Plastic Waste
If you came home to a dirty kitchen full of dishes, muddy floors, and spilled containers, you would clean it up wouldn’t you? What if you walked outside to a landscape full of empty bottles, plastic containers, and abandoned objects? Do we not have to live in our environment just as we do our home? For the past 100 years our planet has been filling up with plastic pollution and garbage; how much longer until we sink in our own waste? If the production of plastic is not limited or abolished, then the environment, animals, and humans will all face disaster as waste increases, the ocean’s composition deteriorates, and toxic chemicals go through biomagnification.
Over the past few decades researchers have been finding that more and more debris is washing up onto shores every year as well as it is making it’s way out into the depths of the ocean. As population is increasing, so is the debris. In the film Inside the Garbage of the World, they gave footage from a study done on the Santa Rosa Island, a relatively isolated island, in which they expected to find clean beaches all the way around. However, as they inspected the island they came across a large area covered with a tremendous amount of debris. The ocean currents were able to carry plastic from all around the world to this uninhabited island. What should have been clean sand was buried under plastic litter.
Another issue with the increase in plastic is that over time as it breaks down into microplastic it is able to blend into the sand. Simply cleaning up the large and medium pieces of plastic will leave behind all of the small pieces of plastic that could easily be consumed by animals. Getting all of the microplastic out of the sand would be impossible as there are presumably billions of pieces on each beach and they can be extremely difficult to detect.
Apart from beaches, however, there is a massive amount of plastic in the ocean’s waters as well. Plastic that began on shore can be carried by currents all the way to the middle of the ocean; from there it can either make it’s way onto another shore, sink to the ocean’s floor, or float around there until an external factor intercepts it. Due to the fact that plastic is not biodegradable; it will be stuck in the ocean’s cycle forever.
Plastic’s ability to float around in the middle of the ocean would not be possible without the ocean’s gyres and the materials inability to biodegrade. Gyres are the oceans system of currents that carry the items around. Inside the Garbage of the World, they discuss the North Pacific Gyre as they explain how it tends to carry most items to one of three different patches. Because of how the currents run, debris is easily carried to one of the gyre’s patches where it is trapped by the currents. The Eastern Garbage Patch, for example, is equal in size to half of the United States and carries thousands of tons of trash. That patch is where those plastics will stay since they will not be able to decompose no matter how much time passes.
This increase in plastic waste imposes on our environment due to its ability to change the carbon level of ocean deserts, affecting the global climate, and, in turn, marine ecosystems. The addition of manmade chemicals and items into the marine ecosystems is increasing the carbon levels; carbon then goes on to affect the climate because carbon dioxide is a key regulator of temperature on earth. The film states that ninety eight percent of the worlds dissolved inorganic carbon comes from ocean deserts. Because such a large quantity of earth’s carbon is dependent on ocean deserts, a small variation in carbon levels there causes a huge environmental change overall.
This climate change then goes on to alter marine ecosystems by making them unsustainable. Statistics have show that climate change has caused fifty percent of coral reef ecology to disappear completely. However, the presence of plastic waste even without the temperature change affects marine ecosystems. Of the plastic that floats out to sea, fifty percent of the waste sinks. The plastic floating in the waters and lying on the ocean floor can trap or be ingested by animals causing them to die from suffocation, improper nutrition, or simply because they are unable to adapt. An average of three hundred thousand marine mammals are killed each year from either ingesting plastic or becoming trapped by plastic.
Plastic waste also has toxic chemicals that it introduces to species. When animals ingest plastic waste the chemicals have the ability to transfer from their stomachs into their bloodstream. A study was conducted that tested for toxic chemicals within seafood sold in the markets. The test showed that every single type of seafood in every market contained toxic chemicals that were used in the production of plastic. The presence of these chemicals in seafood is frightening because of a process called biomagnification. Biomagnification claims that as a chemical makes its way up the food chain, the chemical increases in strength and quantity. Humans are at the very top of the food chain, therefore, we receive the biggest threat from these chemicals. The chemicals that have appeared in seafood are known to cause health difficulties such as hormone imbalance and heart problems for humans.
Although there is a tremendous amount of evidence that expresses the need to discontinue plastic production, plastic is not simply going to disappear. Consumers have grown accustomed to the culture of convenience that plastic creates and it is high in demand, meaning that they will not be happy about an end to plastic. However, everything that comes in plastic could be distributed instead in a biodegradable material if it is demanded at the consumer level. The era of plastic is unsustainable; if consumers do not limit their use plastic then the environmental impact of plastic will only increase dramatically.
The threat of plastic waste is rising as people believe that environmentalist are already doing all the work that is necessary to resolve the issue. Robert Swan stated that, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” Plastic waste is one of the largest environmental issues that we are experiencing; it is not just going to take care of itself. Reducing, recycling, reusing, and refusing plastic could help save our planet. Each one of use can play a part in ending this problem.
Each year we see ecosystems dying and habitats changing right before our eyes. It is our responsibility to keep this planet flourishing for ourselves and for future generations to enjoy. By demanding other materials, we as consumers can change the impact of plastic. Limiting or abolishing the production of plastic will help the environment, animals, and ourselves from the threat of increasing waste, changing ocean conditions, and the introduction of toxic chemicals. Act on the opportunity to do something about the issue of plastic waste.
Works Cited: Inside the Garbage of the World. Dir. Philippee Carillo. PCMC, 2015, Film.
