Marine littering is one of the major ecological threats. The amount of plastic
floating in oceans is increasing; in some parts of oceans there are already 6
times more small plastic parts than plankton. Plastic floating in sea is great
absorber of heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs and other toxins that accumulate in
marine animals and consequently in humans. Toxins are good for some algae,
which are so widespread in some areas that other organisms lack of oxygen.
Bio-oxo or UV-degradable plastic is not a solution, because sea water inhibits
degradation and plastics is stable, maybe up to 100 years. Share of ship
littering is variable throughout the World, ranging from 35 to 85%. The
remaining shares come from rivers, wind and lost fishing nets. Other problems
are spillages of different oils that cannot be solved by expensive cleaning
with pumping and filtering in tankers or degradation with microorganisms.