'315bn pounds of plastic in oceans right now'

Washington, July 11 (ANI): An ocean conservationist has claimed that there is approximately 315 billion pounds of plastic in the oceans as of today.

Stiv Wilson of the ocean conservation group 5 Gyres has made the first attempt to tally how much plastic is in the global ocean.

According to him, if one visualizes a 'super tanker' that could skim plastic 500 million at a time, one would need 630 of them to do the job, or about 17 percent of the planet's current fleet of oil tankers.

To put it another way, every American produces about 600 pounds of garbage each year.

"What I really fear is a barge full of plastic coming in under the Golden Gate bridge, the media taking pictures and people thinking 'oh good, we've solved that problem,'" Discovery News quoted Wilson as saying.

"I really want to see people's efforts focused on beach cleanups," he said.

"They're free, can be organized in a grassroots way, and they can make a massive difference. A hundred people on a beach picking up plastic for a weekend can clean up as much as a barge can hold," Wilson added. (ANI)