Plastic and Ecology: Analyzing Environmental Impact on Marine Life

This report investigates the detrimental effects of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems, drawing on a video, a newspaper article, and a book. The report analyzes the sources of plastic debris, including the role of FMCG companies and consumer behavior, and their impact on marine life. The report highlights the devastating consequences of plastic on marine animals and the industries that rely on them, such as fishing and tourism. It explores the similarities and differences between the literary sources, discussing political orientations and the development of awareness about the issue. The report emphasizes the need for responsible plastic use and disposal by companies and consumers to mitigate the harmful impacts on human health and the environment. The report also analyzes the current events mentioned in the sources, discussing the impact of plastic on the marine environment and the importance of sustainable resource management, concluding with the significance of addressing plastic pollution for the well-being of all living creatures on Earth.

......... (Assignment name)
Submitted by:
Date:
Combination:
1. Case:
Plastic Paradise video
2. Current Events:
Ocean Cleanup finds 5 TRILLION pieces of plastic are currently polluting the ocean - and the
world's rivers are to blame
Blue Planet academic consultants: the message humanity cannot afford to ignore
Concepts:
Industrial dumps
Moral obligations
Environmental pollution
Irresponsible behaviour of customers
Innovation

Running head: PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
Table of Contents
1. Introduction:...........................................................................................................................1
2. Analysis and discussion of the combination:.....................................................................2
a. Differences and similarities between the three literary sources:............................................2
Differences between the three literary sources:.....................................................................2
Similarities between the literary sources:..............................................................................3
b) Political orientation behind the perspective of the materials originator:...............................5
c) Development of awareness and knowledge about the video, article and book:................6
3. Learning outcomes:................................................................................................................7
Plastic debris is harmful to marine life:.................................................................................7
The FMCG companies and the consumers should use and dispose plastic responsibly:.......7
Plastic causes harmful impact on the human body:...............................................................7
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................8
References:.................................................................................................................................9

1
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
1. Introduction:
The aim of the assignment is to study the impact of plastic debris on the marine
ecosystem. The study is based on three literary sources. The first source is the video titled
‘Plastic Paradise’ by media journalist Angela Sun, which speaks about the Midway Inlands in
the Pacific Ocean and the devastating level of plastic debris, which collect on and around its
shores. The second literary case is an article published in the English newspaper the Daily
Mail by Liberatore which speaks about the immense quantities of plastics which reach the
ocean along the biggest rivers in the world (dailymail.co.uk, 2017). The book by Charles W.
Hill mentions current events like globalisation and international trade. An analysis of these
three cases shows that though they look unrelated, they are heavily related to each other. It is
this relatedness between these three literary sources, which make it important to combine
them to realise the full meaning and benefit from them. Sun in her article speaks about the
devastating impact plastic debris has on the marine ecosystem. She states that birds, fishes
and other marine mammals due to suffocation and poisoning by the plastic. These have
devastating impact on the industries like fishing and restaurant, which obtain raw materials
from these marine animals. The plastic break down into minute pieces, which are embedded
into the bodies of the marine animals, and finally the human beings who eat these animals.
Moreover, the nets of nylon destroy coral reefs, which form sources of food for the
ecosystem and medicines for fatal diseases like cancer (Holm, Eriksson & Johanson, 2015).
The minute pieces of plastic enter human bodies and causes hormonal imbalances, brain
damage and finally death. It is thus huge scale of pollution by plastic and its devastating
impacts on all living things including man make the matter through the literary sources
important to study (Arora et al., 2017). Thus, the impact of this large-scale pollution due to
plastic and plastic nets is poisoning of the coral reefs. Fishes that in turn get the minute

2
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
plastic pieces in their bodies consume the poisonous corals. These minute pieces enter the
human bodies when they these fishes. The plastic damages the physiological systems in the
body leading towards death. Thus, the impact of the plastic pollution in the oceans is nemesis
for all the living creatures on earth including man (Padhy & Mishra, 2015).
An analysis of the video by Sun and the article by Liberatore shows that a major
portion of debris is composed of bottles, air condition parts, boxes and other packages. It can
be pointed out that this immense amount of packages belongs to goods produced by the
FMCG companies all round the world. The consumers of the fast moving consumer goods
(FMCG) consume the products and dump their plastic packages into rivers. These excessive
applications of plastic in the FMCG goods have made the FMCG industry to the target
industry for the study on impact of plastic on the oceans (Zheng, 2013).
2. Current events:
The current events mentioned of the three literary sources consists of a video
available Youtube called ‘Plastic Paradise’, a newspaper article from the international
English language daily, the Daily Mail on river pollution caused due to plastic and a book.
The name of the book is ‘International Business’ by Charles W. Hill, University of
Washington. The sections that follow would analyse and discuss the similarities and
differences between the book, the video and the newspaper article.
a. Differences and similarities between the three literary sources:
There are several similarities and differences between the three literary sources the
author has chosen namely, the video, the newspaper article and the book. The following two
sections would analyse these differences and similarities:

3
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
Differences between the three literary sources:
The first difference between the Youtube video, the Daily Mail article and the book is
their area of coverage. The video titled ‘Plastic Paradise’ deals with dumping plastic in the
oceans and how the ocean currents go in circular forms washing these plastic dump up to the
shores of surrounding landmasses both large continents and small islands. The video
concentrates more on the Pacific Ocean and the Midway Islands in it, which has earned the
name ‘Plastic Island’ owing to tonnes of plastic debris, which the currents wash up the
island’s shores (youtube.com, 2017). The article in the Daily Mail speaks about the herculean
scale of river pollution in the main rivers across the world due to plastic dumps. The article,
unlike the video concentrates mainly on the ten main rivers on earth like Yang Tze and the
Ganges, which add ninety percent of the ocean’s plastic content. The book does not speak
about pollution due to plastic in water bodies, instead speaks about globalisation, economic
development and religions (Hill, 2017).
The second point of difference between the three literary sources lie in their treatment
of the topics they explain. The video speaks about the dangerous effect plastic is having on
the environment, oceans and the living things. The video spans across diverse topics like
plastic production, use of plastic, its impact on the marine creature, how it enters the food
chains and finally how it devastates the bodies of living organisms. The video clearly shows
how presence of plastics in the fishes and marine creatures harm the industries like restaurant
industries around the world to which these creatures function as raw materials. It, in other
words shows how irresponsible profit making propensity of one industry namely the gas and
chemical industries making plastics prove harmful for other industries namely, the restaurant
and the fishing industry in the long run. The book treats diverse range of topics namely
globalisation, international trade and marketing. The book does not speak about pollution but
globalisation, which is one of the leading causes of pollution (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014).

4
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
Similarities between the literary sources:
The first similarity between the three literary sources is that they speak about
pollution. The video shows that multitude of marine pollution in oceans namely the Pacific
Ocean due to plastic debris from the economic giants Asia and North America. The video
also attribute the inflow of plastic articles like bottles, cans and packages mostly from the fast
moving consumer goods to the ships and boats voyaging the oceans (Jambeck et al., 2015).
The newspaper articles too point out to the multitude of pollution due to plastic in the
rivers and ultimately to the seas and oceans. Thus, it can be analysed that the newspaper
indirectly speaks about the enormous amount of plastic items, which find ways into the
oceans. The article in fact, concludes with the mention of the Midway Islands in the Pacific
Ocean, the main feature the video. This shows that the article from the Daily Mail and the
video actually point at the same point which is, impact of plastic debris on marine
environment and consequently to all living things on earth including man (Štrach &
Wiesinger, 2015).
The book speaks about topics like globalisation and market entry strategies. One can
point out that globalisation has led to rapid industrialisation which in turn leads to generate
unimaginable amount of sewage. It can be pointed that industries like FMCG have entered
virtually every economy and cater to the global consumer base. These industries use
enormous amount of plastic for packing and packaging their products. Thus, globalisation
and expansion of industries like FMCG has led to outflow of enormous amount of plastic into
the rivers and finally the oceans. Thus, the book indirectly speaks about pollution of water
bodies like rivers and oceans (Srinivasan & Lu, 2014).
The second similarity between the video, article and the book is that they speak about
management of resources in sustainable ways. The video shows that irresponsible actions of

5
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
the plastic companies producing plastic goods, FMCG companies who use it to package and
pack their products and the consumers who use both the items devastate the biomes on the
earth, slowly and gradually. It states that the minute pieces of plastic gradually enter the food
chains when fishes and marine creatures eat them which either causes their death or makes
them unfit for human consumption. This deteriorating quality of the fishes is raking havoc on
the industries like restaurant, marine food, fishing and tourism. Thus, in other words,
industries are able to affect each other through their actions (Padhy & Mishra, 2015). The
newspaper speaks about how these industries dump plastic, which flows out into the oceans.
An analysis of the article clearly point out how lack of sustainable sewage disposable
methods in the factories situated on the rivers ultimately lead to ocean pollution. For
example, the plastic sewage of the Ganges ultimately pollutes the Indian Ocean and the
plastic discharge of the Yang Tze pollutes the Pacific waters. The book also speaks about
human resources, globalisation and international trade, all of which promote responsible
operation of companies in crucial areas like sustainability (Eriksen et al., 2013).
b) Political orientation behind the perspective of the materials originator:
There are no clear political intentions, which made the authors of the video,
newspaper article or the book, which motivated them to form these three literary sources. It is
maker of the video have similar inclination. Their inclination was to create awareness about
the devastating effect plastic has on the marine life and consequently on the entire ecosystem.
The inclination of Charles W. L. Hill to write the book is to educate the readers, chiefly the
university students on globalisation and related topics like international trade. The author of
the newspaper article by Stacy Liberatore does not bear any political inclination since the
author apparently has no political background. The main narrator of the video ‘Plastic
Paradise-the Great Pacific Garbage Patch’, Angela Sun, is a media journalist. The video

6
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
apparently does not show any intention to politicise pollution. Thus, it can be summarised
from the discussion that the authors of the literary sources namely, the British daily, the video
and the book have no political orientation (Vegter et al., 2014).
The authors of the newspaper article, video and the book are Stacy Liberatore, Angela
Sun and Hill respectively. They apparently have no political orientation behind writing or
making these videos and articles. First, the author of the newspaper article, Liberatore is
apparently a homemaker who works as a freelancer and lives in America. She in the article in
the English daily expresses serious concern about the devastating impact plastic debris is
having on the rivers. She pointed out that the rivers in the world like the Ganges of India and
the Yang Tze of China with largest discharge of water carry with them millions of tonnes of
plastic debris into the ocean they flow. She concluded the article by mentioning the Midway
Islands, which has earned the name ‘Plastic Island’ wing to the immense amount of plastic
debris the Pacific Ocean has washed up its shores (Sirirat, 2017). The main narrator of the
video Angella Sun is a media journalist who apparently does not showcase any kind of
political orientation. She introduces several environmentalists like Charles Moore and Dr
Susan Freinkal in her video, which shows her intention of gaining strong participation of the
environmentalists. The video clearly shows her strong intention of creating awareness in the
society regarding the fatal impacts of presence of plastics in the marine ecosystem and
gradually into the global food chainb (Eriksen et al., 2014). Charles W. L. Hill is an academic
expert and world famous professor having experiences of teaching in some of the most
reputed universities in the United States. After conducting an analysis of the backgrounds of
the three authors, one can arrive at the decision that they have no political intention.
c) Development of awareness and knowledge about the video, article and book:
The cases presented in the article by Liberatore, the video by Sun and the book by
Hill help in development of awareness and knowledge in the society. These literary sources

7
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
complement each other and strengthen each other’s messages. Liberatore in the article
published in the English daily spoke about the dangerous level of plastic effluents the major
rivers carry to the oceans (dailymail.co.uk, 2017). Sun in her video clearly shows that harm
plastic debris can do to marine life. She clearly points out the danger plastic debris pose to the
ecosystem of the oceans and the world as whole. Hill in the book spoke one of the most
spectacular current events which has escalated the level of pollution by infinite levels,
globalisation. Hill, in his book deals in concepts like globalisation and international trade. It
can be pointed out that globalisation and uncontrolled international trade are the reasons for
pollution (Hill, 2017). This discussion shows that the three literary articles complement each
other.
3. Takeaways from the assignment:
An comparison and contrast between the three literary sources namely, the newspaper
article, the book and the video provide three ‘assignment take aways’ or lessons about the
devastating impact of plastic debris. The following section would discuss the three learnings
form the point of view of the FMCG industry:
Plastic debris is harmful to marine life:
The plastic debris float consisting of containers of FMCG products and fishing nets
float in the ocean water. The marine animals are trapped in them and are either killed or
injured. The macro plastics items like nylon fishing nets destroy coral reefs and disturb the
food chain permanently. These big pieces of plastic break into smaller or even invisibly small
plastic pieces, which become a part of the body component of the marine animals and
ultimately the consumers of them including man (Unnamalai, 2017).

8
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
The FMCG companies and the consumers should use and dispose plastic responsibly:
The video by Sun shows that the mass of debris on the Midway Island is composed of
bottles, packages and other plastic articles, which the FMCG industry uses to pack and
package goods. The industry should use plastic more responsibly by recycling the plastic
pieces discarded. They must create awareness among the consumers about the fatal impact of
plastic accumulation in the environment. This would result in decrease in the disposal of
plastic in the oceans.
Plastic causes harmful impact on the human body:
The book by Hill states that globalisation and foreign trade have resulted in
production of goods in large scale, which has in turn multiplied pollution. Sun in her video
clearly states that the enormous amount of plastic the industrial sector and the consumers use
finds its way in the marine food chain. Liberatore states that the rivers also contribute to the
marine pollution. The micro plastic particles enter the bodies of the fishes and the body of
men to who consume those fishes. The plastic disrupts the normal working of human body by
causing hormonal imbalance and diseases like cancer. Thus, plastic accumulation in the
ecosystem can lethal to all living organisms including man (Padhy & Mishra, 2015).
Conclusion:
The discussion above shows how devastating pollution can be to the living world
including man. It shows that plastic debris from the industrialised nations, which reach the
oceans directly or indirectly along rivers, are capable of devastating marine life. They destroy
the marine eco-system, which influence the entire food chain. The microforms of plastic
make fishes and marine creatures unfit for use in the restaurants and by domestic consumers.
Thus the plastic pollution have gives fatal blows to the industries which depend on marine
creatures for raw materials like restaurants and fish export industry. The discussion shows

9
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
that companies producing and using plastic should dispose plastics more responsibly by
treating and recycling them. The consumers must reuse plastic packages and not dispose them
into the rivers. This would help in reduction of devastation of marine life by plastic, save the
eco system, ensure continuous flow of raw materials to the restaurant industries and ensure
sustenance of life on earth.

10
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
References:
Agrawal, A. D., & Das, M. (2013). Green Marketing: sustainable marketing strategy. Indira
Management Review, 17.
Arora, T., Mishra, A., Matta, G., Chopra, A. K., Kumar, A., Khanna, D. R., & Kumar, V.
(2017). Pollution load assessment and potential environmental risks of composite
industrial effluents discharged from SIIDCUL Integrated Industrial Estate, Haridwar
(Uttarakhand), India. Journal of Environmental Biology, 38(2), 205.
Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., ... &
Reisser, J. (2014). Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic
pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. PloS one, 9(12), e111913.
Eriksen, M., Maximenko, N., Thiel, M., Cummins, A., Lattin, G., Wilson, S., ... & Rifman, S.
(2013). Plastic pollution in the South Pacific subtropical gyre. Marine pollution
bulletin, 68(1), 71-76.
Gross, D., & Parfenov, S. (2016). Packaging Design’s Impact on Sales and Supply Chain in
the Consumer Goods Industry(Doctoral dissertation).
Hill, C. (2017). International Business.
Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Holm, D. B., Eriksson, K., & Johanson, J. (2015). Business Networks and Cooperation in
International Business Relationships. Knowledge, Networks and Power, 133-152.
Liberatore, S. (2017). Ocean Cleanup finds rivers are major culprits behind ocean
pollution. Mail Online. Retrieved 6 November 2017, from

11
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4585526/Plastic-rivers-major-source-
ocean-pollution-study.html
Mason, S. A., Kammin, L., Eriksen, M., Aleid, G., Wilson, S., Box, C., ... & Riley, A. (2016).
Pelagic plastic pollution within the surface waters of Lake Michigan, USA. Journal of
Great Lakes Research, 42(4), 753-759.
Padhy, P. C., & Mishra, A. K. (2015). Green Consumerism: Catalyst for Environmental
Marketing. Asia Pacific Journal of Energy and Environment, 2(3), 183-186.
Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - TM [MIRRORED]. (2017). YouTube.
Retrieved 6 November 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVQd1e23eJc
Sirirat, P. (2017). Sustainable Management Strategies: Thailand’s Sustainable Plastic-
Management Leading the Thai Plastic Industry Towards Becoming a Bio-Plastic
Hub (Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology).
Srinivasan, S., & Lu, W. F. (2014). Development of a supporting tool for sustainable fmcg
packaging designs. Procedia CIRP, 15, 395-400.
Štrach, P., & Wiesinger, S. (2015). Market Entry Mode Predictors: Evidence from Austrian
Companies Targeting Central European Markets. In Cross-Cultural Business
Conference 2015 (p. 161).
Unnamalai, T. (2016). A Study on Consumer Attitudes towards Green Fast Moving
Consumer Goods (FMCG)(With Special Reference to Tiruchirapalli
Town). International Journal of Engineering and Management Research
(IJEMR), 6(4), 380-389.

12
PLASTIC AND ECOLOGY
Vegter, A. C., Barletta, M., Beck, C., Borrero, J., Burton, H., Campbell, M. L., ... & Gilardi,
K. V. (2014). Global research priorities to mitigate plastic pollution impacts on
marine wildlife. Endangered Species Research, 25(3), 225-247.
Vibhuti, A. K. T., & Pandey, V. (2014). A case study on consumer buying behavior towards
selected FMCG products. International journal of scientific research and
management, 2(8), 1168-1182.
Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., ... & Law,
K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771.
Zheng, B. J. (2013). Green packaging materials and modern packaging design. In Applied
Mechanics and Materials (Vol. 271, pp. 77-80). Trans Tech Publications.