“Imagining-Other”
Our Responsibility for our
Environment (2)
Plastic pollution – the
big picture
(Second Guest Lecture given
to the London School of Management Education).
Links:
First guest lecture for
the London School of Management Education: Our Responsibility
for our Environment (1)
WEA Course Protecting the Planet: Introduction
Updates and extra notes on plastic
‘’Plastic is a microcosm of all our
other environmental problems. This means facing up to how interconnected these
problems are: to recognise that plastic isn’t just an isolated problem that we
can banish from our lives, but simply the most visible product of our past
half-century of rampant consumption”.
(Quote from
article by Stephen Buranyi, The Guardian ‘The long read’, ‘Why we all hate
plastic now... and can we really do anything about it?’ Tues 13th
Nov 2018):
1. The extent of plastic production,
waste and damage:
Plastic is everywhere. I think most people are aware of the problem of plastic polluting our oceans and rivers – and I will go into this in more detail in a minute. But first let me explain what plastic is, and where it comes from, as I think this helps us to understand how the problem has arisen.
The word ‘plastic’ simply means something that can be made into various
shapes (another word is malleable). The earliest plastics were made from
organic materials, but the first ‘modern’ plastic was invented in 1907 in New
York. It was known as ‘bakelite’ – after its inventor Leo Baekeland, and it was
made from phenol, a chemical left over from refining crude oil or coal to turn
it into petrol.
Mass production
began during the 1940s and ‘50s, especially when more materials were needed
during the second world war. The petrochemical industry benefited, as it was
the main source of plastic.
Plastic was regarded as a wonderful discovery,
because it is virtually indestructible. But of course that’s why we have
a problem now!
The only
biodegradable plastics are those made from natural polymers, and cellophane –
which are expensive (from notes by UEL student).
The average time that a plastic bag is used for is …
12 minutes. Then it takes about 20 years to degrade.
(From The Telegraph
Jan 2018:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/10/stark-truth-long-plastic-footprint-will-last-planet/
The most durable plastic items,
such as bottles, disposable nappies and beer holders, can take 450 years to biodegrade - over five
times the average life expectancy of a British person. Other commonplace items such as
straws can take up to 200 years to biodegrade and foam plastic cups can take 50
years.
Plastic bags are around for less time - taking about 20 years to
degrade - but their
impact on the environment can be equally as harmful, with plastic bags known to
be eaten by a variety of marine wildlife. Jo Ruxton, a former researcher on
Blue Planet and producer of the A Plastic Ocean film, said single-use items
could float around in the seas for decades causing havoc in the marine
eco-system.
She said: “It is estimated that
60 to 70 per cent of the plastic sinks to the bottom [of the ocean]. It gets
brittle as it gets old and breaks into tiny pieces and mixes into the plankton,
which is the heart of the marine food chain. “We are producing far too much
plastic believing it is disposable. It’s not, it’s indestructible.”
Plastic has been used in an enormous range of
applications as a lighter and cheaper substitute for such materials as wood, stone, leather, metal and glass. It is used for
packaging, and as a building material, and for plumbing, and in toys and even
cars... (50% by volume!).
It is above all seen as disposable: in 1954 the editor
of the trade journal Modern Plastics said ‘the future of plastics is in the
trash can.’ It is surprising to find that in the US, prior to 1950, reusable
packaging such as glass bottles had a nearly 95% return rate. By the 70s the
rate for all container returns had dropped below 5%. (Buranyi)
Some protests began
over the amount of rubbish piling up, and New York City brought in a tax on
plastic bottles in 1971.Hawaii actually banned plastic bottles in 1977!
However, this and other legislation was reversed after pressure from the
plastic manufacturers...
Importantly, for me,
the story of the origin of plastic also immediately raises a number of
important environmental issues, particularly climate change: the burning of fossil fuel is what drives climate
change, and the dominant companies in plastic production are major petro-chemical companies such as
Mobil, Exxon, DuPont, BASF, Monsanto, and Dow. [slide 2]
Seven of the 10
largest plastic producers are oil and natural gas companies. When the public
started rejecting single-use plastic bags in the US, BP predicted that by 2040
the industry would be producing 2m fewer barrels of oil per day.
It is worth noting
that Monsanto and Dow are also heavily involved in pesticide manufacture – another cause for concern, given the current
decline in wildlife and especially insects.
(Another
not-so-well-known petro-chemical company, INEOS is one of the largest producers
of plastic in the world, and it wants to carry out fracking – to extract gas
from shale rocks - in Yorkshire. [slide 3]
Fracking involves drilling deep into the rocks
below the earth’s surface, where oil and gas are trapped, and injecting strong
chemicals at high pressure so that the rocks fracture (hence the name)
releasing the gas which is then pumped up to the surface. Opponents of fracking
argue that it can release greenhouse gases such as methane into the atmosphere,
it can cause earthquakes, and it simply should not be done, because we need to
stop burning fossil fuels such as gas. INEOS’s plans and its sponsorship of the
‘Tour de Yorkshire’ cycle race have led to protests.)
So I’ve said what plastic is, and where it
comes from, and I’ve raised some issues connected with the wider context.
2. Now let’s look at the extent to which plastic dominates our world:
Since the 1950s, around 8.3 billion tons of
plastic have been produced worldwide. [slide 4]
A million plastic
bottles are bought around the world every minute. [slide 5]
Worldwide, about 2
million plastic bags are used every minute.
Plastic bottles are
the most prevalent form of plastic pollution, followed by food wrappers and
then cigarette butts. Plastic bags only comprise 1%, showing the bans etc have
had an impact, according to the Plastic Rivers Report (check for reference).
Bottles and plastic
bags are examples of ‘single-use’
plastic – once used they are discarded. (As noted before: the average time
that a plastic bag is used for is … 12 minutes. Then it takes hundreds of years
to decompose!
Why have
plastic water bottles become so widespread? Of course they are light and convenient, and it’s easier to throw
away a disposable plastic bottle
than to remember to carry a long-lasting one with you.
And, of
course, we live in what some people call a ‘disposable society’ or a ‘throwaway
society’– we are encouraged to keep
buying more things (this is consumerism
of course), and if what we buy doesn’t last, then we will be obliged to replace
it...
(23rd Jan 2020). Problem
is amount of plastic we make and use: (Damian Carrington)
Annually, humans consume over 100bn tonnes of
material, and this is four times what it was in 1970. In the last 2 years,
consumption has gone up by 8%, but re-use has gone down from 9.1% to 8.6%.
[Report by the Circle Economy thinktank
(lead author: Marc de Wit, chief executive: Harald Friedl), launched at Davos].
On average,
every person on earth uses more than 13 tonnes of materials per year.
Half is
sand, clay, gravel and cement, and minerals quarried for fertiliser; coal oil
and gas make up 15%, metal ores 10%. Plants etc used for food and fuel: 25%.
Housing accounts for 40%. 15% is emitted as climate-heating gases, and nearly a
quarter is discarded into the environment. A
third is treated as waste.
(13 European
countries have adopted road-maps towards a circular economy. China’s ban on
waste has made other countries such as Australia think about a circular
economy.)
So, in the
end, it is the producers who benefit.
In the case of bottled water this is really obvious: ‘a litre of tap water, the stuff we have ingeniously piped into our
homes, costs less than half a penny. A litre of bottled water can cost well
over a pound, especially for something fancy that has been sucked through a
mountain’ (Simon Usborne, Guardian 28th April 2019).
Sales of
bottled water in the UK were worth a record £558.4m in the year to last
November, an increase of 7%, according to the latest figures from the market analyst Kantar.
3. Litter and waste:
The most obvious, that is noticeable, problem
caused by plastic is litter [slide 6], and 73% of beach litter
worldwide is plastic [slide 7]. The amount of litter seems to be increasing
(Marine Conservation Society).
Most of this beach
litter will have come from the sea, - about 12million tonnes each year - and I
will focus on this kind of litter in a little while.
Therefore
much of the plastic waste is exported. At least 100 containers of plastic waste a day are shipped out from ports
including Felixstowe and Southampton to Europe and the Far East. (See later)
Recently
there have been difficulties because some countries have refused to take any
more of our waste, or because they have been unable to process it properly –
there has also been concern because it is regarded as wrong for us to dump our
waste on other countries. I will also return to this problem later.
4. History, origins, causes of the
plastics problem:
As noted
earlier, there will always be pressure for plastic to be produced because it is
a part of the petro-chemical industry, on the one hand, and because we
consumers have found it so useful.
What is
fascinating is that (i) we have become aware of the problem caused by plastic
only fairly recently and yet (ii) the public are already concerned and
reacting. We used to see plastic as just a nuisance, now we see it as a threat
to our wellbeing – even, as I shall argue – to our survival!
[slide 8]
The first
people to become aware of the way plastic was getting to places it wasn’t
wanted were using a plankton sampling device – collecting pelagic plankton
which indicates water quality as well as being a source of food for marine
life. This has been recording problems when its work was disrupted by
plastic... Strands of fishing twine
were first found off the coast of Iceland in 1957, then a plastic bag in 1965.
During the three decades from the ‘50s less than 1% of tows were disrupted, by
the 1990s it was 2% and now it is between 3% and 4%.
What was
disturbing was the rate at which the disruption was increasing. Also, the
device was towed at a depth of about 7 metres, which is where many fish and
marine mammals are found, and it covered a very wide range of oceans (the worst
was the southern North Sea).
Then, in the
early 1990s, researchers noticed that some 60-80%
of the waste in the ocean was non-biodegradable plastic. In some places the
waste accumulates into ‘great garbage patches’ (as they were called by another
oceanographer) – the largest of these is three times the size of France and
contains 79,000 tonnes of waste!
The next
shift in thinking came when it was realised that shampoos, cosmetics and
cleaning products all had ‘microbeads’
in them: even Body Shop products had them, and in 2010 scientists became
concerned that they were being washed out into the sea, and would be eaten by
fish. In 2015 the US Congress passed a limited ban on microbeads with broad
partisan support. The UK soon followed suit with a comprehensive ban on their manufacture and sale.
Ever since,
and with David Attenborough’s television programmes, Blue Planet, we have
become aware of how serious a problem plastic is.
5. Effects on our oceans: animals
die, and biodiversity is reduced.
A lot of
waste plastic is dumped in rivers and
then flows into the sea. In fact 90% of plastic polluting our oceans is
carried by just 10 rivers. Each year 8m tonnes of plastic ends up in the ocean,
[slide
9] so that there are now 100
million tonnes (approximately 110 million U.S. tons) of plastic in the oceans, and 80 to 90 percent of it comes from
land, UN Environment Agency (?) said.
I would
like, just for a few moments, to focus on the harm being done to the oceans and
life in the sea, as I believe that most of us do not appreciate how important the sea is to our survival.
Plastic
fibres have been found in creatures at the bottom of the deepest trench in the
ocean.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/mariana-trench-animals-plastic/
Plastic is killing more than 1.1 million seabirds and
animals every year. One of the main
problems is fishing gear – nets especially, which can trap mammals such as
dolphins as well as birds.
One of the most
frightening examples I have come across was of a dead whale which had 1,000 plastic items in its stomach (Nov. 2018). It
was a 9.5 metre sperm whale. The plastic weighed 5.9 kg.
The whale was washed
up in eastern Indonesia. Indonesia is the world’s second-largest plastic
polluter after China. The plastic in its stomach included flip-flops, and over
a hundred drinking cups according to staff from Wakatobi national park.
Dolphins, and even polar bears have been affected. This phenomenon shows how all our
environmental problems are interconnected:
As Arctic ice melts,
polar bears are having to seek food elsewhere, and they are moving into areas
inhabited by humans. They have been known to eat plastic when they scavenge on
rubbish dumps. Of course, plastic is indigestible, so the bears think they are
taking in food, but it is doing them no food whatsoever.
Plastic has
been found to cause disease in coral
reefs. (26th January 2018. Damian Carrington). Scientists
examined 125,000 corals across the Asia-Pacific region, and 89% of the corals
examined that were fouled by plastic were found to be diseased.
Corals are
not only home to a diverse range of life, but they are vital for at least 275
million people who depend on them for food, coastal protection from storms, and
income from tourism.
Plastic was
found on a third of the reefs examined between 2011 and 2014, and diseases
spread across a colony once there is infection. Plastic cuts the living
creatures in the coral, and blocks out sunlight. Plastic pollution is estimated
as likely to increase to 16bn pieces by 2025 (an increase of 40%) unless action
is taken. Repeated bleaching is now the ‘new normal’ according to Prof Terry
Hughes of James Cook University’s centre for coral reef studies.
6. One of the most serious dangers,
including for ourselves, comes from microplastics:
The term ‘microplastic’ [slide 13] was coined in
2004 by the oceanographer Richard Thompson. It indicates any small particle of
plastic less than 5mm in length
(U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.) Thompson realised there were literally
billions of tiny pieces of plastic in the oceans.
Microplastic
comes from the breaking down of larger
pieces of plastic, and from tyres and synthetic clothing (according to
FoE).
Between 9
and 32 thousand tonnes of microplastic enters waterways each year from just
four sources: tyre abrasion accounts for 7-19,000 tonnes. Clothing creates up
to 2,900 tonnes – two thirds of clothing is made from synthetic material,
according to a report by Eunomia. Up
to 5,900 tonnes of plastic pellets used
in manufacturing, and between 1,400 and 3,700 tonnes of paint are lost to surface waters each
year
Between 9 and 32 thousand tonnes of microplastic
enters waterways each year from just four sources: tyre abrasion accounts
for 7-19,000 tonnes. Clothing creates up to 2,900 tonnes – and two thirds of
clothing is made from synthetic material, (according to a report by Eunomia).
Studies have
found microplastics in the gut of fish, and in tap water and in flying insects.
In Italy a recent investigation found them in soft drinks.
(28th
Dec 2019 Damian Carrington): Microplastic in the rain:
Four cities have been assessed, and the particles have been
found everywhere especially in London. Research published in Environment
International, led by Stephanie Wright of Kings College London. Problem is, we
don’t know much at all about effects... Collected on rooftops and deposition
rates ranged from 575 to 1,008 pieces per sq metre per day. 15 different types
of plastic were identified. Most were acrylic, from e.g. clothing. London has a
rate 7 times higher than Paris and three times Hamburg. Particles were between
0.02mmand 0.5mm – large enough to reach the airways and into saliva.
One study says people consume at least 50,000 microplastic
particles a year.
About 335mtonnes of new plastic is produced each year.
The average person eats 70,000 microplastics each year, because of the food
chain... In October 2017 microplastics were found in human stools. Particles have been found in the stools of eight
people from Europe, Japan and Russia.
Up to 9 different
plastics were found out of 10 varieties tested for. Most common were
polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate were the most common. On average,
20 particles per 10g were found.
The authors of this
study, carried out by the Environment Agency Austria, led by a medical
researcher from University of Vienna, estimate that more than 50% of the
world’s population might have microplastics in their stools.
****
A new study of five different kinds of seafood revealed
traces of plastic
in every sample tested.
Researchers bought raw samples of popular
seafood from a market in Australia, including 10 oysters, 10 farmed tiger
prawns, 10 wild squid, five wild blue crab and 10 wild sardines, reported Daily Mail. At least trace levels of plastic contamination
were found in each, with the highest content found in sardines, according to
the research.
The
scientists used a new technique to identify and measure five different types of
plastics contained within the tissues of each sample of seafood simultaneously,
reported Intrafish. They did so in order to better understand the potential
harm microplastics
in seafood could have on human health, lead author Francisca Ribeiro said in a University of Queensland press release.
The study, published by the University of
Exeter and the University of Queensland in Environmental Science & Technology, found
greatly varying amounts of plastic in each of the different types of seafood
tested as well as in the individual species, said a University of Exeter press release.
"From the edible marine species tested,
sardines had the highest plastic content, which was a surprising result,"
Riberio told the University of Queensland. "Another interesting aspect was
the diversity of microplastic types found among species, with polyethylene
predominant in fish and polyvinyl chloride the only plastic detected in
oysters."
****
Although
nothing is known about the impact on human health, in birds they damage the small intestine, disrupt iron absorption and
stress the liver, and there are concerns, obviously, that we could be harming
ourselves. Scientists have struggled to research the impact of plastic on the
human body, because they cannot find a control group of humans who have not
been exposed (Sep 2017, Guardian).
(12th Sep. 2019). Microplastics:
seem to harm earthworms, as their weight suffers a decrease. Worms placed in soil loaded for 30
days with high density polyethylene (HDPE) lost about 3% of their bodyweight,
whereas worms in soil without PDPE gained 5%. Lead author: Bas Roots, Anglia
Ruskin University, in Environmental Science and Technology. Possible
explanation: obstruction or irritation of the digestive tract. The worms
(especially rosy-tipped earthworm, Apporectodea rosea) are vital in
agriculture.
European
studies have found anything between 700 and 4,000 plastic particles per
kilogram of soil in some agricultural land.
Earlier this
month (May 2019) the United Nations released a dramatic report on the
natural world. [slide 14]
https://ipbes.net/news/ipbes-global-assessment-preview
The report comes from the Intergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which
has 132 government members. Its conclusions include the following:
Almost 1
million species face extinction - the largest number in human history ever to be facing
the threat of oblivion. Many species could be wiped out within decades.
There are threats to more than 40% of amphibians, to 33% of coral reefs
(around half of all live coral reef cover has been lost since the 1870s), and
to over a third of all marine mammals.
This is because of loss of
habitat, due to:
- pollution (this includes plastic: Since 1980 plastic pollution has increased tenfold)
- over-exploitation (including over-fishing,
contributing to the fact mentioned above that there could be more plastic than
fish in the ocean by 2050. Nearly 75 percent of freshwater resources are now devoted to
livestock production, and in 2015, 33 percent of marine fish stocks
were being harvested at unsustainable levels.)
- changes in land use (more than a third of the world’s land surface is
devoted to food production, and about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions are
caused by land clearing, crop production and fertilization, and essential crops
are under threat because of years of unsustainable agricultural practices. 23%
of land areas have reduced agricultural productivity due to land degradation).
1. Climate
breakdown and the decimation of the natural world are connected, and human
action is the cause. “The essential, interconnected web of
life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” said Professor
Josef Settele (ecologist and Co-chair
of the IPBES). “This loss is a direct
result of human activity…” [slide 15]
2. Without
the life-essential services nature provides — breathable air, drinkable water,
healthy oceans, a stable climate — humans will not survive.
3. We can expect opposition to changes from vested interests, but there
is still time to conserve natural habitats, if we act quickly to preserve key
areas.
[slide 16] The report’s lead author, Professor Sir Robert
Watson, says: “We are
eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security,
health and quality of life worldwide. The
essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and
increasingly frayed. ”
7.2 The life-cycle approach to plastic: human health, climate change
[slide 17].
As I mentioned
near the start of this talk, plastic is a by-product of the petro-chemical
industry. I believe we need to look at
the whole life-cycle of plastics in order to understand the harm that is being
done to us.
Recently
(February 2019) a group of organisations, headed by CIEL – the Center for
International Environmental law has published a report - Plastic
& Health -
which ‘presents
the full panorama of human health impacts of plastic and counsels that any
solution to the plastic crisis must address the full lifecycle’.
It points
out that there are ‘significant,
complex, and intersecting human health impacts [which] occur at every stage of
the plastic lifecycle: from wellhead to refinery, from store shelves to human
bodies, and from waste management to ongoing impacts of microplastics in the
air, water, and soil.’
The report
lists poisonous chemicals and microplastics that we are exposed to in the air
we breathe and on our skin and in what we eat, that are produced at every stage
in the life-cycle of plastic.
What is more
striking is that CIEL has estimated the greenhouse
gas footprint of plastic from the cradle to the grave for the first time.
It points
out that greenhouse gases are produced during the extraction and transportation
of fossil fuels from which plastic is made, then during the refining process,
and the manufacturing process, and still more when it is disposed of (whether
by burning or recycling).
Forty per cent of plastic packaging
waste is disposed of at landfills, 14% goes to incineration facilities and 14%
is collected for recycling. Incineration creates the most CO2
emissions among the plastic waste management methods.
The report
also says that production of plastic is increasing, especially as the US is
producing oil from fracking.
A Shell ethane cracker being
constructed in Pennsylvania could emit up to 2.25m tonnes of CO2
each year and a new ethylene plant at ExxonMobil’s refinery in Baytown, Texas,
could release up to 1.4m tonnes. The annual emissions from just these two new
facilities would be equal to adding almost 800,000 cars to the road.
Total emissions from the
life-cycle of plastic are currently approximately 0.75 billion tonnes, and by
2050 the figure could be 2.75 billion tonnes per annum.
To put this another way, in 2019 the emissions were equivalent to
the impact on the climate of 189 500MW coal-fired power stations. By 2050,
the report predicts, the global plastic footprint will be equivalent to 615
coal plants running at full capacity.
“At current levels, greenhouse
gas emissions from the plastic lifecycle threaten the ability of the global
community to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C,” the report says. (Sandra
Laville, Guardian 15th May 2019)
8. A few more ‘wide’ issues:
A global
justice issue (from The Ecologist magazine): [slide 18]
Plastic waste is going to countries that
cannot cope with it. China stopped accepting waste (from USA, UK, Germany and
Japan) at the beginning of 2018, and so it went to other countries in Southeast
Asia.
Every second, a double-decker busload of plastic waste is burned
or dumped in developing countries, the report found. When some plastics deteriorate, they can leach
harmful chemicals into the environment and break down into microplastics, with
effects that are still poorly understood and largely undocumented in poorer
countries.
Some countries tried to impose limits on what
they took, but research by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and
Greenpeace East Asia found waste piled ten feet high, crops poisoned,
and open plastic burning, which seriously affects people living nearby, as
toxic gases are released into the air when plastic burns.
According to the charity
Tearfund, municipal waste frequently goes uncollected in poorer countries and
its build-up fuels the spread of disease. Between 400,000 and 1 million people
are dying as a result of such mismanaged waste.
An example: Manila in the
Phillipines, where there are ‘recycling plants’ among the houses. The
inhabitants suffer from fumes choking them:
[slide 19]
Update on China: (20th Jan
2020). From
Ecowatch, Olivia Rosane, 20th Jan 2020.
China, the world's No. 1 producer of plastic
pollution, announced
major plans Sunday to cut back on the sale and production of single-use plastics.
According to the plans put
forward by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of
Ecology and Environment, plastic bags will be banned in major cities
by the end of 2020 and in smaller cities and towns by 2022, Reuters
reported. (Markets selling fresh fruits
and vegetables will have until 2025 to phase out the bags).
(The
commission said it was enacting the changes in order to protect public health
and "to build a beautiful China," CNN reported.
The plan targets
a variety of plastic types and industries over the next five years, BBC News
reported. Other
measures include:
The plan also calls for the phaseout
of plastic takeaway items and shipping packages, Reuters reported. The
government also announced Sunday it would work to create recycling programs and
promote the use of recycled plastics, according to CNN.
"It's the first time Beijing
has recognised single-use plastics as a major problem and specified the urgent
necessity to significantly reduce them," Greenpeace tweeted in response to the announcement.
China did ban retailers from
giving away free plastic bags in 2008, and also banned the production of
ultra-thin bags, BBC News reported.
China is the world's largest
manufacturer of plastic, according to CNN. It is also the world's leading
producer of plastic waste, according to the University
of Oxford's Our World in Data. It produced 60 million
tonnes (approximately 66 million U.S. tons) in 2010, followed by the U.S.,
which produced 38 million tonnes (approximately 42 U.S. tons). However, on a
per capita basis, the average Chinese person discards one-fourth to one-half of
the plastic waste discarded by the average U.S. resident.)
But because China has a much larger population, the tossing of plastic
waste has become a major problem for its infrastructure and environment,
overwhelming its landfills and polluting its rivers. China's largest dump is
around the size of 100 soccer fields and is already at capacity, 25 years
before planned, BBC News reported. And the Yangtze River dumps more plastic
into the oceans than any
other river in the world, according to CNN.
Around eight million metric tons of plastic enter the world's oceans every year, where they pose a major threat to marine life. China is the leading contributor to the kind of mismanaged plastic waste that is the most likely to end up in the oceans, generating around 28 percent of the world's total, according to Our World in Facts. Asia as a whole is the region that produces the most mismanaged waste, but other countries in the area are also taking steps to combat the problem. Thailand banned plastic bags at major stores this year; Bali in Indonesia banned single-use plastics; and Jakarta, the country's capital, will ban plastic bags by June 2020, BBC News reported.
Plastic waste is blocking waterways and causing flooding, which in
turn spreads waterborne diseases.
Among the other harmful impacts
of plastic pollution in poorer countries are the loss of fishing, as marine
animals ingest the plastic; damage to agriculture, as up to a third of cattle and half of goats in developing countries have
consumed significant amounts of plastic, harming their health as it leads
to potentially fatal bloating; and large amounts of plastic waste washing up on
shorelines and coral reefs deterring
tourists, on whom many poorer countries rely.
At least 2 billion people around the world do not have their
rubbish collected, and piles of it can build up in waterways, causing
pollution, or rot in areas near where people live. Living near rubbish doubles
the risk of contracting diarrhoea, the report found, which is a major cause of
death in the developing world.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world make a living from
collecting waste, in some cases by collecting cans or bottles that can be
recycled or returned, or, more dangerously, as “waste pickers” who live on
rubbish dumps and scavenge what they can.
This is
hazardous work, not only because of the pollution to which people are exposed
but also because of the risk of physical injury, not least because poorly
managed dumps are often affected by landslides and even explosions from the
buildup of gases. (The Guardian has published a number of articles on this,
e.g.: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/14/mismanaged-waste-kills-up-to-a-million-people-a-year-globally.
The Ecologist also points out
that when North America and Europe cannot find outlets in developing countries
the waste piles up in less-wealthy, more at-risk communities in America or
Europe. There, it becomes a public health problem.
They conclude:
‘The recycling system only works
to target the vulnerable — around the world and around your city.’
‘Corporations like Nestlé and
Unilever profit wildly from single-use plastic packaging, while peddling the
myth of recycling as a solution. But anyone who has thought seriously about the
issue can see that recycling could never handle the amount of plastic
surrounding our everyday life.’
(Updates: June 2019: where has all
the plastic gone?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/23/all-the-plastic-ever-made-study-
June 2019, plastics, recycling & the global south: https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/the-war-over-where-your-recyling-goes/
Aug
2019.
Waste/recycling: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/17/plastic-recycling-myth-what-really-happens-your-rubbish
)
17th May 2019. (Ben Smee) A million shoes among debris on beaches of the Cocos (Keeling ) Islands (popn. 600):
There were
414m pieces of plastic, weighing 238 tonnes. Published in Nature, marine
scientists found 977,000 shoes and 373,000 toothbrushes on these Indian Ocean
islands. The islands are Australian, and 800 miles south-west of Jakarta.
It is now
estimated there are 5.25tn pieces of ocean plastic debris, says Annett Finger
from Victoria University and co-author of the report..
There is an
exponential increase in plastic pollution. Much of the waste was buried and
previous surveys may have underestimated quantities if they only took the
surface waste into account.
There are more problems with the recycling industry: [slide 20]
The Environment Agency is investigating
suspected widespread abuse and fraud, including complaints that organised
criminals and firms are abusing the system. Two-thirds of our plastic packaging
waste is exported by an export industry
which was worth more than £50m last year.
Six UK exporters of plastic waste have had their licences
suspended or cancelled in the last three months. One firm has had 57 containers of
plastic waste stopped at UK ports in the last three years due to concerns over
contamination of waste.
Allegations include:
Exporters are falsely claiming for tens of thousands
of tonnes of plastic waste which might not exist
UK plastic waste is not being recycled and is being left to
leak into rivers and oceans
Illegal shipments of plastic
waste are being routed to the Far East via the Netherlands (a kind of
‘laundering’ of plastic!)
UK firms with serial offences of
shipping contaminated waste are
being allowed to continue exporting.
Insiders said EA staff have never
visited any of the countries or sites where British waste plastic is exported
for recycling. Staff shortages have been blamed. As if this wasn’t enough,
400 staff from the Environment Agency, which enforces environmental regulations
and protects biodiversity in the UK, and natural England, which protects
habitats and species, have been redeployed to work on Brexit. (Guardian, 19th Oct
2018, Sandra Laville).
9. Action, solutions... [slide 21]: international...
9.1
International agreements:
The United Nations has said single-use
plastic should be banned.
The UN’s Global Goals include
calls to protect life on land and life
below water (Goal No. 14 and 15), and to create cities and communities that are
sustainable (Goal No.11).....
9.3 The Basel Convention is a legally binding agreement on cross-border waste disposal
signed by almost every country in the world, including the European Union.
An agreement was reached Friday
10th May after a two-week meeting of the Conferences of Parties
(COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions in Geneva. It took the
form of an amendment to the Basel
Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and
their Disposal, and is
backed by 187 countries (excluding the U.S.)
They agreed to amend the
convention to include plastic waste and improve the regulation of its trade.
"Plastic waste is acknowledged
as one of the world's most pressing environmental issues, and the fact that
this week close to 1 million people around the world signed a petition urging
Basel Convention Parties to take action here in Geneva at the COPs is a sign
that public awareness and desire for action is high," UN Environment's
Executive Secretary of the three conventions Rolph Payet said in a press
release.
"This
is a crucial first step towards stopping the use of developing countries as a
dumping ground for the world's plastic waste, especially those coming from rich
nations," Break Free from Plastic global coordinator Von Hernandez said,
as CNN reported. "Countries at the receiving end of mixed and unsorted
plastic waste from foreign sources now have the right to refuse these
problematic shipments, in turn compelling source countries to ensure exports of
clean, recyclable plastics only."
9.4 EU and UK [slide 22]
The EU
Parliament agreed to ban the most harmful single use plastics by 2021.
27th
Dec 2019 Italian ski resort (Pejo
3000) in Val di Sole, Trentino has banned plastic after a study found 131m –
162m plastic particles in the surface of one of the largest glaciers in the
Italian Alps. The Pejo valley has hydroelectric plants and wood-chip heating
from local forestry operations.
Our
own government aims to phase out
non-recyclable packaging in the next 25 years.
The fact that microbeads were banned soon
after the public became aware of them is a sign that action can be taken.
A tax on plastic? Greenpeace has observed that the
plastics industry is trying to prevent measures the government wants to
introduce, such as a tax on plastic:
“Philip Hammond's 2018 Budget included proposals aimed at making the UK
a "world leader in tackling the scourge of plastic littering our
planet." The UK’s leading plastics trade group is planning to push
chancellor Philip Hammond to water down his proposed plastics tax, lobbying
documents leaked to Unearthed show. This is despite the group’s own
analysis showing the proposed tax would significantly boost the use of recycled
plastics in packaging, one of the tax’s core goals”. See:
The UK Plastics Pact:
Dozens of companies in the UK
signed a pledge in April 2018 to crackdown on plastic pollution by 2025.
It’s called the UK Plastics Pact,
and it unites 42 government departments, trade associations, retailers,
campaign groups, and more, behind four targets
to curb plastic waste.
Combined, those that have signed
the pact are responsible for 80% of the plastic packaging on products sold in
UK supermarkets, according to the BBC.
Tesco
was one of the supermarkets that signed, along with Aldi, Asda, Lidl,
Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and Waitrose.
However, campaigners have
consistently said that voluntary action isn’t enough, and that we need legal enforcements in place to
hold businesses accountable to their pledges.
Supermarkets in the UK currently pay less towards the proper
collection and disposal of plastic waste than in any other country in the EU, according to a 2018 Guardian report. Instead, taxpayers pay
90% of the total cost. Surely supermarkets should not be allowed to pass
on these costs to the consumer?
More recently, Tesco supermarket
has launched a trial for an innovative recycling scheme specifically focusing
on plastics that can’t be recycled by local authorities: soft plastics
like crisp packets, plastic bags, and pet food pouches.
The supermarket has now partnered
with Swindon-based recycling specialist Recycling Technologies, and is
encouraging shoppers to bring their non-recyclable plastics to collection
points at 10 stores across Swindon and Bristol.
And if the trial goes well, the
initiative could be rolled out across the whole of the UK. The soft
plastics returned to the store will be converted back into oil by Recycling
Technologies, and then that oil can be used in the production of new
plastics. However, I must stress that this can only be done a few times –
unlike glass or metal, plastic deteriorates when it is re-processed.
Recycling at home and by local
authorities:
According to the most recent
government data, from 2017,
the UK recycling rate for waste from households is about 46% — still short of
the EU target to recycle at least 50% of household waste by 2020.
For packaging waste specifically,
plastic falls far short of most other recyclable materials. In 2017, according
to the data about 46% of plastic packaging was recycled; compared to 71% of
metal, 79% of paper, and 67% of glass.
In Havering where I live, the
council’s rubbish collection will only take bottle-shaped plastic, as that is
the only thing its contractors can handle!
9.5 Discussion of various schemes
to reduce plastic use: [slide 23]
13th April 2019. Letters
from: Maddy Haughton-Boakes, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Richard Ali,
Paper Cup Alliance.
The deposit charge on carrier bags has been shown to
work, since these now comprise only
1% of the pollution, .
The Scottish government announced this month (May 2019
that it will be introducing a deposit return system for glass, plastic and
aluminium drinks containers of all sizes.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England said: ‘we
applaud their leadership and ambition. England’s system is still up for grabs,
and we think Michael Gove should build on Scotland’s design and go one better,
by making sure every drinks carton is included within England’s deposit
system’.
Producers should be liable for the
costs of dealing with packaging, say the CPRE.
Paper cups for hot drinks are a well-known problem, because
they are lined with plastic
(polyethylene). But the coating on paper cups can be ‘easily separated from the paper using water, although there are only
five cup recycling plants across the UK that are already doing this, and it is
said they have the capacity to deal with all paper cups used..
Glasgow, Leeds and Cardiff are
showing cup collection initiatives. ‘Used paper cups are accepted at Costa,
Nero, Greggs, Starbucks and McDonald’s and there are now 4,500 high-street
collection points and over 20 waste management companies supporting paper cup
collection schemes.’
8th April 2019. (Fiona
Harvey) According to the Plastic Rivers report, from Earthwatch Europe and Plastic
Oceans UK:
Plastic
bottles are the most prevalent form of plastic pollution, followed by food
wrappers and then cigarette butts. Plastic bags only comprise 1%, showing the bans
etc have had an impact. About 80% of plastic rubbish flows into the oceans from
rivers. We need to focus on cleaning up
rivers, some say, while we deal with our dependence on throwaway plastic.
The report looked at macroplastic in fresh water, and excluded fishing gear
(which RSPCA says kills birdlife). It also excluded items from farming and
industry, to concentrate on consumers’ contributions.
8th April 2019. A survey of the top 10 supermarkets by Greenpeace revealed they were producing 1.1bn single-use plastic bags, 1.2bn plastic produce bags for fruit and vegetables and 958m reusable “bags for life” a year. (Guardian, Sandra Laville, 20th April 2019).
Supermarkets Reducing their
packaging:
Greenpeace
has carried out a survey of supermarkets, ranking them by how much they do
about plastics: Best is Iceland, scoring 58% for reducing single-use plastic,
47% for eliminating non-recyclable plastic, 49% for influencing suppliers, and
84% for transparency. Worst is Sainsbury’s, 31%..... 15%.... 36%.... 61%....
Links to
Greenpeace action on plastics, especially with reference to Sainsbury’s:
31st Aug. 2019. M & S to remove glitter from Christmas cards, wrapping paper calendars and crackers. Aims to be 100% plastic free by end 2020. Most glitter is made from aluminium bonded to polyethylene terephthalate. Trillions of microplastic particles have been found in the oceans. M & S have removed 1,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from its business. Waitrose, Tesco and Aldi are taking similar action. (Sarah Butler).
29th Oct 2019. The store John Lewis has stopped
selling 5p single-use plastic bags at its Oxford store so as to encourage
reduce reuse and return. Over a year this could save 5 tonnes of plastic. Sales
of 5p bags had fallen by 30% since the charge was introduced, but they still
sold 11.5m last year! Other incentives had been introduced at the same store
(see elsewhere).
Recycling: Unlike glass or metal, plastic is one of the worst materials for recycling
(says Stephen Buranyi), because it
significantly degrades each time it is recycled. Plastic bottles cannot be recycled into new bottles of
the same quality: although there is a kind of plastic called PCR – ‘Post-Consumer Recycled Resin’ –
made from used PET or HDPE plastic – it cannot be used for food, as it does not
meet the safety standards required. It also has a slight yellow coloration.
Ecover make
washing-up liquid, and is ‘on track to make every single one of our bottles
from fully recycled PCR plastic by the end of the year’. Making PCR requires
less energy than making plastic in the first place, and contributes 20% less
greenhouse gases. Not a major change?
More often,
recycled plastic becomes clothing fibres, or slats for furniture, or plastic
insulation. These items then end up as rubbish because they cannot be recycled
any further.
Less than
10% of plastic is recycled in the US each year, and it is public bodies that
are collecting the plastic, not industry, because it is not profitable.
14th Oct 2019 – demand for used plastic could cause recycling costs to soar
(Jillian Ambrose): Recycled plastic flakes have in recent months become more
expensive than virgin plastic for the first time. Report from S & G Global
Platts – recycled plastic costs an extra £57 a tonne. Trend is driven in part
by growing demand for recycled plastic in new products. New plastic is becoming
cheaper because of the US shale boom. Smaller manufacturers may be forced to go
back to using new plastic (harder for large companies to do this). Packaging
manufacturers are under pressure to reduce the amount of new plastic used: Coca
Cola aims to cut the amount in its soft drink bottles by 50% within the next
two years. UK is planning to tax companies that do not use at least 30%
recycled plastic in their products. Experts are calling for govt to support
plans to increase the amount of recycled plastic in the market – e.g.
incentives for new recycling plants, or importing flakes from Latin America.
(28th Nov 2019 Sandra
Laville): more ‘bags for life’ means bigger plastic footprint for supermarkets:
Research from
Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace shows footprint is rising. In
2018 supermarkets put out 903,000 tonnes of plastic packaging – an increase of
17,000 tonnes from 2017. This includes now 1.5bn
‘bags for life’ – 54 per household, a 26% increase (over previous year?).
EIA calls for a ban on them. Some customers are simply getting bags for life as
a substitute for single-use bags.
(15th Jan. 2020 Zoe Wood): Colgate is launching toothpaste
in a recyclable tube. Consumers get through 20bn tubes every year. New brand is
‘Smile for Good’. Certified by vegan society as cruelty-free. Made from HDPE
(high density polyethylene), the plastic used in milk bottles. But it is six
times as expensive as regular tubes. Colgate aiming at a circular economy... Colgate has also said all its
packaging will be recyclable by 2025.
A novel idea for recycling plastic:
2018 Daniel
Boffey: a bicycle path has been made of recycled plastic.
In the Netherlands
a 30-metre path made from 218,000 recycled plastic cups has opened in Zwolle
(in the north-east) as part of a trial. It is expected to be three times as
durable as asphalt. The venture has been carried out by engineers KWS, Total
(oil and gas), and Wavin (pipemaker). Other places including Rotterdam may take
up the technology. The path is made in prefabricated sections which are light
and hollow, and easy to transport; cables and pipes can easily be fitted inside
and it is designed to drain off rainwater. It is seen as sustainable...
Asphalt is
responsible for 1.5m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, which is 2% of global road
transport emissions. Clearly, if this is a viable proposition then using
plastic instead of asphalt could help to reduce global warming, but the
reduction will be small of course, because there are other significant
contributions to CO2 besides road traffic.
Biodegradable plastic:
17th April 2019. Letter
from Michael Stephen, Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association.
As I said at the start, the big attraction of plastic was that it lasted for ever. Then we realised that this is not what we want! So scientists are working on making plastic that biodegrades – that is, it rots down, and often then can be made into compost. If this is done by a process called ‘oxo-biodegradation’, then it decays more quickly and can be recycled into nature by naturally occurring bacteria. Oxo-biodegradation is required by law in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan. It creates no toxicity.
However, again, we have to be
cautious about plastic biodegrading: it has been found that plastic bags that
claim to be biodegradable were still intact and able to carry shopping three
years after being exposed to the natural environment.
The research for the first time
tested compostable bags, two forms of biodegradable bag and conventional
carrier bags after long-term exposure to the sea, air and earth. None of the
bags decomposed fully in all environments.
Researchers say more work is
needed to establish what the breakdown products are and to consider any
potential environmental consequences.
Researchers
from the University of Plymouth’s International Marine Litter Research Unit say
the study – published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology –
raises the question of whether biodegradable formulations can be relied on to
offer a sufficiently advanced rate of degradation and therefore a realistic
solution to the problem of plastic litter.
[slide 24]:
Meanwhile, what are the actions that can be
taken now? There is a hierarchy of actions that Friends of the Earth and others
follow: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. By
‘hierarchy’ I mean that reducing is the best step, and then re-using and then
recycling – recycling is the least successful.
Re-using plastic:
Some plastic
items can be re-used – for example, containers for food can be used to grow
plants; sculptures and decorations can be made from plastic waste, etc.
However, it is obvious that this is not anything like a solution to the
problems I have described. Reduction all round – in production and use – is the
only solution.
Conclusion: [slide 25]
I have
talked about our reliance on plastic, and the wide range of problems it causes
– in terms of waste, pollution, and harm to wildlife and to ourselves.
I hope I have
demonstrated that the problem of plastic cannot be taken in isolation from
other environmental issues: there are links to climate change (through the
petro-chemical industry), and there is an enormous impact on biodiversity
(along with other factors such as industrialised agriculture).
Still, it
should be clear that there are actions we can take to reduce or even eliminate
our use of plastic, and I hope you will all take away some thoughts about what
can be done internationally, by governments, by industry, and by
ourselves.
I will end
with a quote from an article by Stephen Buryani, (The Guardian ‘The long read’,
‘Why we all hate plastic now... and can we really do anything about it?’ Tues
13th Nov 2018):
‘’Plastic is a
microcosm of all our other environmental problems.
This means facing up to how
interconnected these problems are: to
recognise that plastic isn’t just an isolated problem that we can banish from
our lives, but simply the most visible product of our past half-century of
rampant consumption.
But there is cause for optimism,
since scientists, business, government and the public, are all aware of the
problem, and all agree that something must be done”.