Plastic ban or not, plastic is still destroying the planet
All decent human beings want to save the planet, yes? Much has been made of new eco-friendly initiatives and technologies hitting the mainstream, like the plastic bag ban. But irony of ironies, this ban may be more detrimental to our planet.
Plastic, in all its forms, plagues our planet and threatens its survival — that is undisputed. No habitat shows the havoc we have wrecked with our plastic obsession more than our oceans, where we’re learning more and more every day just how much we’ve already devastated them.
Last week, the Ocean Cleanup project returned from its groundbreaking mega expedition — the largest ocean expedition in history, according to the group — investigating the plastic that swims in the Pacific Ocean. This expedition included study of the floating garbage island known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or Pacific trash vortex).
Thirty vessels from the United States, Canada and Mexico, along with scientists from numerous European countries, spent almost a month sailing from Hawaii to Los Angeles collecting data on plastic in the ocean. The objective was to measure the amount, as well as size and spatial arrangement, of the garbage so that the Ocean Cleanup could begin assessing the best ways to tackle a multi-year cleanup. The researchers still have to analyze much of the samples collected during the trip but did say they found a “higher-than-expected volume” of garbage.
One of the ways the Ocean Cleanup will attempt to clean the ocean is with Cleanup Arrays, a relatively simple technology the group announced plans for in May 2015 that utilizes the ocean’s currents. These Cleanup Arrays use the currents of the ocean to push garbage into specially designed receptacles that gather the debris for transport later. It is estimated one of these arrays could collect up to half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 years. Ocean Cleanup expects to deploy these Cleanup Arrays in 2016. The group is also using information gathered from the expedition to plan for an even bigger cleanup initiative to begin in 2020.
Incredulously, the trash vortex in the Pacific is just one of five that occupy the Earth’s oceans, and like the one in the Pacific, most of their composition is also plastic. Plastic bags are especially abundant — which seems counter-intuitive considering their weight combined is only 0.28 percent of the total weight of the garbage we produce. However, the problem lies not in their weight but how they are unrecyclable. They also jam up recycling equipment, but even more troublesome, plastic bags (and other non-bag plastics), are contributing to the deaths of many marine animals. These animals get tangled and eventually drown, or like seagulls, accidentally eat them and consequently starving to death.
The Marine Conservation Society says seagulls like the one seen in the PSA above are starving to death because plastic, including bags, blocks their digestive system. According to a new study printed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by 2050 at least 99 percent of seabirds will be filled with plastic they’re unable to digest.
“Seabirds are particularly vulnerable to this type of pollution and are widely observed to ingest floating plastic,” wrote the study authors.
The study looked at 186 different bird species across the globe and identified birds living near the Tasman sea, between Australian and New Zealand, as having the most issues — which is startling because that area is believed to be the least littered with garbage.
“Global plastic production is increasing exponentially, with a current doubling time of 11 years,” the study authors wrote, “thus, between 2015 and 2026, we will make as much plastic as has been made since production began.”
In other words, despite all of our green eco-friendly initiatives, we are still making a ridiculous amount of plastic. More than ever before. That revelation is unexpected, considering starting in 1991, many countries around the world started banning plastic bags.
In July, Hawaii became the first state in the United States to ban plastic bags, and San Francisco was the first American city to enact a ban in 2007. So far more than 100 cities have followed San Francisco’s lead, including Chicago, whose plastic bag ban went into effect Aug. 1. But most of these bans have a loophole that is harming the environment worse than the bags allowed before did.
In Chicago, big box stores are allowed to use plastic bags if they are at least 2.25 millimeters thick, can hold upwards of 22 pounds and be reused 125 times. Honolulu, Hawaii has the same loophole, as does Austin, Texas.
In fact, a study in Austin found that their residents were treating these allegedly reusable plastic bags like disposable bags, throwing them out with the garbage. Chelsea Rochman, an environmental toxicologist at the University of California, Davis, told the Huffington Post the thicker bags are “a worse alternative because they’ll persist in the environment longer.”
Besides large, and small, pieces of plastic damaging the open waters, studies have found that the ocean’s mammals and wildlife are also full of plastic microfibers that come off of our clothing in the washing machine. Polyester, nylon, acrylic and other synthetic fibers shed tiny strands of plastic that enter the ocean and, subsequently, our food supply.
So, what now?
We’re not going to stop using plastic any time soon — it’s in our computers, desk chairs and even clothing. But projects like Ocean Cleanup provide at least a glimmer of hope that some of the damage can be undone.
New technologies like a mesh grid in washing machines that catch the plastic coming off our clothes could be easily developed. And though disposing and recycling other waste plastic is probably the biggest challenge, science is working on that front. A few years ago, a teen at a science fair discovered bacteria could help speed up the process of decomposing plastics, from hundreds and even thousands of years down to three months. Scientists have also discovered a fungus that could replace all of our plastics with a kind of “bioplastic” that is degradable.
It’s not all doom and gloom, but that doesn’t mean a solution is on the immediate horizon. In the meantime, for the planet’s sake, start carrying a cloth bag when you go shopping.
A version of this article first appeared on the TouchVision TV website, September 2015
