Plastic and the oceans / 1

[Boyd Roberts]

Plastic and the oceans

from IGCA news December 2017


The impact that plastic is having in the world's oceans continues to receive much attention.

Sir David Attenborough's Blue Planet II series currently being broadcast in the UK focuses on the issue. In it he concludes:

“For years we thought that the oceans were so vast and the inhabitants so infinitely numerous that nothing we could do could have an effect upon them.

“But now we know that was wrong. The oceans are under threat now as never before in human history.”

For background information see, for example The Environment Protection Agency of the USA:

" Marine debris affects the marine ecosystem directly, through ingestion, entanglement, and alteration of the ecosystem, and indirectly, by contributing to the movement of invasive species. Significant economic impacts occur when marine debris harms tourism, the fishing industry, and navigation. Plastic marine debris is of particular concern due to its longevity in the marine environment, the physical and chemical hazards it presents to marine and bird life, and the fact that it is frequently mistaken as food by birds and fish.

https://www.epa.gov/trash-free-waters

Trash Travels, Ocean Conservancy’s 2010 report, states that 60 percent of all marine debris in 2009 consisted of “disposable” items, with the most common being cigarettes, plastic bags, food containers, bottle caps and plastic bottles.

Plastic bags take up to 20 years to decompose

A plastic bottle takes 450-500 years to break down

And while some plastics decompose, many break into tiny fragments, but persist indefinitely as tiny plastic fragments, causing harm for thousands of years.

https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Gen_Plastic-hi_9-...

            

Today, the United Nations reached an agreement (although non-binding and with no time scale) to stop plastic reaching the seas:

UN commits to stop ocean plastic waste

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42239895

There will be an enormous problem cleaning up the oceans from the billions of tonnes of plastic that they already contain.

But the problem doesn't end there, as we continue to add to the plastic in the oceans on a daily basis.

This is certainly an area where personal action can have an impact.
Either we take action as individuals to reduce the problem, or we become part of the problem.

So what can we do personally about this?

See Plastic and the oceans / 2 for practical actions

http://igcaward.ning.com/forum/topics/plastic-and-the-oceans-2