A study published this year looks at the impact of plastic contaminants in the marine environment. The diagram shows how plastic is transported from the shore to the ocean surface, water column or organism, and breaks down into small particles that settle on the ocean floor and incorporate with ocean sediment. Trawls are able to collect these plastics and measure their mass and abundance in other areas. As you can see from the map, Florida is in the upper middle level of abundance and the middle level when it comes to mass. What this means is that Florida has much room for improvement.
As the article states, “The ultimate solution to environmental plastic pollution is to prevent contamination in the first place, first and foremost by a reduction in use, followed by capture and reuse, recycling, and energy recovery (Koelmans et al. 2014b), which will hopefully result in less new plastic being produced and progress toward a more circular and sustainable economy.”
For this reason Imagine Our Florida, Inc. is proud to be partners with Keep Pinellas Beautiful and will be hosting our next beach clean-up at North Gandy Beach on October 14, 2017. Details are in the event section. We hope to see you there.
Source: 
http://www.annualreviews.org/…/annurev-marine-010816-060409…