Social Effects of the Trash Gyre

Social

• unethical 
• preventable
• cruel 

Socially this trash vortex if unstopped will eventually effect everyone. As part of the chain of life everything has to eat to sustain life. If these animals are ingesting tiny peaces of plastic it then leads to us eating the animals (e.g.: fish) and ingesting the plastic as-well. So, quite literally, you are what you eat, drink and breath - plastic! And unfortunately plastic hosts a number of consequences if ingested in our bodies. 


Why Is Plastic in the Ocean Harmful?

1. Plastic builds up inside an animals system upon ingestion
2. Chemicals in the plastic such as PBA'S are transferred to the animals tissue and lead to Biomagnification ( the effect in a food web when chemicals in the water or in the food animals eat are transferred to and accumulate in an animal’s tissue.  This pollution becomes more and more concentrated in tissues of animals higher up on the food web.)
3. Persistent Organic Pollutants already in the water become attached to plastic and ass to unnatural chemicals being ingested and absorbed
4. Organisms large and small attach onto the abundant plastic and are transported to places they would otherwise not been able to reach 
5. Marine life can become entangled or trapped in large debris 

Below is a video which explains this in more detail ; 

Another socially related problem is the loss of animal life from the destructive influence of 
the trash vortex and therefore people in the future will be unable to see specific animals due to extinction and will not witness or experience the interaction with nature and its true 
beauty.