S WE MOVE FROM CLR 1
PLASTIC NOT-SO-FANTASTIC? A GLOBAL FETISH FOR PVC
Rob James, Commercial Director, Oil Spill Response Ltd
From the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, produced in 1907, the world has developed an insatiable appetite for plastic products. Currently, globally we produce some 380 million metric tonnes of plastics every year. (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/282732/ global-production-of-plastics-since-1950/ ).
Over the last ten years efforts have been made to reduce plastics use, with plastic bags no longer available, or charged for, in supermarkets, plastic drinking straws replaced with paper equivalents and a drive to remove single use plastics from the supply chain. To date this has resulted in plastic use plateauing but not, as yet, reducing. These plastic products start life as pellets (known as nurdles), flakes and powder. The feedstock arrives at the plastics production facilities primarily by sea but also by road or rail. By sea, container losses from vessels in poor weather and vessel collisions, fires and sinkings, such as the X-Press Pearl cause spills of the nurdles and flakes. Once made into products, the plastics set out on more road, rail and sea
journeys to wholesalers for onward distribution. Once again there can be container losses from vessels in poor weather and vessel collisions, fires and sinkings. The 28,000 plastic ducks lost overboard from the APL China in 1998 is one of the more comically bizarre examples of what happens when a container is lost overboard.
infrastructure, and find their way into watercourses and, eventually, the oceans. Almost three million Metric Tonnes of waste each year are estimated to enter the oceans from 1,000 or more rivers by this route, with often disastrous consequences for marine life and fragile marine ecosystems. (Source: https://advances. sciencemag.org/content/7/18/eaaz5803).
Environmentally-conscious communities work hard to recycle their plastics, but recycling facilities are often on the other side of the world to where we use plastics, so another voyage ensues. The same tonne of plastic could now be making the third ocean crossing of its short life; first as nurdles, then as product and finally as recyclate. Although the shipping industry is one of the safest and most reliable means of transportation, accidents still happen. Baled plastic waste destined for recycling was one of the most difficult losses to deal with from the MSC Chitra incident in 2010 for instance. Sadly, these plastic products are often discarded rather than recycled, particularly in nations with a less developed waste management
THE POLLUTER PAYS – BUT WHO IS THE POLLUTER? The world shipping council estimate that an average of 1,382 containers is lost overboard per annum. This amount is a tiny fraction of the 226 million containers transported each year globally. Equally, container vessel sinkings are a mercifully rare event but when incidents like the Rena or MSC Napoli occur they hit the news headlines. However, in the case of a vessel casualty, it may be more than just the plastics carried that cause concern. Notwithstanding the widevariety of products carried on a modern container vessel, the fuel oil that powers the ship’s engines may spill
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