The problems of Earth: Plastic pollution

Plastic pollution is the accumulation in the environment of synthetic plastic products. 

Plastic polluted “paradisiac” beach in Tulum, Mexico (Maria Serra, 2018)

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues: the accumulation of plastic in the ecosystem creates problems for wildlife and their habitats as well as for human populations. When the first plastic was produced in 1860, little they knew that the material would be so harmful. From that first object –a billiard ball– many modifications have been made: now plastics contain additives making them stronger, more flexible and durable. 

Nowadays, 500 million metric tones of plastic are produced every year –90% more than 40 years ago– and it is projected to triple by 2050. 12 million tons of plastic waste –the equivalent of 800 Eiffel Towers– escape to the oceans annually. Every second, 200Kg of plastic is dumped into the sea. 80% of the plastic trash in the oceans –Earth’s last sink– flows from land and the 20% left comes from marine activities e.g. fishing and tourism. The oceanic vertical distribution of plastic is divided in 3 main layers: surface –where we find 15% of the plastic, intermediate layer –where we find another 15% and the deep ocean –where 70% of the plastic is found. Like an iceberg, the biggest volume is found where we cannot see it. More than 14 million tonnes of plastic are believed to be at the bottom of the ocean. When caught up in the ocean currents, plastic can be transported around the world: on Henderson Island, an uninhabited atoll halfway between Chile and New Zealand, scientists found plastic items from Russia, the United States, Europe, South America, Japan and China. 

Plastic bags floating adrift like icebergs (Naturaler, 2019)

By 2050, there will be 1,000kg of plastic per each person inhabiting the world. If you think that plastic is recycled and reused, you are wrong. 79% of the plastic is dumped to landfills, 12% is burnt and only 9% is recycled. Less than 50% of plastic bottles are collected to be recycled and only 7% of this fraction are reused. 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute, meaning that  of this million only 35,000 bottles will be recycled and 965,000 will be dumped or burnt. This is every minute. 

The reason why plastic is used and not reused is money: without a profitable market in which to sell it, it is not cost-effective to recycle plastic, so many companies sell it to other countries at a loss. Plastic trash was America’s primary export to China in 2011. In countries with high poverty like India, waste pickers sort trash to find plastics and metals despite facing high concentration of toxic materials along the way. There are communities where the only burnable matter they have is plastic, so that is what they burn and it creates a concerning health crisis. The environmental and health effects of plastic pollution disproportionately impact the world’s poorest communities. 

A worker piles up plastic bottles collected at a recycling center in Hefei, China. (Los Angeles Times, 2017)

The sources of plastic are diverse, but there are 5 main types of plastic: PVC –e.g. pipes, windows; PE –e.g. plastic bags; PS –e.g. food recipients, porexpan; PP –sticky tape, Tupperware; PET –bottles, balloons, clothes. The responsibility is of the customers, but who are the World’s Top Corporate Plastic Polluters? The 2019 Top 10 Global Polluters are: Coca Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo –this three happen to be the top 3 for 3 years in a row–, Mondelez International, Unilever, Mars, P&G, Colgate-Palmolive, Phillip Morris and Perfetti Van Mille. This are the companies polluting the most places with the most plastic. 

The conveniences plastics offer, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side: today, single-use plastics account for 40% of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products –such as plastic bags, straws, and food wrappers– have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years. 

The brands that lead the pollution in each Continent (Greenpeace, 2020)

Once plastic is produced and used, it becomes waste. Plastic pollution is globally distributed across all oceans due to its properties of buoyancy and durability. Moreover, the sorption of toxicants to plastic while traveling through the environment, has led some researchers to claim that synthetic polymers in the ocean should be regarded as hazardous waste. Single use plastic items need 400 years to be degraded –the time that has passed since the Quijote was written, a plastic bottle needs 500 years –the time since Mona Lisa was painted and a fishing line needs 600 years –the time passed since Colon arrived to America.

Gyres are circular patterns of ocean currents. In there, we find the plastic islands, they are large extensions of garbage –mainly plastic– floating adrift in the ocean. Due to marine currents, garbage is dragged until it reaches a gyre. In the middle of each ocean there is one. This islands are deathly traps for wildlife. 

Plastic trash kills over 100,000 marine mammals annually, thousands of turtles, marine birds, fish and even invertebrates. Nearly 700 species –including endangered ones– are known to have been affected by plastics. Most deaths are caused by entanglement or starvation. Marine mammals, seals, turtles and other animals are strangled by abandoned fishing gear or discarded six-pack rings. 

Clothing is also an unnoticed source of plastic: 60% of our clothes are plastic and it releases plastic fibers in every wash. Fibers are dragged to the main water bodies by our sewer network or pipes and end up in rivers and seas. Fibers belong to a bigger group of plastic called micro-plastic –all of those plastic pieces smaller than 5mm. This pieces can be stored in the body –of humankind and animals– and bioaccumulate along the food-chain. Micro-plastics have been found in more than 100 aquatic species, including fish, shrimp and mussels which may end up in your dinner plate. New research shows that larval fish are eating nano-fibers in the first day of life, raising new questions about the effects of plastic on fish populations. Plastic at the beach may affect the temperature of the turtles’ nests, conditioning the sex of the offspring. 

Micro-plastic at Porto Pim beach, the Azores (Maria Serra, 2019)

We eat an average of the equivalent of a credit card of plastic every month. The evidence is growing that plastic is affecting human health in a multitude of ways and at every stage in its production and use. From the air pollution when producing it to a range of intoxication problems that can cause long term changes to respiratory, skin, reproductive, digestive and neurological systems. Tests have confirmed liver and cell damage and disruptions to the reproductive system.

Some times, plastics block digestive tracts or pierce organs, causing death. Stomachs so packed with plastics reduce the urge to eat, causing starvation. These may not be causes of human death but they sure are for aquatic life. Plastic has been consumed by land-based animals, including elephants, tigers, zebras, camels, cattle and other large mammals. It is sad to see millions of animals that are suffering from the ghost of our consumption, they don’t deserve that. A pregnant Sperm whale found death with 22 kg of plastic in its stomach in 2019, a beaked whale found death with 40 kilos of plastic found in its stomach in 2017 and there are more examples. 

Pilot whale found death with 4Kg of plastic in its digestive system. (SVtv, 2016) 

Plastic pollution also affects to Global Warming: 99% of plastic comes from fossil fuels, the byproduct gas produced along the process is also a greenhouse gas and when plastic is degraded, methane is released. Methane is actually one of the worst greenhouse gases, with 4 times the greenhouse capacity of CO2. 

What can you do to help?

The solution is to prevent plastic waste from entering rivers and seas in the first place. This could be accomplished with improved waste management systems, better product design that takes into account the short life of disposable packaging and stop manufacturing single-use plastics. Ultimately, we need to stop using plastic as it cannot be returned to the nature because it is not part of the natural ecosystem.  

Some projects such as “Gyre: crating art from plastic ocean” or sednaproject.com, pick up plastic trash from the ocean and transform this trash into other objects –wether art or other beautiful items– in order to spread awareness and raise founds to invest in sustainable local projects. Beach cleaning events are not uncommon. Unfortunately, to remove the plastic waste from the ocean is not enough, it sure is needed, but it is not enough. We really need to stop producing plastic waste and stop producing plastic or we will be fishing more plastic than fish by 2050. 

Exclusive National Geographic journeys along the remote Alaskan coast in search of garbage. 

(National Geographic, 2013) *

As a single human being you can, first of all, refuse to use plastic, try to buy those products with plastic-free packaging, use reusable cloth-bags, use bamboo toothbrushes, solid soap, if you cannot avoid to buy that package of cookies with plastic, choose the one with the less amount of it. Look into your cosmetics: toothpaste or soap may contain micro-plastics and there are dozens of organic ideas. Secondly, spread awareness. The preservation of Earth should be a global concern and everyone should be involved, everyone should want to get involved. A change of behavior and mentality needs to be made.

Have a look around you, your house, your workplace, the shops where you buy, the streets you walk… and try to spot all the plastic you can, rather waste or useful things. And then try to think if those plastic items that you are seeing could be made from any other material. A lot of times we use plastic as it is the cheapest and easiest solution, but what is cheap and easy for us now, is expensive and difficult for us –and the entire planet– later. 

“Consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?” –Moby Dick. 

Maria Serra

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr5m8b28eqA&feature=emb_title 

SOURCES

Belesey Pribe, M. (2011) What is the plastic island in the Pacific Ocean? ecolife http://www.ecolife.com/recycling/plastic/pacific-plastic-island-garbage-patch.html 

Craig Leeson (2016) A plastic Ocean. Netflix. 

Greenpeace Philippines (2020) Branded Vol. II Identifying the World’s Top Corporate Plastic Polluters. Greenpeace. https://www.greenpeace.org/philippines/ 

Moore, C. (2020) Plastic pollution. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/plastic-pollution 

Parker, L. (2020) The world’s plastic pollution crisis explained. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/plastic-pollution/

sednaproject.com 

Tearfund. (2019) No time to waste. Tearfund. https://learn.tearfund.org/~/media/files/tilz/circular_economy/2019-tearfund-consortium-no-time-to-waste-en.pdf?la=en