See full version: Plastic Pollution and Marine Life
The Ocean Cleanup, for example, is an organization that’s working on building specialized boats that can clean plastic from our waterways, and others like 5Gyres advocate against plastic waste through art, science and education.
The researchers also examined the effect plastic has on corals and sponges. In particular, plastic tends to gash and cut into the flesh of the coral. As a result, contaminated corals have a risk of disease of 89%, compared to just 4% for non-contaminated coral. The researchers also estimated that 11.1 billion pieces of plastic are entangled on corals worldwide. here
According to yearly beach clean-up statistics from the Ocean Conservancy, an organization that hosts a massive one-day cleanup event around the world, as well as The Plastics BAN List from 5Gyres, the most common items to pollute our oceans include:
• 46,000 – Pieces of plastic per every square mile of ocean.
The threat of plastic to turtles is two-fold. Turtles are likely to eat plastics, but they’re also at risk of entanglement. According to one study, 86% of sea turtle species are prone to entanglement and ingestion. And the World Wildlife Fund estimates that 52% of all sea turtles have ingested plastic. Further, the WWF speculates that 1,000 turtles die per year due to entanglement. Plastic on beaches and near shore can also have a significant impact on sea turtles. A study of Florida sea turtle hatchlings found that of the 27 baby turtles that died during the study, all had plastic fragments in their stomachs. more
It makes sense. Plastic is inexpensive, it’s lightweight, and it’s relatively easy to manufacture. Sadly, though, the majority of plastic we consume is used once and discarded. Just 9% of all plastic created is ever recycled, while 12 percent is incinerated.
Smoking’s not only bad for your body, but it’s gross for the environment as well. Cigarettes are the most littered item in the U.S. as well as worldwide, and cigarette butts make up 30 – 40 percent of all collected litter. here
At some places, such as The Fillery in NYC, customers bring their own containers and bags, weigh them at the beginning of their shopping trip, fill their containers with food or other products, and pay at the counter. more
Spoiled and thrown out food is also a lot of unused fuel. At the same time, humans are cutting down huge areas of land – even the ever more endangered (rain) forests – to grow crop to feed livestock.
The United States produced a horrendous amount of radioactive waste during the Cold War. Much of it wasn’t properly disposed and has been leaking from underground storage tanks into the environment since the 50’s .
Less mercury, lead, beryllium and cadmium will make their way into water systems and residential areas. ERA, in collaboration with Hi Tech Recyclers, work to recycle TVs, printers and other unusable electronics. [links]
Improve stormwater management by implementing stormwater and storm drain filtration and river mouth trash collection. This can prevent wastes such as macroplastics (littered items), microplastics (tire dust), and chemicals on roadways from flowing into rivers, and eventually, the ocean. Regulating the use of nutrients and pesticides and shifting behaviors — for example, the cultural norm around having a manicured lawn, which can increase the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers — can also ensure that these pollutants do not enter the ocean through stormwater. For example, a toxic algal bloom caused by nutrient pollution in the western Lake Erie basin in 2011 disrupted water supplies for 400,000 people. here
For example, improving wastewater management at scale in a city or region can reduce plastic entering the ocean while also reducing nutrient pollution, which in turn improves the health of fisheries and coral reefs. This means that there is an opportunity to capitalize on the attention being paid to plastic pollution in order to tackle multiple ocean pollutants at once. more
But here’s the thing: Plastic bags and straws aren’t the ocean’s only pollution problem.
These tactics can’t be done on a small scale or by a single entity. In order to be successful, it is essential that solutions include cross-sectoral public-private partnerships, innovative financing arrangements and capital from a range of sources.
Recover and recycle the materials we use in both formal and informal sectors by implementing extended producer responsibility laws, providing incentives for waste segregation and recycling, strengthening markets for recycled plastics and implementing “Fishing for Litter” programs. Only 9% of all plastic ever discarded since 1950 has been recycled, while another 12% has been incinerated and the remaining 79% accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. [links]
To get there, businesses and companies must ensure that the products they’re putting into the marketplace can be captured, returned and reused/recycled, instead of landfilled, littering our communities, or going into the ocean.
Ocean Conservancy has witnessed impacts from ocean plastic firsthand over our 45-year history. We have a bold goal to stop the flow of plastic into the ocean by 2030. This is critical for the ocean, and in our fight against climate change.
First, we must reduce the amount of plastic being produced. We need to start with phasing out unnecessary and single-use plastics. Every year, the same disposable products appear on Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup Top 10 of the most common items littering our beaches and waterways around the globe—items like plastic bags, foam containers and straws. Our scientists have shown how damaging these products are to marine life and the marine environment.
Bans, fees, and product restrictions are effective ways to have an outsized impact on local communities while reducing the amount of plastic produced. If those products are out of the market altogether, they won’t end up in the ocean. For example, if only 2% of retail plastic bags find their way to the ocean each year, a global ban on plastic bags would mean that approximately 10 billion pieces of plastic would no longer be available to impact marine life. Apply that same kind of calculus to straws and that’s another 4 to 6 billion pieces of plastic that won’t potentially get lodged into sea turtles’ nostrils. more
The tide is beginning to turn. We have seen a number of commitments by companies, including those in our Trash Free Seas Alliance, embracing this challenge. Starbucks and McDonalds’ NextGen Cup Challenge will eliminate plastic cup waste altogether by creating a fiber cup that is truly recyclable and compostable. In Indonesia, Danone’s AQUA brand bottled water introduced a bottle made from 100% recycled plastic that is also 100% recyclable. While some leaders in the private sector are making progress, many more companies need to join this movement.
Approximately 6,300 million metric tons of plastic waste has been generated since the creation of plastics in the 1950’s. Only 9% of this plastic waste has been recycled, with the remainder incinerated, landfilled or left in the natural environment. Of the roughly 9% that has been recycled, only 10% of that has been recycled more than once; this means that only 1% of all plastic produced has been recycled more than once. This is a massive scourge for our ocean; roughly 150 million metric tons of plastic waste now pollutes our ocean with an additional 8 million metric tons (and growing) spilling into the marine environment from land every year.