Located in the heart of the ocean, the Mariana Trench is the deepest point on Earth. To put it into a scale, if you were to place Mount Everest at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, it would still be over 2000 meters below sea level. It is hard to fathom what lies at these depths. Up until 2020, there have been more people that have walked on the surface of the moon than people who have been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (12 vs 7). 

The Mariana Trench may seem like a dark, lifeless pit. However, recent expeditions have discovered a variety of marine life. Alongside coral reefs, researchers have documented the presence of fascinating creatures like jellyfish and octopuses. More shockingly, these expeditions have also discovered plastic bags and candy wrappers at these depths where no humans have ever been before. Finding these kinds of single-use plastic waste at such a depth highlights the severity of pollution in our ocean. 

Furthermore, almost all animals in the trenches have microplastics in their systems. There may not be a single organism that has not been directly or indirectly impacted by the invasive microplastics that come from our everyday items, such as plastic water bottles, toothbrushes, fishing gear, and even clothes made from synthetic textiles. Plastic pollution is essentially everywhere, and to make matters worse, most plastics take hundreds of years to break down.

The ocean contains much more pollution than just a single plastic bag in the Mariana Trench. However, this one piece of plastic is a clear symbol of how pervasive pollution has become. To try to ameliorate the situation, we will have to replace plastic products in our daily lives. We will have to recycle as much as possible. After that, we will have to work towards retrieving plastic waste that is already in the ocean. This may seem like a long way, but it definitely is not an impossible one.