Plastics are most widely used material in the world due to its physical and chemical properties. But most of the plastic which is manufactured is non-biodegradable and huge fraction of it ends up in large water bodies eg. Sea and oceans. The plastic pollution was first introduced in the 1950s and the production worldwide has grown from 2 million Mt in 1950s to 380 million Mt in 2015 per year. The estimated amount of total plastic produced is 8 billion Mt since 1950, of which 30% is still in use while 10% are incinerated and a large fraction of 60% has gone into the environment including oceans.

This plastic pollution in the marine environment has adverse effects at multiple levels. Apart from being a threat to marine life plastic pollution also poses many problems for humans too eg. Formation of POP (Persistent organic pollutant), carrying microbes from one continent to another. The garbage in the sea is also a huge risk for certain industries eg. Fishing industry. Today a heavy amount of marine waste is washing up in the coastlines of countries which is particularly dangerous for the population near shore. People living on seafood are particularly at a very high risk of exposing to hazardous chemicals used for the production of plastic and ingested by the marine organisms.

Overall the problem of marine pollution is getting severe day by day and people all over the world are taking several initiatives for combating this issues. There are numbers of commitments, pledges, international laws in place specific to marine plastic pollution.