The top 10 actions you can take to help stop the growth of the massive plastics soup growing in the Pacific.
Whether on land or in the sea, rubbish we don’t see equals rubbish we don’t think about. Giles Crosse discovers out of sight isn’t out of mind.
“The plastic soup has arisen because plastic has ended up in the sea, sunlight degrades the plastic and makes it brittle, then wind and wave action break the plastic up into smaller and smaller pieces,” explains George Orbelian. He works for Project Kaisei, a San Francisco based organisation fighting marine waste. They’re in the process of raising $4 US million to analyse 2009 marine samples and fund 2010 expeditions.
“It is such a complex problem because it is so big and pervasive. Poorly thought out products, unleashed on an unsuspecting public for decades on an environment that we hold hostage with our ignorance, and lack of forethought is the reason this problem has grown so huge.”
Greenpeace reckons a single one litre drinks bottle could break down into enough small fragments to put one on every mile of beach in the entire world. The waste plastics vortex floating in the Pacific is now the size of Texas. Ships are even diverting around it to avoid fouling their propellers. But what’s it doing there?
"Most plastic floats, and it often gets pushed into this part of the ocean via wind and currents. The gyre is a larger rotating set of four main current systems that rotate clockwise in the north Pacific,” explains Doug Woodring, also from Project Kaisei.
“We are looking at ways to collect some of the debris from the ocean, and then remediate that by turning it to fuel, or other recycled material. The scale and size is enormous, thousands of square miles, and although the plastic is pervasive across all of the water, it is dispersed. It is not a big floating island as some seem to think.”
Sea change
Greenpeace thinks there are six kilos of plastic for every kilo of naturally occurring plankton in the Pacific vortex. There are five major ocean gyres worldwide, so more fears exist surrounding yet undiscovered problems in areas like the Sargasso Sea.
Impacts are troubling. “It is known that marine debris is killing wildlife,” continues Woodring. “We are also doing tests to see if some of the toxins adhered to the floating debris, heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants, are getting into the food chain.”
Greenpeace fears just this. It says plastics can act as a sort of ‘chemical sponge’, concentrating many of the most damaging pollutants found in the world’s oceans.
“Albatross deaths on Midway and other islands with plastic in their stomachs. A lot of other marine life that would die at sea would never be seen, so it is hard to estimate the impact. But it is not hard at all to see this small plastic debris can be mistaken for food, even by the small life forms.” says Woodring.
Rays of hope
But environmentalists are seeking solutions. “The problem will be solved by a ‘Cradle to Cradle’ approach to design and manufacturing. The creation of waste is a failure of intelligence,” says Orbelian.
“The rate of growth is a combination of increases in population, increased generation of consumer waste, and lack of consumer waste recycling and reuse opportunities.”
“Studies do show that in some countries people are willing to pay more for a product that is environmentally friendly,” argues Woodring. “We need to get this message to the companies making products, so the leaders get rewarded for change. Then there will be economies of scale and lower prices for the good, environmentally friendly products.”
Perhaps most crucial is the individual factor. Should everyone on the planet choose not to buy disposable lighters, throw-away Christmas decorations, or even opt for one less balloon at a birthday party, damage could be halted rapidly. There are other options.
“Short lifespans for plastics, disposable products, packaging, these are all part of the problem,” says David Santillo, Senior Scientist, Greenpeace Research Laboratories. “This is all part of the unsustainable global business model of cheap, short term products, which is both environmentally and economically unsustainable.”
"We need to think about buying choices, ‘Do I need this? Is there an alternative? There is an ability for recycling to solve the problem. But to really work industry needs to be incentivised to make better design choices, make products containing just one grade of plastic so recycling is easier.”
Bio brilliance
There is another potential answer. Biodegradable plastics from plant based sources have been with us for years. But they only break down properly in the presence of air and light. So right now work is needed to develop ‘marine degradable’ bioplastic. The time it may take to degrade is challenging too.
When plastic enters the ocean, it might be a matter of days before a bird or fish ingests the material. So for degradables to work, they would need very quick breakdown times. And this might make them less suitable for packaging your lunchtime sandwich, in case they began to break down in the rain, or from moisture in the fridge.
It depends on the production systems, the role is there if produced sustainably,” says Santillo, describing the potential. “But we ought to think ‘upstream’ first. If we don’t make a plastic product, it can’t get into the oceans after use. We use fewer resources by doing this too.”
“I’m not saying halt all plastic production, but with these issues it’s more about thinking through what we do at the front end, how and why we make things, than at the back end, where we worry about how to solve problems we didn’t always need to create.”
Greenpeace believes around 70 per cent of discarded plastic sinks to the bottom. In the North Sea, Dutch scientists have counted around 110 pieces of litter for every square kilometre of the seabed, a staggering 600,000 tonnes in the North Sea alone.
75 to 80 per cent of marine plastic waste comes from the land. Some global landfill sites are deliberately placed near oceans, so tides wash waste out to sea, ‘solving’ the problem. Fast food packaging from the city centre, washed into docks in London, waterways in New York or Cairo all eventually ends up in our oceans.
Future legacy
“Humans, all life, have evolved to live on fresh water, food and air,” says Orbelian. “Whatever we do to the environment, we do to ourselves. There is no ‘away’, we are all on a big rock, flying through the universe at 67,000 miles per hour - let's help each other and future generations enjoy the ride.”
"It is our responsibility to protect the environment we and future generations depend on. Our system of economy, business and policy is flawed if we are poisoning ourselves, our children and future generations. It makes no sense to dump sewerage and waste into the waters we drink and eat from.”
“The children are the future and our focus should be to let every child achieve their potential. For children to become the most beautiful adults they can be, they need loving, educated families, shelter, education and a clean environment to support their health. That should be our focus and our infrastructure should support those ideals.” he concludes.
Top ten actions you can take
1) Learn about how things are created
2) Learn about our waste stream
3) Try not to buy things that are packaged wastefully
4) If something you want is packaged in a way you do not agree with, then suggest alternatives to management
5) Recycle, reuse
6) Pick up trash and insure it is disposed of properly
7) Do not pass problems, stop and solve them
8) Try to leave the earth better for others
9) Remember the poorest on this planet live closest to the earth - by compromising the environment we are only increasing the burden on all of us
10) Embrace being a part of nature - there is no alternative
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