ARTICLE | Plastics & Oceans
Toxic Plastic & Sick Seas
Plastic is the most dangerous component piling on the planet, driving the cause of climate change, and it has now entered the sea ecosystem as well. According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 80 per cent of the sea debris from surface water to deep sea sediments comprises of waste plastic Hitesh Nigam | Reporter
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rban areas majorly contribute to this load of sea debris as 60 per cent of the plastic in marine debris is generated from urban areas, according to Plastic Smart Cities (WWF Forum). Plastic use has continuously increased, especially in the urban centres of India and the world in different forms. Its affects and by-products are continuously analysed by experts but the exact extent is still unknown.
32 November 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
Condition of India and surrounding seas
Plastic marine debris is mainly produced due to the mismanagement of produced plastic from waste and short-lived plastic products comprising of various consumer products. Ganges river in India is notorious for being the major contributor of plastic debris into the sea, as found by The CounterMEASURE Project, which was started in 2020 by the United Nations Environment Programme and is funded by Japan. The project, which is
based in three cities namely Haridwar, Agra and Prayagraj, found that almost 10 to 25 per cent of plastic waste is littered, which eventually reaches the sea instead of being recycled or going through proper waste disposal channels. India is distressed from the problem of plastic litter, as is evident from data of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which states that India accumulated 34 lakh tonnes of plastic waste in 2019-20, which is 10 lakh tonnes more as compared to 2017-18 data.
