The growing tide of plastic debris in our ocean is partially due to the steady discharge of plastic by our rivers that drain into the sea. Plastics materials enter waterways from rural and urbanized areas located near riverbanks, and then travel downstream with the flow. Plastic comes in a variety of sizes and includes both macroplastics (large enough to be seen with the naked eye) and microplastics (not easily seen with the naked eye and are about 5 mm in size; about the size of a pencil eraser).

If you live away from the coast and are far from the nearest beach, you’ve probably thought “marine debris sounds bad, but it doesn’t have anything to do with me— I don’t contribute to it.” Well think again! Even if you don’t live in close proximity to the ocean or Great Lakes, your actions can still have an impact on marine debris. How? To put it simply, it all comes down to one word: watersheds. So what exactly is a watershed?