Earth Today | Overcoming the plastics problem
Published:Thursday | July 13, 2023 | 12:06 AM
FROM THE local ‘Beat Plastic Pollution JA’ competition to the annual TrashBlitz project to track plastic pollution trends in national parks in the United States, stakeholders globally sought to do their bit to end plastic pollution with the celebration of World Environment Day last month.
However, given the scale of the plastics problem, there appears to be quite some way to go if the world is to successfully end plastic pollution.
According to data from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), some seven billion of the 9.2 billion tonnes of plastics produced from 1950-2017 became plastic waste, ending up in landfills or dumped – and plastics, unlike other material, do not biodegrade.
“This pollution chokes marine wildlife, damages soil and poisons groundwater, and can cause serious health impacts,” reads an April 2023 story published by the UNEP on the subject.
In its 2021 report ‘From Pollution to Solution: A global assessment of marine and plastic pollution’, the UNEP explained the risks to human health and well-being while making the case for urgent, scaled-up actions to course correct.
“Risks to human health and well-being arise from the open burning of plastic waste, ingestion of seafood contaminated with plastics, exposure to pathogenic bacteria transported on plastics, and leaching out of substances of concern to coastal waters. The release of chemicals associated with plastics through leaching into the marine environment is receiving increasing attention, as some of these chemicals are substances of concern or have endocrine disrupting properties,” it said.
“Microplastics can enter the human body through inhalation and absorption via the skin and accumulate in organs including the placenta. Human uptake of microplastics via seafood is likely to pose serious threats to coastal and indigenous communities where marine species are the main source of food,” the report added.
“The links between exposure to chemicals associated with plastics in the marine environment and human health are unclear. However, some of these chemicals are associated with serious health impacts, especially in women,” it said further.
The report also flagged the risks to nature.
“Plastics are the largest, most harmful and most persistent fraction of marine litter, accounting for at least 85 per cent of total marine waste. They cause lethal and sub-lethal effects in whales, seals, turtles, birds and fish as well as invertebrates such as bivalves, plankton, worms and corals. Their effects include entanglement, starvation, drowning, laceration of internal tissues, smothering and deprivation of oxygen and light, physiological stress, and toxicological harm,” it noted.
“Plastics can also alter global carbon cycling through their effect on plankton and primary production in marine, freshwater and terrestrial systems. Marine ecosystems, especially mangroves, seagrasses, corals and salt marshes, play a major role in sequestering carbon. The more damage we do to oceans and coastal areas, the harder it is for these ecosystems to both offset and remain resilient to climate change,” it added.
Meanwhile, the2023 UNEP report ‘Turning off the tap: How the world can end plastics pollution and create a circular economy’ has proposed that the problem be addressed with a systems change.
Currently, the report revealed, some 430 million metric tons of plastics are produced each year – more than two-thirds of which are short-lived products which soon become waste while a growing amount (139 million metric tons in 2021) after one single use. Further, it predicted that if there is business as usual, plastic production will triple by 2060.
It therefore advanced three shifts: to reorient and diversify; reuse; and recycle plastics.
Reorienting and diversifying, it explained, is about achieving sustainable alternatives while making provisions for plastics that already exist, but which can neither be reused nor recycled.
“It also refers to new ways of financing collection and disposal of legacy plastics and preventing microplastics from entering the economy and the environment,” the report explained.
Reuse is about accelerating the market for reusable products, “to transform the throwaway economy to a reuse society” while recycling is concerned with accelerating the market for plastics recycling by ensuring recycling becomes a more stable and profitable venture”.