OUR OCEANS ARE NOT GARBAGE CANS

The advent of plastic has drastically changed the way we live our lives; integrated into almost every facet of our day-to-day living, from brushing your teeth in the morning to drinking your favourite coffee. Even for such basic needs we rely on the production AND disposal of plastic - it is nigh on impossible to avoid!

Plastic cutlery. By Ziko van Dij, GFDL: (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), via Wikimedia Commons.

The characteristics of plastic gave rise to this “revolution”, albeit a disastrous one environmentally speaking. Low cost and ease of manufacture peaked interest, that along with properties such as its versatility, strength and resistance to water have made it applicable to innumerable needs of modern society. Perhaps enabling further creation of false needs as a self-perpetuating cycle to ensure we continue consuming material goods? New iPhone anyone?

The waste stream of plastic is, as you would expect, immense. Irresponsible disposal practices of items such as, single-use bottles, have led to the release of plastic waste into the environment. A scientific study[2] calculated that 275 million metric tons of plastic was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, of which 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons entered the oceans. The scale is huge.

Jacques Yves Cousteau articulated:

“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”

Marine debris on a beach in the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge. By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

A significant problem occurs because plastics do not biodegrade. Under the influence of sunlight however, plastics fragment into small particles known as microplastics. Lives of marine organisms throughout our oceans are devastatingly impacted by plastic and microplastic as they become entangled with it, leading to suffocation, or they ingest it - marine mammals are most affected by entanglement, whereas marine birds suffer most from ingestion. 

Dead Albatross with ingested plastic. By Chris Jordan (via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters), via Wikimedia Commons

Plastics contain harmful chemicals that, when marine organisms ingest microplastics, leach out and enter the food web. This creates serious and far reaching threats that are not limited to marine organisms – millions of people rely on fish as their primary source of protein.[1]

As we move forward, increasingly there are signs of reduction in the use of plastic and the promotion of more responsible waste management solutions, such as recycling. Education undoubtedly plays a substantial role in creating awareness of such consequential issues and can lay the foundation for future generations to live in a more harmonious way with our planet. However, our work is not yet done. Many organisations are working towards cleaning our oceans and in a future post I’ll be sharing the information of a variety of such organisations, so why not get involved?



- Ben



References:

[1] Hammer, J., Kraak, M.H.S. and Parsons, J.R., 2012. Plastics in the Marine Environment: The Dark Side of a Modern Gift. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 220, doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-3414-6_1

[2] Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R. and Law, K. L., 2015. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science 347, doi: 10.1126/science.1260352