ocean's surface is just the tip of the iceberg.

The volume of plastic in the ocean sits between 75 and 199 million tonnes, spread across five massive garbage patches drifting on the surface. The largest spans 1.6 million square kilometres.  But the floating plastic we can see is estimated to be just 1% of the plastic in our oceans. The rest has sunk, broken into microplastics, or been consumed by marine life.

• An estimated 70% of marine debris lies beneath the surface, in what scientists describe as invisible underwater junkyards

• 92% of all ocean plastic is now microplastic, each piece smaller than 5 mm 

• These particles have entered every level of the marine food chain and every ocean basin on the planet 

What it is doing to marine life

Plastic is now inside the animals we share this planet with.

• Half of all Pacific Ocean fish and seabirds have consumed plastic

• 75% of sea turtles in the Pacific have ingested plastic debris 

• In 2020, 60% of fish examined globally contained microplastics 

• Plastic debris increases coral disease likelihood by 89%, accelerating bleaching that has already affected 75% of the world's reefs 

In Australian waters, turtles, seals, birds, whales, and fish are dying from entanglement, maiming, and starvation caused by plastic pollution.] Items like plastic bags, discarded fishing line, and balloon strings are lethal traps. Marine mammals drown when entangled. For others, plastic strings choke them or cut off circulation to their limbs. 

Without significant intervention, plastic will outweigh all fish in the ocean by 2050. 

What it is doing to us

This is not just an ocean problem. It is a human health problem.

The plastic entering the ocean does not stay there. It comes back through our food.

• The average person now consumes between 78,000 and 211,000 microplastic particles annually

• One in three fish caught for human consumption contains plastic particles 

• Microplastic consumption has been linked to cancer, infertility, and nervous system damage 

The full picture of what this means for human health is still being understood. That is not reassuring.

Where it comes from

Most ocean plastic starts on land.

It arrives via rivers, and the concentration is striking:

• Around 1,000 major rivers are responsible for carrying nearly 80% of plastic into the ocean annually 

• The Indian Ocean receives 11 million tonnes of plastic per year, much of it from rivers including the Ganges and Indus 

• The Atlantic Ocean contains at least 10 times more plastic than previously estimated, with 12 to 21 million tonnes floating in just the top 200 metres 

• Only 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled. The rest has accumulated in landfills, the environment, and the ocean

Why reducing plastic at the source is the only real answer

Cleanup alone cannot fix a problem that keeps generating itself.

Organisations working in ocean and river cleanup are doing essential and growing work. 

The only durable solution is producing and using less plastic in the first place.

Reuse systems can provide over 20% reduction in total annual plastic leakage into the environment by 2040.

That change has to come from upstream: from the choices made about what gets made, how it is packaged, and what happens to it at the end of life.

You can be part of the solution, starting right now

The numbers are big and the problem is real. But here is what we know: 

Every piece of single-use plastic that never gets bought is one that never ends up in the ocean. 

And when millions of people make that choice, it adds up fast.

We started All of the Good Things because we believe making planet-kind choices should be easy, beautiful, and even joyful. 

Our products are practical alternatives to single-use plastic that you will love using: plastic-free shampoo bars, beeswax wraps, reusable bags and more.

Our packaging is plastic free, from our recycled cardboard gift boxes to our upcycled sari ribbon. 

Plastic Free July is the perfect moment to start. Join millions of people around the world who are choosing to say no to single-use plastic for a month, and discover just how easy it can be.

Browse our full plastic free range at allofthegoodthings.com 

Let's do this together.

Author: Joshua Kennedy

References

[1] World Wildlife Fund / Ocean Conservancy / UNEP, collated by the article source (2025)

[2] Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), 2022-23 Australian Packaging Consumption and Recovery Data (2024)

For more on ocean plastic: marineconservation.org.au and 4ocean.com