THE PLASTIC PLAGUE

from Guy Harvey Magazine — Summer 2019

ST. AUGUSTINE AND CAMP MACK

THE PLASTIC

A sooty shearwater trapped by a drift net along the Oregon coast. Photo by Roy Lowe, USFWS

PLAGUE

Unless you’ve been living in a Northern Siberian yurt for the past decade, you’re already aware that plastics in the ocean is a full-on crisis. In the past few years, it has risen to become a major topic of the news media and conservation organizations. Of course, here at Guy Harvey Magazine, we have been following this insidious form of pollution for many years, like in 2012, when we produced a special “plastics edition.” Our dedicated editorial team decided we needed to wrap up another issue in plastic—not literally, that is.

Fortunately, there are many organizations working hard to stem the plastic tide. Yet, even with all of their efforts, there’s still nine million tons of plastics entering our oceans each year. That’s the equivalent of five grocery bags full of plastic set on every foot of coastline in the world. Plus, there’s already an estimated 165 million tons of plastic currently circulating in our marine environments.

Sadly, more than 100,000 marine mammals and turtles are killed annually by plastic pollution, and millions more are affected by microplastics—tiny bits of plastic that fish eat because they can’t discern it from food.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has gotten a lot of press, but less known is that a massive, plastic island more than 10 miles long was recently discovered in, of all places, the Mediterrainean Sea. Known primarily for swanky beaches and topless sunbathers, now the Med has a new distinction. Bottom line, plastics have permeated our land, sea, lives, and bodies. Micro-plastics have shown up in the flesh of fish we eat and even in the bloodstream of some animals.

The Center for Marine Conservation, the group that has been coordinating coastal cleanups since 1986, lists their “dirty dozen,” the 12 items most frequently found during their beach cleanups. Eight of the dozen are plastics, including the most numerous pollutant in the world—cigarette butts (see article, page 46). 1) cigarette butts 2) paper pieces 3) plastic pieces 4) styrofoam 5) glass pieces 6) plastic food bags 7) plastic caps and lids 8) metal beverage cans 9) plastic straws 10) glass beverage bottles 11) plastic beverage bottles 12) styrofoam cups

If there was ever a time in history when one person could make a difference, it is now. Why? Because each and every one of us uses plastic—a lot of it. We know that plastics are flooding into our waterways, but most of it originates with us, the users.

Removing plastic from the ocean is an incredibly admirable pursuit but, ultimately, we need to stop the scourge at the source. One obvious way is to do our best to use less plastic as individuals. Another is to foster the ban on plastic bags in your hometown. There are some 400 cities that have already banned plastic bags. That’s a good start. However, the plastic bag industry is not standing by quietly on the sidelines. They are fighting back to protect their business. Case in point is something called preemption laws. These preemption laws prohibit cities from adopting local ordinances that regulate a particular product, namely bans or fees on carryout plastic bags. Several states (including Florida) have enacted laws or are considering preemption laws that shield plastic bags from being banned. You heard correctly—a number of states have protected the use of plastic bags by law. If you think that’s strange, keep in mind that doctors still prescribe opioids, even though that’s a crisis, too.

The good news is that you can help by reaching out to your city council or county commissioners to push a local ban forward. To find out the status of plastic bags in your state, go to: http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-naturalresources/plastic-bag-legislation.aspx.

What Else Can Be Done?

Considering the vast amount of plastic being used by businesses, it’s time for our society to ban single-use plastics. Ever stir your coffee with a plastic straw for three seconds then throw it away? Ever use a Keurig and toss the plastic

container? Ever go into a fast-food joint and see how everything is packaged in plastic? We all have. Unfortunately, plastics are so entrenched in products we use and buy that companies are not going to change willingly for fear of their bottom line. Each of us, individually, has to make the decision not to use plastic and to demand alternatives from the businesses we frequent.

Of course, for true transformational change, laws have to be enacted, enforced, and equally administered so one business or industry is not unfairly punished economically. Consider the removal of lead from gasoline. That was creating a health crisis and the government stepped in and banned the use of leaded fuel across the board. The same was true with catalytic converters. They became required by law in all cars so it was an equal burden across the entire industry. Because so much plastic ends up in rivers and oceans, it needs to be eliminated by legal mandate and replaced with materials that biodegrade.

Ten Bad Rivers

Most plastic pollution begins on land, then washes downstream into our waterways. A report published in Environmental Science & Technology revealed that rivers dump as much as three million tons of plastic into the seas every year. Amazingly, more than 90% of that plastic originates in 10 rivers, all of which are in Asia and Africa and five of which cut through China. They are:

RIVER - COUNTRY - FEEDS INTO

Yangtze - China - East China Sea

Yellow - China - Bohai Sea

Hai - China - Bohai Sea

Pearl - China - South China Sea

Amur - China - Sea of Okhotsk

Mekong - Vietnam, Thailand, China, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar - Gulf of Thailand Indus - Pakistan - Arabian Sea

Ganges - India, Bangladesh - Bay of Bengal Niger - Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Benin - Gulf of Guinea, Atlantic Ocean Nile - Egypt, Sudan - Mediterranean Sea

The Yangtze alone dumps up to an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of plastic waste into the Yellow Sea.

The Do Gooders

Fortunately, the attack on plastic is growing by leaps and bounds. Many companies and organizations have moved forward on banning certain plastics. Following is a snapshot of some of the good guys taking positive steps against plastic.

Governments

European Union: In March 2019, the European Union banned the top 10 single-use plastic items found on European beaches by 2021.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, declared in 2018 that India would eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022.

In Peru, visitors cannot carry in single-use plastics into the country’s 76 natural and cultural protected areas or national museums.

Chile fought off an appeal by the plastics industry and banned the retail use of plastic bags across the country.

San Diego became the largest city in California to ban polystyrene (styrofoam). The ban includes food and drink containers, egg cartons, ice chest coolers, aquatic toys for swimming pools, and mooring buoys and navigation markers.

In January, Washington, D.C., banned plastic straws. By July, businesses will receive fines if they continue to offer plastic straws.

Airlines

In 2018, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and United Airlines banned plastic straws and stirrers on their flights. United will use bamboo straws and American also phased out single-use plastic in their lounges.

Food

Red Lobster says that by 2020, they will offer a more eco-friendly alternative to plastic straws, eliminating more than 150 million plastic straws per year.

Dine-in restaurants in California are no longer allowed to automatically provide customers with straws. Instead, customers who need plastic straws will have to request them. Repeat offenders will be fined up to $300.

Food service company Sodexo will rid approximately 13,000 schools, workplaces, and venues of plastic bags and become stirrers-free by 2019.

Kroger announced in April that it will phase out single-use plastic bags and transition to reusable bags by 2025.

Beer

Carlsberg beer (Denmark) has come up with an ingenious alternative to the dreaded plastic six-pack holders. The cans will be held together with a drop of heavy duty, recyclable glue, cutting the amount of plastic used by 76%. When the cans are recycled, the glue will be recycled, too.

Amusement Parks

The Walt Disney Company plans to cut the use of 175 million straws and 13 million stirrers in 2019 when they announced a ban on single-use straws and stirrers.

The SeaWorld parks have avoided sending over 22 million plastic straws to landfills and is working to eliminate more single-use plastics from their parks, including plastic coffee stirrers and shopping bags. Additionally, all of their napkins are made with 100% recycled fiber, and one-at-a-time napkin dispensers have reduced waste by 50%. It’s also noteworthy that 40% of the in-park waste is recycled. Finally, only sustainable seafood and certified organic and sustainable coffee are service at the parks.

Zoos and Aquariums

At the 2017 annual conference of the World Association of Zoos and

Aquariums (WAZA), a memorandum of understanding was signed between WAZA and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to encourage at least 50% of WAZA’s membership to either eliminate or be in the process of eliminating single-use plastic from its consumer chain by 2023.

The next year, a survey by WAZA showed that 38% of respondents had already committed to reducing or eliminating single-use plastics within the next three years, while 78% had begun to reduce or eliminate consumer chain single-use plastics.

Two Women Warriors

Jackie Nuñez - Straw Stopper

In 2011, Jackie Nunez had just gotten back from traveling the Caribbean where she had been shocked at the number of plastic straws and pollution she saw on the beaches, in the water and just about everywhere. When she returned home to California, she visited a beachside bar where the server brought her a glass of water with a straw. “I didn’t ask for the straw,” she said. Right then and there, she had an epiphany. Soon she formed an organization aptly named, The Last Plastic Straw (thelastplasticstraw.org).

Since then the website and social media pages have gained global attention and Nunez has become a staunch warrior against plastic pollution, pointing out such facts as we use 500 million straws every day in the US. And that, even though the US makes up only 5 percent of the world’s population, we use 30 percent of the planet’s resources and produce 30 percent of the global waste. • Her movement has been successful partly because the message to restaurants is so simple: • Provide a straw only when requested by a customer • Provide either reusable or naturally compostable straws • Or get rid of straws completely

As a result, restaurants, bars and cities all around the globe are banning plastic straws voluntarily. To learn more or join her movement, go to thelastplasticstraw.org

Photo by David Royal

Jenna Jambeck - Debris Tracker

Jenna Jambeck has been on the trail of marine debris since 2001. One of her studies, published in the journal Science, found between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean in 2010 from people living within 50 kilometers of the coastline. That year, a total of 275 million metric tons of plastic waste was generated in those 192 coastal countries.

In 2014 she continued her journey when she and 13 other women sailed across the Atlantic Ocean collecting open-ocean plastic. Perhaps the vast distant horizons or salt air caused her to wonder, “Is there an app for that?”

Apparently, there wasn’t. After her ocean adventure, Jambeck and fellow University of Georgia faculty member, Kyle Johnsen, developed the Marine Debris Tracker app. The app encourages citizens to log and report marine debris which can be viewed on the website or the app or followed on social media. Today thousands of citizen scientists are scouring the globe and reporting on marine debris. So far more than 1.5 million pieces of litter have been logged.

The app can be downloaded to any smartphone, or you can visit the website at: https://marinedebris.engr.uga.edu/