Update On Plastic Pollution

[Tyler Snortum-Phelps]

When it comes to plastic pollution, how are we doing? We recently found two great websites that examine the environmental impacts of plastic: Planet or Plastic? is a National Geographic series on the global plastic trash crisis; The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit devoted to technologies that rid the oceans of plastic. Here's a snapshot of the plastic pollution situation, and some actions we can all take now.

Realities

• Between Hawaii and California, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GRGP) covers 1.6
  million square kilometers, an area twice the surface of Texas or three times France.
• 5 giant gyres of plastic trash exist in the world’s oceans.
• An estimated 1.8 trillion plastic pieces float in the GRGP (250 pieces for every human in
  the world); more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic float in our oceans.
• The GRGP surface has 180x more plastic than marine life.
• Nearby sea turtles can have up to 74% of their diets composed of ocean plastics. Laysan
  albatross chicks from Hawaii have around 45% of their wet mass composed of plastics.
• On some Hawaiian beaches nearly 15% of the sand is plastic.
• The time it takes plastic to biodegrade is unclear, with estimates between 450 to 1000s of
  years.
• Of the estimated 9.2 billion tons of plastic in the world, 6.9 billion tons have become
  waste.
• World plastic production has increased exponentially over the past 65 years: 2.3 million
  tons in 1950; 162 million tons in 1993; and 448 million in 2015.
• Less than a fifth of all plastic gets recycled globally. In the U.S. it’s less than 10 percent.
• Nearly half of all plastic waste is single-use packaging material.
• Last year Coca-Cola made 128 billion plastic bottles.

Possibilities

• The Ocean Cleanup estimates a full-scale deployment of their systems could clean up
  50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years.
• The Ocean Cleanup, based in the Netherlands, launches their first cleanup during the
  summer of 2018 from their first assembly station in Alameda, California.
• Each of us can reduce the use of single use plastics by opting for the use of reusable
  alternatives.
• Globally, 18 percent of plastic is recycled, up from nearly zero in 1980.
• Wax and meal worms can eat plastic and turn it into compost.
• Newly discovered micro-organisms can dramatically decrease the time it takes for plastic
  to biodegrade.
• Some bioplastics made from renewable resources can biodegrade.
• The rubber tree is a sustainable source for plastic production.
• Increasingly, governments (Kenya, France, California) are developing policies that ban
  the use of disposable plastics.
• Hundreds of communities are embracing a “zero-waste” movement.
• In response to public pressure, some multi-nationals (Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever)
  have pledged to convert to reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging.

[Alison Clary]

Wow, these statistics are sobering. Thanks for a great article!