Here are a few reasons to recycle plastics and keep them out of our oceans.
It’s estimated that 40,000 seals die each year from plastic entanglements. Naturally curious seals often play with fragments of plastic netting or packing straps, catching their necks in the webbing. The plastic can restrict the seal’s movements, killing the seal through starvation, exhaustion, or infection from deep wounds caused by the material.
Plastic soda rings, plastic baggies, and Styrofoam particles are often mistaken by sea turtles as food. Clogging their intestines, the turtles starve to death.
Seabirds have a similar fate, mistaking small piece of plastic for food such as: fish eggs or crabs. These small plastic particles have been found in the stomachs of 63 of the world’s approximately 250 species of seabirds.
Recycle. If your community doesn’t have a recycling program, contact your city hall to request one.
— Orca Foundation (Carroll Summers)