Impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean

From ocean wildlife to people, understanding the far-reaching effects of plastic pollution. Plastic isn't just a problem for our oceans—it’s a global health and climate crisis. From the deepest trenches to our own dinner plates, plastic is everywhere. Understanding its impact is the first step toward fixing it.

How does ocean plastic affect animals?

Animals ingest plastic

Marine animals often mistake plastic in the ocean for food. For example, sea turtles may confuse plastic bags for jellyfish, seabirds may feed plastic to their chicks, and whales are sometimes found dead with stomachs full of plastic. Scientists estimate that over 90 percent of all seabirds will have ingested plastic by 2050. 

Animals get entangled in plastic

Large plastic debris such as fishing ropes and nets, six‑pack rings, and plastic bags pose a different threat: many marine animals like whales, sea lions, seals, dolphins, seabirds, turtles become entangled, which can impair their ability to swim or feed—sometimes resulting in drowning or suffocation. For some endangered species, like seals, whales, and turtles, this entanglement contributes significantly to population decline.

Microplastic

In recent years, scientists have found plastic—in particular, microplastic—in the stomachs of an even wider range of animals, including krill, fish, and deep-sea invertebrates. For corals, the impacts are especially severe—disease rates increase from 5 percent to as high as 89 percent when in contact with plastics.

How does ocean plastic affect human health?

Current plastic production, use, and disposal practices are responsible for significant harm to human health, the environment, and the economy—and are driving deep societal injustices. Public health studies now confirm what the public has sensed for years: reducing plastic production is urgent and critical work.

In 2025, the Aquarium’s Chief Conservation & Science Officer, Margaret Spring, worked with experts to launch “The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics”. This series of annual reports, starting in late 2026, will track the growing risks of plastic pollution to human health, as well as actions to reduce those risks. 

Chemical exposure

Plastics are derived almost exclusively from oil and gas molecules called monomers, plastic building blocks that are linked together to form plastic polymers. But plastics are not only polymers. They also contain over 16,000 chemical additives including flame retardants, dyes, and other compounds added to improve flexibility, durability, or appearance. Of these additives, there are more than 4,200 ‘chemicals of concern’ that do not naturally break down in the environment or that are toxic, including carcinogens, neurotoxicants, and hormone disruptors. Many other chemicals in plastic have never been tested for toxicity. 

Current research shows human health conditions linked to chemicals in plastic include reproductive impacts like infertility, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, hormonal and neurodevelopmental disorders, cancer and more. 

Who is most at risk? 

The greatest health risk falls on people of reproductive age, newborn babies, and children. So are people who are heavily exposed to toxic pollution and poor air quality, such as plastic factory or waste-site workers and people living near plastic production plants and disposal sites.

Plastic is also a hidden driver of climate change. It releases greenhouse gases—nearly 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually, harms ocean life that naturally stores carbon, and alters how the Earth handles heat by affecting how sunlight is reflected and trapped in the atmosphere.

Economic cost of health impacts 

Managing plastic waste and treating related health issues costs the U.S. billions every year. The latest estimates show that plastics contribute to over $1.5 trillion in health-related economic losses annually. It’s also a burden often carried by taxpayers rather than the companies producing the plastic, in the U.S. plastic waste costs taxpayers nearly $37 billion each year to manage.

How you can take action 

Reducing, reusing, and recycling our plastic can add up to big changes. When we raise our voices together, we can drive policy that improves our systems for safer, healthier communities without plastic.

Dive in to solutions & strategies to reduce plastic