Plastic grows into the food industry in the 1950s to 1970s, moving from reusable utensils and plates into single-use plastic items including plastic bags that were invented by engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin. The growth in popularity is the start of plastics pollution.

In the 1970s - 1980s, large supermarkets start to take onto the growing trend of plastic bags for its customers from the paper bag norm. Towards the end of this decade, the plastic bag was the most used brining the rise in plastic waste.

Other than plastics, there are other areas of pollution that begin to catch the attention of local and federal government's concerns. In the1960s-1970s, Runoff and oil discharge is noticed to be a large contribution to fires occurring in the rivers of Ohio due to the large amounts of oil.

After many fires in the Ohio river due to the oil pollution, the government responds by passing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act in 1972. This act and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 regulates oil waste to rivers and funds better sewage plants.

In 1972, research and scientific reports began studying plastic pollution and debris in the ocean of the Sargasso Sea.

In 1997, Charles J. Moore is coined to discover the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on a return from a yacht competition. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was an accumulation of plastic waste in the ocean in a large area.

Richard Thompson, a Marine Biologist, founded the name “microplastics” to be plastic particles that are less than 5millimeters in size that are discovered in sediment and the surface of the ocean.

In 2006, the rise in public attention of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is due to an article by Ken Weiss. More research and scientific studies are now conducted due to this rise in attention.

A Rolling Stone article, cited below, states that in 2011 Americans use approximately 102 billion plastic bags each year.

Many solutions and advocations arise in protest to the rise of the pollution in the oceans. One of which is the Ocean Cleanup Project founded in 2013 by a former aerospace engineering student, Boyan Slat, funded and created to combat the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And in two years, raises $2 million to start researching and testing.

From 2018 - 2021, multiple global agencies and governments have started to enact legislation to reduce pollution and regulate improper waste management practices to combat the pollution.