Ocean Disposal

OCEAN DISPOSAL
Marine pollution and control

Lecture :2
MARINE TRASH
 Littering, storm winds, and poor waste
management all contribute to the accumulation of
this debris, 80 percent of which comes from
sources on land.
 Common types of marine debris include various
plastic items like shopping bags and beverage
bottles, along with cigarette butts, bottle caps,
food wrappers, and fishing gear.
 Plastic waste is particularly problematic as
a pollutant because it is so long-lasting.
 Plastic items can take hundreds of years to
decompose.
OCEAN DISPOSAL
 Ocean waste disposal has been practiced
throughout human history.
 It consists of dumping materials from land or
from a vessel or discharging them through a
pipe into marine waters.
OCEAN DISPOSAL
 In the past, communities around the world used the ocean for
waste disposal,
 Including the disposal of chemical and industrial wastes,

 Radioactive wastes (rags, tools, and laboratory equipment
contaminated during the early age of nuclear weapons)
 Trash,
 Munitions (military weapon, equipment, and stores)
 Sewage sludge, and
 Contaminated dredged material.
 Little attention was given to the negative
impacts of waste disposal on the marine
environment.
 Even less attention was focused on
opportunities to recycle or reuse such
materials.
 Wastes were frequently dumped in coastal
and ocean waters based on the assumption
that marine waters had an unlimited
capacity to mix and disperse wastes.
 Although no complete records exist of the
volumes and types of materials disposed in
ocean waters in the United States prior to
1972, several reports indicate a vast
magnitude of historic ocean dumping.
IN 1968 THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES ESTIMATED ANNUAL VOLUMES
OF OCEAN DUMPING BY VESSEL OR PIPES:
 100 million tons of petroleum products.

 two to four million tons of acid chemical wastes from
pulp mills.
 more than one million tons of heavy metals in industrial
wastes and
 more than 100,000 tons of organic chemical wastes.
A 1970 REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT FROM THE
COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ON
OCEAN DUMPING DESCRIBED THAT IN 1968 THE
FOLLOWING WERE DUMPED IN THE OCEAN IN
THE UNITED STATES:
 38 million tons of dredged material (34 percent of

which was polluted),
 4.5 million tons of industrial wastes,
 4.5 million tons of sewage sludge (significantly
contaminated with heavy metals), and
 0.5 million tons of construction.
EPA 1946-1970
 EPA records indicate that more than 55,000
containers of radioactive wastes were
dumped at three ocean sites in the Pacific
Ocean between 1946 and 1970.
IMPACT OF DISPOSAL
 Some areas of the ocean became demonstrably
contaminated with high concentrations of harmful
pollutants.
 That including heavy metals, inorganic nutrients,
and chlorinated petrochemicals.
 The uncontrolled ocean dumping caused severe
depletion of oxygen levels in some ocean waters.
 In the New York Bight (ocean waters off the mouth
of the Hudson River), where New York City
dumped sewage sludge and other materials,
oxygen concentrations in waters near the seafloor
declined significantly.
IMPACT ON FOOD CHAIN
 This trash poses dangers to both humans and animals.
 Fish become tangled and injured in the debris, and some
animals mistake items like plastic bags for food and eat them.
 Small organisms feed on tiny bits of broken-down plastic,
called microplastic, and absorb the chemicals from
the plastic into their tissues.
 Microplastics are less than five millimeters (0.2 inches) in
diameter and have been detected in a range of marine species,
including plankton and whales.
 When small organisms that consume microplastics are eaten by
larger animals, the toxic chemicals then become part of their
tissues.
 In this way, the microplastic pollution migrates up the food
chain, eventually becoming part of the food that humans eat.
IMPACT ON FISH
Fish become tangled Consumed microplastic

THE MOST POLLUTED REGION
 The most polluted ocean is the Pacific.
 With 2 trillion plastic pieces and one third of
the plastic found in this ocean circulates in
the North Pacific Gyre.
WASTE TREATMENT
INCINERATION
 Incineration is a waste treatment process
that involves the combustion of substances
contained in waste materials.
 The destruction of something, especially
waste material, by burning.
 are industrial facilities based on sustained
high-temperature combustion processes and
intended to treat hazardous, clinical or
municipal waste.
HOSPITAL WASTE
 Include human organs,
 Bandages,
 Blood tubes,
 Test tubes,
 Needles,
 Syringes,
 Tissue cell culture, and
 Other plastic materials.
 The hospital waste incinerators are high in
number, burn high chlorine content waste and
hence are important source of dioxin emissions.
ADVANTAGES OF INCINERATION
 Produces heat and electricity.
 Reduce burning of fossil fuel.
 Metal can be extracted from ash.
 Reduce waste volume.
DISADVANTAGES OF
INCINERATION
 Expensive to build and maintain.
 Harmful pollutants are produced.
 Dioxins cause carcinogenic effect.
 Lung cancer, asthma.
WASTE SEGREGATION
 Solutions for marine pollution include
prevention and cleanup.

Ocean Disposal

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OCEAN DISPOSAL

Marine pollution and control

 Including the disposal of chemical and industrial wastes,

 100 million tons of petroleum products.

 38 million tons of dredged material (34 percent of

Fish become tangled Consumed microplastic

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