Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires:<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyres-are-major-source-of-ocean-microplastics-study" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre...</a><p>Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people.<p>It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a life without a car, and people think you are weird, and pass laws preventing you from building a community that is accessible without a car (at least in the US). And that's before we get to the violent deaths caused by car crashes, or the wheezing deaths caused by COPD, or the quality years of life reduced by asthma from cars...