“The lethal dose varies based on the species, the animal’s size, the type of plastic it’s consuming, and other factors, but overall it’s much smaller than you might think.”
Ocean Conservancy researchers analyzed nearly 10,500 animal necropsies to quantify how much plastic kills marine wildlife. Less than three sugar cubes’ worth can kill seabirds like Atlantic puffins with 90% certainty. For sea turtles, it takes about two baseballs’ worth; for marine mammals like harbor porpoises, roughly one soccer ball’s worth. Nearly half of the animals studied were already on the IUCN red list of threatened species.