So ocean plastics, rightly, has had a lot of attention recently.
But when talking to people about it, the reason as to why its a bad thing often gets a little lost, with common reasons being around the plastic islands, its longevity in the ocean or perhaps what larger marine animals eat. Whilst these are all true, they're largely the aesthetic issues, or visible issues of plastics, and the real impacts go much deeper.
Here's a quick breakdown of the real reasons why plastics are bad for our oceans - and some unexpected sources.
"Our culture of using and discarding disposable plastic has created an environmental crisis." Erik Solheim, CEO, Plastic REVolution Foundation
> An estimated 5-12 million tonnes of plastics end up in our oceans each year thanks to mismanagement of large plastics and microplastics escaping to water - and this could rise to 29 million tonnes by 2050.
> Plastic takes centuries to decompose, especially in the cold and low-light ocean environment. This means that it accumulates year on year.
Problems caused by plastics in the oceans for marine life
Picture credit: The TImes
1. If eaten, plastics can make marine animals feel full and can block their digestive tracts.
2. Very small pieces of plastic may enter the bloodstream and body tissue.
3. Plastics in marine animals' bodies can cause inflammation, hormonal changes, reduced growth and reproduction, and increased mortality.
4. Plastic litter also promotes disease in reef-forming corals.
All of these impact our marine biodiversity and ecosystems - in many ways that we know, and more worryingly - in many ways we have yet to discover. It puts additional pressure on marine species already at risk through overfishing, and will have knock on impacts to the ecosystem services that our ocean life and ocean ecosystems provide - for example carbon sequestration, the balance of food chains that ensures carbon is retained in the ocean and not released back into the atmosphere.
Where is it from?
And while most higher income countries with effective municipal and private waste collection will account for very little of the large plastic leakage to the oceans directly, once we export waste for recycling, mismanagement can and does occur - meaning we lose control over what we might otherwise claim to have been "recycled" in our official statistics. Higher income countries do however account for the majority of the microplastics leaking to oceans, with 365g of microplastics per capita leaking from high income countries compared to 109g per capita per year from low and middle income countries.
And of these microplastics, they're not just from sources you might imagine - the vilified micro-beads of facial scrubs for example. A whopping 78% is from tyre dust. Now this was news to me. With much less from textiles, personal care and industry.
So what?
I'm all in for avoiding products that have microplastics in them or generate microplastics. (1) Personal care products for example (I'll be reviewing some plastic free alternatives over the next few blogs - plastic free in terms of containers and formulation), and (2) also starting to consider the materials used in the clothes I use - thinking more carefully about the end point and what to try to reduce. Anything containing polyester, acrylic, nylon or polyamide will be putting microplastics into the water system with every wash, and then leach them from their waste end point.
It also adds to the long list of reasons not to drive the car. Even if it is hybrid or electric (and they both have challenges too), tyres are still ubiquitous. Every time we drive, wear on our tyres deposits microplastics in the environment which can and will make their way to the ocean.
It is worth noting that plastics have been so successful for because of their qualities - including being lightweight and excellent at keeping food fresh, they've enabled our convenience lifestyles to a degree more than many other materials. So it's not just about removing plastics, but also about removing single use. Replacing single use plastic containers with single use glass containers certainly isn't the answer - but if the glass container is reused, refilled and ultimately recycled, then we're on the right lines.
Becoming a more plastic-free households, breaking the cycle of single use-plastics is a central goal for us in our home. But this isn't just about reducing the visible plastics, its also about the invisible ones.
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