To highlight the severity of the problem plastic poses, the team pointed to past research showing an estimated 14 million tons of plastic polluted the oceans in 2010 because it was not disposed of and dealt with properly. Almost half of the plastic made in the last six decades was produced in the past 13 years, they wrote, and around 40 percent of plastic products ended up being disposed of in the same year they were created. Another study indicated there were more pieces of plastic in the ocean than stars in the Milky Way.
为了强调塑料污染问题的严重性，研究小组指出，过去的研究显示，2010年估计有1400万吨塑料污染了海洋，因为它们没有得到妥善处理。他们写道，过去60年里生产的塑料几乎有一半是在过去的13年里生产的，大约40%的塑料产品在它们被生产出来的同一年就被丢弃了。另一项研究表明，海洋中的塑料碎片比银河系中的恒星还要多。
"Unfortunately, unless drastic steps are taken, the numbers and challenges will only grow, with the quantity of waste entering the ocean predicted to increase ten-fold by 2025," the authors warned in their paper.
“不幸的是，除非采取严厉的措施，否则海洋垃圾的数量和挑战只会增加，预计到2025年进入海洋的垃圾数量将增加10倍，”作者在文章中警告说。
As the researchers collected samples down to a depth of 10 centimeters on the beach, and were unable to access some debris "hot spots," the estimate is likely to be conservative, explained Jennifer Lavers, the lead author of the study and a research scientist at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, in Australia.
正如研究者们收集样本到10厘米的深度在沙滩上,和无法访问一些碎片“热点”,估计可能是保守,珍妮弗·赖维斯解释说, 珍妮弗·赖维斯是该研究的第一作者和澳大利亚塔斯马尼亚大学研究海洋和南极研究所的科学家。
Lavers explained in a statement that only a few hundred people live on the islands, and so the sheer volume of plastic present there reflects how the material moves around the oceans.
拉弗斯在一份声明中解释说，岛上只有几百人居住，所以岛上塑料的体积反映了海洋中塑料的运动方式。
"Islands such as these are like canaries in a coal mine and it's increasingly urgent that we act on the warnings they are giving us," said Lavers. "Plastic pollution is now ubiquitous in our oceans, and remote islands are an ideal place to get an objective view of the volume of plastic debris now circling the globe."
“像这样的岛屿就像煤矿里的金丝雀，我们越来越迫切地需要根据它们发出的警告采取行动，”赖维斯说。“塑料污染现在在我们的海洋中无处不在，偏远的岛屿是一个理想的地方，可以客观地看到目前环绕全球的塑料碎片的体积。”
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