A recent study found that “90 percent of seabirds have eaten plastic and are likely to retain some in their gut,” according to a recent article by the BBC.
Jenna Jambeck, an associate professor in the UGA College of Engineering, has studied plastic waste in the oceans. She told the BBC News that the overabundance of plastic waste in the oceans and on the world’s shores—and the environmental hazards it causes—is fixable.
“It illustrates that if we implement solutions to reduce plastic input into the oceans, we can reduce impacts to individual seabirds,” she said. “Solutions include improving solid waste management where it is lacking and also working upstream on product redesign and materials substitution moving towards a more circular system.”