An Ocean Without Plastics?
Carol Maione, a Global People’s Fellow for 2018, highlights some of the challenges facing our world’s oceans.
In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) established a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) covering a broad range of global issues with an overarching sustainable development agenda to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity. The 17 global goals have specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.
SDG 14 is to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources. Plastic waste is one of the biggest threats to marine environments
Around three-quarters of the planet’s surface is on the brink of a massive collapse. The world’s oceans and wildlife are under the biggest threat in human history as our actions are having disastrous consequences on the environment. This seems to be a common pattern all around the world and scientists have registered significant declines across the fish population.
Not only is marine life being exploited at a faster pace than ever before, but human activities are also responsible for marine pollution in all its forms. Emissions and illegal dumping, among other things, is posing a great risk to life below water, making our seas uninhabitable environments for thousands of species.
For decades we have been using the ocean as a convenient dumping ground and regarded its resources as inextinguishable goods. Now we know that our actions had, and are having, a catastrophic impact on marine life. ‘Plastic patches’, layers and layers of plastic waste, are expanding at the fastest pace since the industrial revolution. There is now no place you can go without expecting to find plastic in fresh and seawater environments.
A study by Jambeck et al. estimates that, on average, we throw into the ocean 8 million metric tons of plastic every year. This is equivalent to as much as one truck of plastic dumped into the ocean every minute, the World Economic Forum says. At this pace, experts predict that our oceans could be home to more plastic than fish by 2050.
Not only is plastic slowly substituting marine biomass in our oceans, but many marine organisms perish from being entangled in, or ingesting, plastic materials. This is especially true for the 236,000 tons of microplastics that float in our oceans — tiny pieces of plastic that are most likely to be eaten by animals. In fact, birds, fish, turtles, and marine mammals cannot distinguish a piece of plastic from food. A study from the Earth Day Network reports that animals that swallow plastic are more likely to die from starvation because their stomach is unable to digest plastic fibers, therefore affecting their capacity to eat real food.
These microfibers are eventually going to leave the oceans in the form of dangerous meals. The presence of plastic in fish meat is a growing concern and it might bring about dramatic consequences for the fishery industry. One Green Planet reports that many species that humans consume are likely to have eaten plastic at least once throughout their life cycle. While it is true that we could eliminate fish and seafood from our diets, we should take the issue of poisoned fish more seriously.
One way to look at the problem is to look at its causes. A big share of plastic items that end up in the world’s seas come from activities that shape our everyday life. Food packaging is one of the biggest contributors to ocean plastic pollution. Plastic cups, plates, cutlery, straws, bags, and food containers of any kind are ubiquitous and their overproduction and consumption in recent years have driven the plastic economy. However, less than one-third of these items are recyclable. More often, wrappings are made of congregates of different materials or multiple layers of plastic that make zero waste a far, unreachable perspective.
Even when we succeed in ditching all single-use plastic from food wrappings, we might still rely on plastic materials much more than we think. Our clothes are, in fact, made to a large extent of plastic microfibers. Especially synthetic clothes are rich in bits and tiny plastic pieces that are released into the water when we wash them. One Green Planet reports laundry to be responsible for most of the microplastics that we find along the shoreline.
Beyond the significant decrease of marine wildlife, recent studies connect plastic in the seas to its contribution to global warming. A few weeks ago, the BBC regarded as a “happy incident” the discovery of high concentrations of gas in plastic bottles that have been washed up on the shoreline in Hawaii. Researcher Sarah-Jeanne Royer and her team tested the impact of solar radiation on the surface of plastic bottles and reported “a totally unexpected discovery.” Solar power, in fact, breaks down and releases methane molecules contained in plastic items and fastens the emission of greenhouse gases.
Is there a solution to make our seas plastic-free?
The 3Rs principle, Recover-Reuse-Recycle, seems no longer to be a sustainable alternative. Within the current consumption economies, recycling does not prevent marine ecosystems from being disrupted and communities from losing access to locally available resources. Yet, plastic has been regarded for too long as a successful outcome of the industrial revolution due to cheap production costs and its affordability worldwide. For the first time in human history, there is an urgent need to combat ocean plastic pollution and reduce the generation of new plastic materials.
Over the summer, many zero-waste and plastic-free movements bloomed worldwide as an indicator of a growing concern amongst youth, experts, and activists. However, further investigations are needed before we blame or resent those who still stand their ground on refusing to ditch the last plastic straw. Getting rid of single-use and unnecessary plastic products seems to be a reasonable vow for an ocean without plastic, but this is not true for all. We need to consider the interconnectedness of many of the challenges facing our world. For example, a recent article on Eater sheds light on how completely eliminating the use of plastic straws in our drinks could prove disastrous for many people living with disabilities.
Now, more than ever, we need sustainable, affordable, and easy-to-use alternatives to plastics. If reusing and recovering items is not enough anymore, we should reword the 3Rs principle in terms of Rethinking, Reinventing and Redesigning the products that we use every day. This is not only an environmentalist’s concern, this is everyone’s concern, and we should address it in a joint effort to prevent plastic bags and cups from being the most common species in the planet’s waters.
Even if we think that one more plastic bottle in an ocean of plastic is not going to make a huge difference, we should acknowledge that every action we take has an impact on life below water, and often the consequences are irreversible. Think before you buy plastic. Think before you consume plastic. And if you cannot avoid it, think before you dispose of plastic.
On 22 September the Global People’s Summit convenes and everyone is invited to be part of the free and 100% online conversation.
One of the areas of focus of the summit is to ask the world to reimagine Earth: To imagine a healthy planet and the power of socially-conscious consumerism.
Via the online summit platform, you can attend the summit, engage with speakers, follow the conversations taking place on social media and share your thoughts — all in one place.
