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An Ocean of Plastic Chemistry Article for Students | Scholastic Science World Magazine

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Plastic is polluting the seas, but there's still time to turn the tide

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Sound pollution caused by humans is making oceans noisier than ever and harming marine life. That's according to a new article published in the journal Science.

Researchers looked at thousands of studies on ocean sound and its effects on wildlife. They found that noise pollution in oceans has increased over the years. And it has had a negative impact on animal behavior.

Sea animals depend on the ocean's natural sounds to find their way around and communicate with one another. "Sounds travel very far underwater," Francis Juanes says. He's one of the article's authors. "For fish, sound is probably a better way to sense their environment than light." But noise from activities like shipping, drilling, and construction drown out natural sounds. As animals flee noisy areas, their habitats shrink.

There are ways to address this problem, the study's authors write. Wind-powered ships, quieter propellers, and floating wind turbines would lower the volume. And governments could pass laws regulating ocean noise. "We have noise standards for cars and trucks," says Carlos Duarte, the paper's lead author. "Why should we not have them for ships?"
Stop and Think! Who are the people quoted in the article? What makes them experts on the subject? How do their statements help you to understand the topic?

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Sound pollution caused by humans is making oceans noisier than ever and harming marine life. That's according to a new article published in the journal Science. Researchers looked at thousands of studies on ocean sound and its effects on wildlife....

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Zoë Trisha Prinsloo sees all sorts of plastic trash during her beach cleanups in Cape Town, South Africa. The teenager has collected plastic bottles, food containers, straws, and more. Lately, Prinsloo has noticed an increase in a certain kind of…

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One late-summer day, a team of cleanup volunteers was exploring the shore of the Anacostia River, in Washington, D.C. The water rippled under a hazy blue sky. Tall grass swayed on the mudflats. But something else caught the group's eye.

Along the shore were heaps of plastic bottles. They had drifted down the river and gotten caught in branches that dipped into the water. The more the group looked, the more bottles they found. They gathered about 500 that day. But how many more had made it downstream and into the ocean?

The world has a plastics problem, and not just with bottles. Candy wrappers, straws, toothbrushes, toys-all kinds of plastics are piling up in landfills. A recent study published in Science Advances estimates that landfills contain a large part of the world's 5 billion tons of plastic waste. By 2050, the amount could reach 13 billion tons.

INDRANIL MUKHERJEE-AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Governments are realizing that recycling may not be enough. Many want to eliminate some plastic items altogether. It could have a huge impact on the planet. "The problem can seem overwhelming," says Wallace. "But it's a solvable problem."

Plastic Pollution

Plastic litters beaches. Whales have been entangled in discarded plastic fishing nets. Plastic packing bands have strangled sea lions. Birds have starved, with bellies full of plastic straws and bottle caps.

Yet another danger is harder to see. Sunlight causes plastic to become brittle. Ocean waves then break the plastic down into smaller pieces. These bits collect pollutants already in the sea. Marine animals that eat them are poisoned.

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The Last Straw

"It's everyone's responsibility to make sure that plastic products are disposed of properly," Ashley Stoney says. She works for the Plastics Industry Association. But not all types of plastic can be recycled. Stoney says companies should find a way to make and use plastics that can be.

In December 2017, 193 countries signed a United Nations pledge to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea. Britain has outlawed the manufacture of products containing microbeads. Rwanda has made plastic bags and packaging illegal, except in hospitals. Scotland and Taiwan have banned plastic straws, and several coastal cities in the U.S. are following suit.

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"Saying no to a plastic straw is an easy way to make a big difference in the world," Lofflin told TFK.

After all, she says, it's our future that's at stake. "Do we really want to pass on to the next generation a world that's choked by plastic?"

Chew On This

Here's a tasty way to reduce waste. Bakeys, a company in India, has made the first-ever spoons you can eat. Their edible cutlery is made of millet, rice, and wheat. It comes in flavors like ginger-garlic and black pepper, in a paper wrapper. If you throw a spoon away, it decomposes in just a few days.

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Harvard University scientist David Edwards has designed an edible packaging material called WikiCell. It protects the food or liquid inside as a peel protects an orange. The translucent skin is made of food particles from chocolate, fruit, seeds, or nuts, so it's a delicious replacement for plastic wrap.
Assessment: Click for a printable quiz. Teacher subscribers can find the answer key in this week's Teacher's Guide.

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One late-summer day, a team of cleanup volunteers was exploring the shore of the Anacostia River, in Washington, D.C. The water rippled under a hazy blue sky. Tall grass swayed on the mudflats. But something else caught the group's eye....

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Have you ever noticed a problem in your community that you couldn't figure out how to fix? Dr. Aboubacar Kampo has. He was living in Côte d'Ivoire, a country on the coast of West Africa, where plastic is a major environmental issue. Côte d'Ivoire's biggest city, Abidjan, produces more than 300 tons of plastic trash a day, and only about 5% is recycled. "How can we transform plastic into something useful?" Kampo wondered.

So Kampo, who works for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, asked his friends for help. "We had a competition over a weekend to figure out what could be done," he told TIME for Kids. "We googled, looked for research, and then I stumbled across a company in Colombia."

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Colombia is a country in South America. Plastic pollution is a problem there, too. Conceptos Plásticos, the Colombian company that Kampo read about online, recycles plastic waste and turns it into big, Lego-like bricks for building schools, houses, and other structures for communities in need.

Next, Kampo went to Colombia to learn about the company firsthand. He toured schools that were built with its bricks and the factory where the bricks were made.

Isabel Cristina Gamez, cofounder and CEO of Conceptos Plásticos, says, "Once Dr. Kampo understood the social impact and the environmental benefits, he said, 'We need to find a way to get you to Côte d'Ivoire.' From that moment on, we worked together."

"Conceptos Plásticos gave us a solution," Kampo says. He thought it could help with more than just the plastic problem. It could also improve children's access × access MINT IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES the ability to reach or use (noun) They lowered the water fountain so students in wheelchairs can have to access it. to education.

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Making Room

According to UNICEF, 1.6 million children in Côte d'Ivoire don't go to school. One reason is that there aren't enough classrooms. For kids who do go to school, classrooms are often severely overcrowded. UNICEF communications chief Sophie Chavanel says, "I stepped into a classroom and all these 3- and 4-year-olds were sitting on the floor. They couldn't stand up because there wasn't room to move around."

In 2018, UNICEF built its first classrooms of recycled plastic bricks in Abidjan, using bricks produced in Colombia by Conceptos Plásticos.

Chavanel says that when a new room opened, the children gathered in the middle, "really tight, the same way they had before, because it was all they had ever known. The teacher said, 'No! Now we have a big classroom. You can move! You can dance!' Straight away, it made a difference in the quality of education."

Tirangue Doumbia was the teacher that day. "People couldn't believe it at the beginning, that the classrooms were made of plastic," she says. "Now all the parents want their children in these classrooms." When TFK spoke to her, in March, Côte d'Ivoire schools had just closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Building the Future

At press time, UNICEF had built 27 classrooms in Côte d'Ivoire. It plans to have 528 built by the end of 2021. The new Conceptos Plásticos factory in Abidjan will soon be producing bricks from trash collected locally. "It's plastic that is in children's playgrounds," Chavanel says. "It's plastic that is on the beach."

The environmental impact is huge. UNICEF says it takes about five and a half tons of plastic to build a classroom. Construction takes a few weeks.

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How have students responded to the project? "Kids love it," Kampo says. "When we build a classroom, we build it with the community. The kids get to see how it's built." Unlike traditional × traditional CADAPLE-IMAGE SOURCE/GETTY IMAGES based on custom, or the usual way that a person or group does things (adjective) It's traditional to serve turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. construction, no cement is needed, he adds. "It's just a hammer and those bricks."

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Have you ever noticed a problem in your community that you couldn't figure out how to fix? Dr. Aboubacar Kampo has. He was living in Côte d'Ivoire, a country on the coast of West Africa, where plastic is a major...

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Marine pollution is a combination of chemicals and trash, most of which comes from land sources and is washed or blown into the ocean. This pollution results in damage to the environment, to the health of all organisms, and to economic structures worldwide.

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Be Smart | How Much Plastic is in the Ocean? | Season 5 | Episode 10 | PBS

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Ocean plastic pollution is a massive environmental problem.

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You Can't Just Clean Up the Plastic in the Ocean

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You Can't Just Clean Up the Plastic in the Ocean

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Plastic Planet is a series on the global plastics crisis that evaluates the environmental and human costs and considers possible solutions to this devastating man-made problem.

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Since the early 1950s, there has been an estimated 8.3 billion tons - and counting - of plastic produced on the planet, according to a 2017 study published in the Science Advances journal. The United Nations Environment Program reports that roughly 60% of that lump sum has made its way to landfills or the ocean. Each year, an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean, according to the advocacy group Ocean Conservancy. Some calculations predict that there could be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish by 2050.

The situation is so dire that the ocean is already home to five notable trash vortexes, more commonly known as garbage patches: the North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the South Pacific Gyre, the Indian Ocean Gyre, and the North Pacific Gyre. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located in the North Pacific Gyre between California and Hawaii, is the most notorious as it is the largest of the five, with an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of trash. For measure, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is three times the size of France and weighs as much as 43,000 cars. And according to experts, it is growing "exponentially."

The fundamental issue with plastic is that it's largely not biodegradable. This means it cannot be broken down into reusable compounds. Instead, it degrades over time into smaller particles also known as microplastics, which are defined as pieces that are five millimeters in length or less, according to the National Ocean Service. While these tiny particles aren't floating at the top of the ocean, they pose a threat: Aside from contaminating the waters, plastic in the ocean injures and kills marine animals - collectively, it has impacted at least 800 species worldwide. Humans are impacted as well, as microplastics make their way into our food through seafood, water, and sea salt. Unfortunately, little is known about the scale of the problem since research is in its preliminary stages.

Some nations carry a larger burden of the blame than others. According to a 2015 study published in Science Advances, the top six countries for ocean garbage are China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. But other nations are not necessarily free from blame. The same study found that the United States, for example, contributes as much as 242 million pounds of plastic trash to the ocean every year.

Tackling the man-made environmental disaster - both cleaning up the existing plastic pollution in the ocean and preventing further damage - is not easy. "It is not as simple as going out there and just scooping up these floating islands of trash," Nick Mallos, the director of Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program, tells Teen Vogue.

Currently, a nearly 2,000-foot-long floater, essentially a floating trash collector, has made its way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to take a stab at tackling the existing problem - it's the brainchild of 24-year-old Boyan Slat, who conceived the idea for his contraption in 2013 and started the Ocean Cleanup. Slat's device, a high-density polyethylene pipe, travels with the wind, waves, and storms and sweeps up plastic along the way. It also includes a 10-foot-long impermeable underwater skirt that picks up plastic that isn't on the surface. The plastic will then be removed from the water and taken by boat to shore, where it will be processed for recycling.

The first step of the Netherlands-based organization is to collect the larger floating plastic objects before approaching the smaller pieces. Within five years, the Ocean Cleanup hopes to remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now, weeks in, Business Insider has reported things don't appear to be going as they should be: The garbage collected by the device is drifting into sea instead of staying trapped. "Although we are not harvesting plastic yet, based on the current results, we are positive we are close to making it work," wrote Slat in an update in November, adding that his team believes "the first solution [they] will attempt could potentially remediate both of these causes."

A spokesperson for the Ocean Cleanup told Teen Vogue that Boyan and the rest of the team are "highly confident" that finding a solution is just "a matter of time," noting that all other aspects of the system - surviving rough weather and not harming marine life - are working well aside from not being able to keep the trapped plastic. "These kinds of issues are certainly something that they anticipated," said the spokesperson. "Expecting the unexpected is inherent to the process when you move from modeling and testing to reality. It also stresses the importance of going out there because reality is the ultimate test for the beta system."

Elsewhere, U.K.-based the Plastic Tide, founded by Peter Kohler, uses drone-mounted cameras, machine learning, and citizen science to take aerial photos and train a "machine-learning" algorithm to recognize plastic trash. The idea would be to track the existing plastic and the spread of plastic to home in on where to prioritize cleanup efforts.

Another element is reducing the amount of plastic that gets into the ocean going forward: In 2015, Reuters reported that research was released based on data from 2010, showing that more than 8 million tons of plastic go from land to the ocean each year.

Emma Tonge, a communications and outreach specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program, tells Teen Vogue that "prevention is the key to solving the marine debris problem over time." She uses the analogy of an overflowing sink: You can't fix the buildup without turning off the faucet. For marine debris, cleaning up nearshore and coastline regions is akin to turning off the faucets.

"Shorelines and coastal areas are easy to access, and we try to get these debris items before they have the chance to get to the ocean," says Tonge, whose program's main focus is prevention.

Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program organizes an international coastal cleanup that it says is the world's largest volunteer effort and works with businesses and individuals to implement change in practices and behaviors that impact ocean health. The Ocean Conservancy also has a mobile app - called Clean Swell - that allows individuals to record each item of trash they collect, which is later used by scientists and policymakers. While cleanups won't solve the marine plastic debris problem, it makes a difference. Mallos says it is a "Band-Aid, not a cure," but says cleanups have an "immediate and direct impact."

Encouraging corporations to use less plastic is one way to reduce the odds of plastic debris: Putting less plastic on shelves means less is purchased, consumed, and discarded.

"Corporations that either make plastic - the actual material - or make products that use plastic in their packaging have a very big responsibility in this problem," Mallos says. "There are some products out there, like plastic bags and expanded polystyrene food and beverage packaging - these are materials and types of products that simply no longer have a place in our economy. They pose a very severe risk to the marine environment when they leak into the ocean. And we know that there are suitable alternatives for these products that deliver the same utility and functionality as these products."

A 2018 brand audit conducted by environmental activist group Break Free From Plastic of more than 187,000 pieces of plastic trash across 239 cleanups spanning 42 countries shed light onto potential offenders. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé were the most frequent multinational brands collected in cleanups. A PepsiCo spokesperson told Teen Vogue the company is "committed to achieving 100% recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable packaging by 2025" and strives to "use 25% recycled plastic content in [their] plastic packaging by that same year." Coca-Cola told Teen Vogue it has placed "ambitious goals" for the company's World Without Waste vision: It aims to "collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one [they] sell - regardless of where it comes from - by 2030" and "use an average of 50% recycled content in our bottles and cans by 2030." Teen Vogue has reached out to Nestlé and will update once we hear back.

Some significant progress is also being made by other companies. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a U.K.-based environmental charity, launched a campaign to get corporations on board with accountability. So far, more than 250 organizations - including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, H&M, S.C. Johnson, and L'Oréal - have pledged to eradicate plastic waste within seven years. These organizations have pledged to reuse, recycle, or compost 100% of their plastic packaging by 2025.

Mallos also spotlights two other areas that need work. One is creating appropriate waste collecting and recycling infrastructure for existing plastic goods in the market to guarantee responsible disposal. The other is to look at innovative materials that can replace some of the most problematic forms of plastic that currently exist. "Corporations have a very important role in supporting and catalyzing investment and innovation in many of those fronts," Mallos says.

And then there is consumer accountability. A recent wave of consumer activism has led to the widespread ban of straws, which are especially problematic since they cannot be recycled. A noble endeavor, no doubt, but according to a Bloomberg Opinion essay, straws only account for 0.03% of total plastic waste. To truly fight ocean plastic pollution, a broader approach is needed.

Mallos says individuals can help in three ways. One is to reevaluate our daily plastic waste footprint and make decisions to reuse things like plastic bags and water bottles. Second is to send a message with your purchasing power: Watch what you buy so corporations take into account consumer preference and purchasing habits. Lastly, advocate for smart policy - like plastic bag bans - that "deliver locally appropriate solutions."

The Ocean Conservancy's 2018 Coastal Cleanup Report gathered data from beach cleanups across the globe to identify common trash items: cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic beverage bottles, plastic bottle caps, plastic grocery bags, other plastic bags, straws and stirrers, plastic takeout containers, plastic lids, and foam takeout containers. "For the first time ever, all of the top 10 items found globally were made of plastic," Mallos says. "We know that globally, plastic production is increasing. What we're seeing now on the beaches is a manifestation of that production.

"This is a global, complex issue. And everyone has a role to play. That ranges from us as individuals all the way up to governments and corporations," Mallos says.

"No matter who you are, you're connected to the ocean. No matter where you live, you're connected to the ocean," Tonge says. "Everyone can really have a part to play, no matter how small or large that part is."
For more information on the global plastics crisis, read the rest of the Plastic Planet series.

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You Can't Just "Clean Up" the Plastic in the Ocean. Here's Why.

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In this Plastic Planet reported feature, we explain why ocean cleanup isn't the best approach to combat the global plastics crisis.

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From the farthest reaches of the Arctic to the deepest depths of the ocean, plastic pollution really is everywhere. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a particularly big problem: an estimated 100 million ocean animals are killed each year because of plastic in the ocean, and we currently have no reliable way to extract those plastics. But plastic is also a huge part of our everyday lives, in often invisible ways. Now, one of the world's biggest plastic polluters is racing to reinvent its business-and the way we think about this ubiquitous material-one package at a time. The sea change is top priority for Unilever to ensure customers remain loyal to the 90-year-old global brand.

On any given day, 2.5 billion people use Unilever products that span 400 brands to feel good, look good and get more out of life. But the multinational with a market cap of over $158 billion recognizes that its growth has come at the expense of the environment. The company invests over $1 billion annually on research and development, of which new plastics innovation is a component, but declined to tell CNBC how much its plastics initiatives specifically are costing.

It is benefiting the company: In 2018, the 26 Unilever brands that are aligned with its sustainability initiatives grew 46% faster than the rest of the business and also outperformed in turnover growth, according to the company.

In November 2010 under the guidance of now-former CEO Paul Polman, the company launched its industry-leading sustainable living plan, which has guided the company's approach to product design and redesign ever since. Oversight of this global initiative starts at the top: reporting directly to the company's CEO and executive leadership, a steering team meets five times per year and is accountable to the executive for the sustainable living plan's goals. They rely on a series of internal groups devoted to everything from sustainable packaging to water use.

Unilever also runs its own Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC) that takes a science-focused look at the environmental impacts of products throughout their life cycle, including when they go down the drain.

Since 2017, one of the plan's main focuses has been plastic. That's when Unilever signed on to an Ellen MacArthur Foundation initiative called The New Plastics Economy, committed to making all of its plastic packaging either reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. Doing so will ensure that plastic packaging stays within a "circular economy" where it can be produced and reused, rather than becoming waste. That means not only developing the technology to make plastics that can be effectively recycled, but also transforming its global supply chain. Both are major challenges.

"I'm convinced that we are going to move more as a society into some of those spaces around reduce and reuse, and [Unilever] will be at the forefront of doing that," says Richard Slater, chief research and development officer for Unilever. Slater, who took over the role in April 2019, says Unilever's commitment to sustainability was a big reason he was drawn to the company.

Inside the company, this attitude toward plastic shows up in a framework used throughout the business, referred to as "less/better/no." It's visible in their finished products: shampoo bottles that contain around 15% less plastic thanks to the introduction of bubbles into the material; replacing traditional plastics with bioplastics made of materials like cornstarch; and goods that use no plastic in their packaging, like refillable deodorants that come in a metal tube.

Addressing the issue of packaging is a great way to start changing the way plastic is used, says Shelie Miller, a University of Michigan professor who studies packaging and sustainability. "Packaging is produced to become waste," she says. "That makes it unique among manufactured goods."

It's hard to know exactly how much of the plastic problem is due to plastic packaging, says Melanie Bergmann, a marine biologist and plastic pollution expert at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute. However, packaging on consumer products is a significant problem, she says, and unlike many other sources of plastic, "something we can tackle relatively easily."

Transforming its plastics packaging market has required ongoing change in the company's supply chain, both in working with existing suppliers to change their practices and with new partners like Terracycle's consumer goods distribution system Loop, which will be testing consumer uptake on products like refillable aluminum deodorants for some of Unilever's top brands. The Loop Initiative has buy-in from some of the world's biggest brands, including Unilever competitors Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Terracycle's partners involved with the initiative include logistics company UPS, European retailer Carrefour and resource management company Suez.

On the materials side, too, the drive to develop better plastics has seen Unilever partner with startups like Ioniqa, which bills itself as a "high tech chemical company", and broader industry initiatives like the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance, a World Wildlife Federation-led initiatives to develop biodegradable plastics that don't compete with food security. The company is also "engaged with several bio-plastic suppliers," according to a company spokesperson.

Unilever also is pushing forward on in-house initiatives such as developing a new pigment for black plastic such as that used for the company's TRESemmé line of shampoos and conditioners. Traditional black plastic is not detectable by the infrared sorters that recyclers use and must therefore be thrown out. Unilever's solution is a new kind of pigment that can be detected by the sorters, allowing its black plastic bottles to be recycled at traditional recycling facilities. Within industry, "Unilever is really seen as a leader in sustainability," says Miller. "They have a track record of being a leader in efforts to reduce overall environmental impacts, so it's not surprising that they are ahead of the curve here."

From the investment perspective, this is one of the most lucrative markets to get into.

TMR senior market analyst

However, creating a circular plastic economy for its many products isn't a simple undertaking. "One of the challenges we face in many places around the world is availability of material," says Louis Lindenberg, Unilever's Global Packaging Sustainability Director. "We've had to work with our supply chain partners to identify what material is required where, how much is available, what the gap is, and how we fill that gap." One example is in Brazil, where Unilever recently partnered with local recycler Wise to expand local recycling capacity in order to get the recycled materials it needs to meet its commitments, Lindenberg said.

There's no guarantee that the things they try will get consumer uptake. The company's found high consumer acceptance for initiatives like moving towards things like 100 percent recycled or recyclable plastics, Slater says. But on the no-plastic side, with things like the Loop initiative and other refill and reuse systems, "we really are more in pilot mode there."

Initiatives like these are also what will keep Unilever competitive into the future, says Slater. In its 2018 annual report, the multinational named plastic packaging as a "principal risk" to its business.

"Both consumer and customer responses to the environmental impact of plastic waste and emerging regulation by governments to tax or ban the use of certain plastics requires us to find solutions," reads the message to shareholders.

By 2025, the year when Unilever and other signatories to the New Plastics Economy agreement have pledged to transform their packaging, Grand View Research predicts that the global plastic packaging market will reach a market size of $269.6 billion USD, up from a 2017 valuation of $198 billion.

Key drivers of this market are the convenience and low cost of plastic packaging, but according to numbers produced by Transparency Market Research, consumers are willing to pay nearly 10 percent more for sustainable packaging. "Consumers are looking for sustainable packaging, says TMR senior market analyst Ismail Sutaria. "At the same time, the packaging should be easy to use."

At the moment, the food and beverage sectors have the biggest market share for sustainable packaging, he says, with cosmetics and personal care not far behind, meaning that Unilever stands to benefit strongly from investment in this area. Increased focus on sustainable packaging will get the eye of investors on a company, Sutaria says. "From the investment perspective, this is one of the most lucrative markets to get into."

By working to change the plastics market, Unilever is paving the way for its own future.

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Unilever's plan to stop massive plastic pollution from destroying the oceans

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Plastic pollution is a big problem, not just for sea animals, but consumer giant Unilever. Its 400 brands including shampoo label TRESemmé have taken a big toll on the oceans. Now Unilever is remaking materials and supply chains, an effort that goes all the way up to the CEO.

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A sea turtle swims through the water and spots a white blob floating near the surface. "Yum!" it thinks. "A jellyfish!" Chasing after its dinner, the turtle swallows the item. But the floating blob isn't a jelly-it's a plastic bag that could make the sea turtle sick.

This sea creature isn't alone: Over 700 species of marine animals have been reported to have eaten or been entangled in plastic. Scientists think that the amount of plastic in the ocean might triple by 2050-and that would mean seriously bad news for the ocean and the creatures that live there. But by understanding the issue and taking action, you can help stop that from happening.

What's the problem with plastic?

First, let's get real: Not all plastic is bad. Bike helmets, car airbags, and many medical supplies made with plastic save lives. Plastic water bottles can bring clean drinking water to people who don't have it, and plastic straws can help people with disabilities drink.

The problem is that most of us use and then toss way more plastic than we need: things like grocery bags, drink bottles, straws, food wrappers, and plastic packaging around toys. This kind of plastic that's used only once before being thrown away is called single-use plastic, and it makes up more than 40 percent of all plastic trash.

Where does the plastic go?

That's a lot of trash. Scientists think that 8.8 million tons of plastic winds up in the ocean every year-that's as if you stacked up five plastic grocery bags full of trash on top of each other on every foot of coastline in the world.

How does it get into the sea? Plastic left on the ground as litter often blows into creeks and rivers, eventually ending up in the ocean. And because plastic trash is different from other types of waste-it doesn't decompose back into nature like an apple core or a piece of paper-it stays in the ocean forever. That means discarded fishing nets and six-pack rings can entangle animals; harmful straws and grocery bags can be mistaken as food.

What can we do about it?

You can do so much to help keep Earth clean! You can look at how much single-use plastic your family uses by filling out a plastic journal for a week-then talking about what you can do to use less. Need ideas? Check out these quick tips to reduce your plastic waste. By working together, our choices can help save animals-and the ocean they live in.

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Be Smart | How Much Plastic is in the Ocean? | Season 5 | Episode 10 | PBS

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Ocean plastic pollution is a massive environmental problem.

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In the past year, 14 of the deer in Japan's famous Nara Park have died. Nine of those deer appear to have been killed by eating plastic. Volunteers are working together to try to end the problem.

Nara is a famous tourist spot in Japan. Nara was once the capital of Japan and has an important place in the country's history. It is also home to many Sika deer, a spotted deer that is most commonly found naturally in Japan.

A Japanese legend says that long ago an ancient god rode into Nara on a deer to protect the town. As a result, deer were long seen as heavenly animals who were there to protect both the city of Nara, and Japan. After World War II, the deer were made national treasures.

For that reason, deer are allowed to go where they want in Nara. They can walk on the sidewalks; cars wait for them when they walk on the streets. Tourists are surprised and delighted when they see the deer waiting outside a store or restaurant.

But the deer spend most of their time in Nara Park, which is home to over 1,000 deer. The park and the deer are a huge tourist attraction. Tourists love feeding the deer and can buy "Shika senbei" - special sugar-free crackers - to feed them.

But it appears that many tourists may be feeding the deer other things besides the crackers. And they may be feeding them out of plastic bags.

Rie Maruko is a veterinarian who works for the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation (NDPF), a group that works to protect the deer. Mr. Maruko says that the deer may have learned that plastic bags can hold food, or they may be attracted to plastic food bags because of the smell.

Whatever the reason, the deer appear to be eating lots of plastic.

That's a problem. Deer are meant to eat food like grass. They have four stomachs and the food moves between the stomachs so that it can be broken down to provide energy for the deer.

But plastic never moves beyond the first stomach. And it takes up the space so that the deer can't fill its first stomach with healthy food. That leaves the deer full, but starving. One deer was found with more than 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of plastic waste in its stomach.

The NDPF has organized a huge cleanup to try to remove all the plastic trash from the park and other areas where the deer might find it. The group is also trying to spread the word to tourists that they need to keep plastic away from the deer.

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Deer in Japan's Nara Park Die After Eating Plastic

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In the past year, 14 of the deer in Japan's famous Nara Park have died. Nine of those deer appear to have been killed by eating plastic. Volunteers are working together to try to end the problem. Nara is a famous tourist spot in Japan.

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Plastic Pollution is Killing Whales – News For Kids

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Last Friday a pilot whale died in Thailand after swallowing over 80 plastic bags. Workers had been trying to save it for days, but it was not able to survive.

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TheScienceBreaker | Science meets Society

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Microplastic waste has become so prevalent in the environment that it is being picked up and transported by the wind and the rain. We linked plastic fallout rates with air-mass movements to understand where plastics are coming from, how far they are travelling, and how much of them is raining out of the sky.

It's entirely possible that tiny fragments of the windbreaker from your childhood, the straw you used sometime last year, or the label from a soft drink you had yesterday are now floating around in the atmosphere. The amount of plastic produced globally increases every year and so does the amount of mismanaged plastic waste that ends up in the environment. In 2017, 348 million metric tons of plastic were produced, and it is estimated that 12-18% of this total annual production ended up in the environment. Plastic is not readily biodegradable; it can spend decades and even centuries in the environment, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. Finally, these pieces are small enough to be entrained in the atmosphere and carried by the wind.

There are several possible pathways for plastic emissions to the atmosphere. A likely prominent source are emissions from the marine environment, where wave action can emit plastics through sea spray. Roads may also contribute to plastic emissions, not just from tire-wear plastics, but also from debris collected on the road surface and broken down to fine dust. Another likely prominent source is the erosion of agricultural soils that have been fertilized with biosolids collected at wastewater treatment plants. Because the filtration systems in these wastewater treatment plants are effective at retaining microplastics in the solid fraction, the produced fertilizer also has high amounts of microplastics.

To examine the type and source of microplastic in the atmosphere, we quantified plastic fallout due to gravity (dry deposition) and plastic fallout within rain (wet deposition). We collected the sample at monthly (dry) and weekly (wet) intervals at 11 National Park and Wilderness areas across the western United States. We counted microplastics in 339 wet and dry samples collected over a 14-month period. Plastics were separated by color, size, fiber/particle, and whether they were primary or secondary plastics; Primary plastics are those formed in the size and shape they are found in the environment, like microbeads, whereas secondary plastics are derived from the fragmentation of larger plastic pieces.

Microplastics were present in 98% of the samples collected. Our analyses showed that about 4% of the aerosol particles in the atmosphere are now composed of plastic instead of natural components like minerals and bug parts. The total deposition rates were estimated between 1000 and 4000 metric tons per year, or between 120 and 450 million water bottles. About 70% of the atmospheric microplastics were fibers, likely sourced from textiles. The remainder were mostly derived from the fragmentation of commonly used plastics that were difficult to attribute to a particular source. However, about 30% of the particles were brightly colored microbeads. Due to the size and color distribution, it is likely that these beads are derived from paints and coatings where they are used to create texture and visual effects.

We then compared the plastic particles found in the dry and wet deposition, to try and get a better understanding of plastic emission sources and atmospheric pathways. We found that microplastics deposited dry and wet had different atmospheric life histories and source areas. Wet deposition plastics were associated with air masses travelling over nearby large cities or the amount of soil dust also within the sample. These observations, combined with the fact that the size distribution in the wet deposition was larger than in the dry deposition, suggests the source of the plastics in the wet deposition was more local (<1000 km). By contrast, dry deposited plastics were smaller in size and were more prevalent at high elevation. These observations suggest dry deposited plastics are travelling higher in the atmosphere and are arriving from much further afield. Moreover, dry deposition rates were associated with broad scale climate patterns - like the location of the Jet Stream - and 70% of particles were within the size range where global transport can occur. This provides further evidence that dry deposited plastics are likely moving between continents.

Though the effect of airborne microplastics for ecosystems and human health are not yet well understood, preliminary research suggests plastics can influence basic ecological processes. Furthermore, all aerosols, regardless of composition, can have consequences to human health. These findings should raise some alarms for the global community since the consequences are inescapable in the immediate future.

This research was funded by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station research grants UTA01421 and UTA01384 and the National Science Foundation grant 1926559.

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Microplastics are raining down from the sky

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Microplastic waste has become so prevalent in the environment that it is being picked up and transported by the wind and the rain. We linked plastic fallout rates with air-mass movements to understand where plastics are coming from, how far they are travelling, and how much of them is raining out of the sky.

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This article was created in partnership with the National Geographic Society.

At first, years ago, it was just an occasional piece of plastic trash that Kahi Pacarro, the founder of Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, picked up on the beach cleanups he organized around the state. A straw here, a takeout container there. But one day Pacarro spotted something particularly surprising in the beach detritus: a toothbrush.

Now, in any given Hawaii beach cleanup, he says, it's not uncommon to pick up 20 or even 100 toothbrushes.

The reason is simple. The total number of plastic toothbrushes being produced, used, and thrown away each year has grown steadily since the first one was made in the 1930s.

"I like to ask people, what's the first thing you touch in the morning? It's probably your toothbrush," says Pacarro. "Do you want the first thing you touch every day to be plastic?"

For centuries, the basic toothbrush was made from natural materials. But during the early 20th century, the giddy early days of plastic innovation, manufacturers started substituting nylon and other plastics into the design-and never looked back.

Plastic has so fully infiltrated toothbrush design that it's nearly impossible to clean our teeth without touching a polymer. And because plastic is essentially indestructible, that means nearly every single toothbrush made since the 1930s is still out there in the world somewhere, living on as a piece of trash.

Now, some designers are looking for ways to reimagine this crucial, classic object in a way that puts less stress on the planet. But to find solutions to the toothbrush conundrum, we have to understand how we got here.

The best invention of all time?

It turns out people really love having clean teeth. In MIT's 2003 Lemelson Innovation Index survey, the toothbrush rated higher than cars, personal computers, or cellphones as the innovation respondents couldn't live without.

Humans have apparently felt this way for a very long time. Archaeologists have found "tooth sticks" in Egyptian tombs. The Buddha chewed sticks into fluffy-ended scrubbers to clean his teeth. The Roman author Pliny the Elder noted that "it makes teeth firm to pick them with a porcupine quill," and the Roman poet Ovid proclaimed that it was a good idea to wash the teeth each morning.

Tooth care even occupied the mind of the reigning Chinese emperor Hongzhi in the late 1400s, who designed something that looked a lot like the brush we know today. It featured a short, dense pack of boar bristles, shaved off the neck of a hog, set into a bone or wood handle.

That simple design endured, essentially unchanged, for centuries-but not for everyone. Boar bristles and bone handles were fancy, expensive materials, meaning that only the wealthy could afford brushes. Everyone else had to make do with chew sticks, scraps of cloth, their fingers, or nothing at all. As late as the early 1920s, only an estimated one in four people in the United States owned a toothbrush.

War changes everything

It wasn't until late in the 19th century that the concept of tooth care for everyone, rich and poor alike, started to trickle into the public consciousness. One of the drivers of that transition was war.

Around the time of the American Civil War in the mid-1800s, guns were loaded one shot at a time, with powder and bullets that had been pre-wrapped in twists of heavy paper. Soldiers needed to tear the twists open with their teeth, but many potential fighters lacked even the six well-anchored opposing teeth to rip the paper apart. This was obviously a problem.

The few dentists serving the Union Army despaired at the state of the teeth around them, but dental care failed to take hold as a priority for the North. The Confederate Army, in contrast, conscripted a cadre of dentists who stressed preventative care; one army dentist pushed the message so successfully that soldiers in his unit shoved their toothbrushes in their buttonholes, readily available at all times.

It took two more major military mobilizations to get toothbrushes into nearly every bathroom. By the advent of World War I, the U.S. military recognized that they had a problem, a variant on the cartridge-ripping issue from the Civil War. The otherwise healthy young men they wanted to recruit into service needed six healthy opposing teeth in order to eat the tough, dry military rations. Young man after young man failed that test.

"It's a little unbelievable, looking from today's vantage point," says Alyssa Picard, a historian and the author of Making the American Mouth. "[The military] had a standard, and it's pretty basic-have six teeth in your mouth so you can chew-and people are not meeting those standards. People who would otherwise be available for fighting? Off the list."

By World War II, soldiers were instructed in the care and keeping of teeth; dentists were embedded in battalions and toothbrushes were handed out to troops. And when the fighters came home, they brought their tooth-brushing habits with them.

'The right road to American citizenship'

Simultaneously, across the country cultural expectations around teeth were changing. Bad teeth, dentists believed, could be signs of disease, poor nutrition, and general disregard for personal hygiene. "[Dentists] saw themselves as the ministers of the health-care process," says Picard - not just caretakers of the mouth, but of the whole body, and even of the public health writ large.

Dental experts started framing the question of dental care as a social, moral, and even patriotic issue. Public campaigns touting the benefits of healthy teeth spread across the country. "If bad teeth could be prevented," one dentist opined in 1904, "the gain to the state and individual would be of tremendous value, as it is wonderful how many diseases can be traced indirectly to bad teeth."

In many cases those campaigns were targeted at poor, immigrant, or otherwise marginalized populations. Dental hygiene was often wielded as a way to "Americanize" communities the primarily white dental professionals at the time saw as not fully assimilated into the dominant culture, according to Picard.

"I know that a clean mouth and a talk on hygiene has started many [immigrant coal miners] on the right road to good American citizenship," said one Pennsylvania dentist in the early 20th century.

The plastic takeover

As demand for toothbrushes soared, production followed, aided by the development of exciting new materials called plastics.

In the early 1900s chemists discovered that they could make a strong, glossy, moldable- and occasionally explosive -material from a mixture of nitrocellulose and camphor, a fragrant, oily substance derived from the camphor laurel tree. The material, called "celluloid," could be made into shapes practical, fanciful, and cheap, perfect for toothbrush handles.

Soon, bristles also succumbed to the siren song of synthetics. In 1938 a Japanese national laboratory came up with a fine, silky substance it hoped would be a substitute for the silk used to make more durable parachutes for its military. Nearly simultaneously, the U.S-based DuPont chemical company rolled out its own smooth, thin-fibered material: nylon.

The silky, sturdy yet flexible material turned out to be a perfect substitute for expensive and brittle boar bristles. In 1938, a company called Dr. West's started packing the heads of their "Dr. West's Miracle-Tuft Toothbrush" with nylon threads. The synthetic material, it said, was "100 percent waterproof...with greater cleansing and longer life" than the old natural-bristle brushes. Dr. West's rolled out the new design nationwide, selling them for 50 cents apiece, about $8 in today's dollars.

Since then, new types of plastic replaced celluloid in the handle, and bristle designs became more complicated, but the basic plastic-packed design has proved as durable as the material itself.

A plastic-free future?

"It's quite remarkable, actually, that the design [of the toothbrush] has stayed so similar throughout the years," says Charlotte Fiell, a design historian from the U.K. "Basically, the function hasn't changed, has it?"

But now designers are beginning to ask: Can we remake this essential object using little or no plastic?

The American Dental Association suggests that everyone replace their toothbrushes every three or four months. At that rate, brushers in the U.S. alone would go through over one billion toothbrushes each year. And if everyone around the world followed those recommendations, about 23 billion toothbrushes would get trashed annually. Most are traditional toothbrushes, but some 55 million U.S. brushers use electric toothbrushes each year, so some number of those plastic-handled, battery-containing objects also end up in the waste stream each year.

Many toothbrushes are unrecyclable because the composite plastics most are now made of are difficult, if not impossible, to break apart efficiently.

In response, some companies have pivoted back to natural material, like wood or boar bristles. Bamboo handles can solve part of the problem, but most of the bamboo brushes on the market still have nylon bristles, so at least that part of the brush has to be thrown away.

Other toothbrushes, like the Radius, pack more, sturdier bristles into their heads. That helps them last longer so they need to be replaced less often-only two brushes a year instead of four.

Some companies have gone back to a design that was originally introduced nearly a century ago: toothbrushes with removable heads. Goodwell, in Portland, Oregon, produces metal handles it hopes brushers will keep for years. The head pops out when the bristles wear down, and a new one snaps in, reducing the total amount of waste to less than 30 percent of a normal brush, says Patrick Triato, one of the company's founders.

It's very hard to find plastic-free brush options. Biodegradable or bio-based plastics aren't always better for the planet than their more traditional plastic counterparts, either because they don't actually break down particularly well or because they have complicated environmental footprints in their own right.

But any option that reduces the total amount of material used and packaging is a step in the right direction. Getting people thinking about the tools they use to clean their teeth? That's a big step too.

This article is part of National Geographic's new series, "The Story of Plastic." Every other Friday, we will tell the story of how many common plastic objects came to dominate our everyday lives-and look at how we might break our plastic habit.

National Geographic is committed to reducing plastics pollution. Learn more about our non-profit activities at natgeo.org/plastics. This story is part of Planet or Plastic?-our multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic waste crisis. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge.

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Your plastic toothbrush is a bigger problem than you realize

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A billion toothbrushes will be thrown away in the U.S. this year, most of them plastic. How did we get here, and can we change?

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How Your Toothbrush Became a Part of the Plastic Crisis | National Geographic

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Scientists say using the "Delicate" setting on washing machines releases far more microplastics from clothes than other washing machine settings. They encourage people to try to wash clothes with less water.

Microplastics are tiny bits or threads of plastic, which are often too small to be seen. Microplastic particles have been found just about everywhere around the world, from Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean. They have been found on mountaintops over 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the nearest city.

Humans and other animals wind up drinking and eating these microplastics. Microplastics have been found in tap water, bottled water, and in sea animals that people eat. Scientists don't know what effect this has on humans.

There are many sources of microplastic, but clothing is an important one. Though you may not think of plastic when you think of clothes, modern clothes commonly use some kind of plastic for at least part of the material. This is especially true for stretchy clothes.

You may be familiar with some common names from clothing tags, like polyester, nylon, acrylic, or Spandex. Fleeces are another example of clothing made from plastics.

Plastic is useful for clothes because it is cheap, strong, and easy to work with. It also doesn't break down as much over time like natural materials such as cotton or wool.

But each time clothes containing plastic are washed, tiny, thread-like pieces of plastic called "microfibers" get washed away. One load of laundry can wash out 500,000 to 6 million plastic microfibers.

Most washing machines - especially older ones - don't have filters that can trap such tiny pollution, and so the plastic washes down the drain. Sooner or later, it winds up in rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Scientists at Newcastle University, together with Procter & Gamble, a company that makes laundry detergents, decided to run some tests of the washing process. They wanted to see what made the biggest difference in how many microfibers were released.

Using special equipment, they ran tests, looking at how hot the water was, how long the clothes were washed, how fast the washer spun, and how much water was used.

Then they ran their tests again with real washing machines, which have different "cycles" or ways of washing clothes. They found a surprising result. Before the study, many people thought that rougher washing cycles where the machine turns the clothes quickly would release more microfibers.

But the study showed that the "delicate" cycle, which is much gentler, but uses far more water, can release as many as 800,000 more microfibers per load. "Our findings were a surprise," said Grant Burgess, one of the researchers.

The scientists say that to limit microfiber pollution, people should wash full loads and choose a setting that uses "smaller amounts of water".
Did You Know...?
Drying clothes in a dryer can release as much as 3.5 times as many plastic microfibers as washing does. If possible, it's best to hang clothes and let them air dry.

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Gentle Wash Settings Release More Microplastics

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Scientists say using the "Delicate" setting on washing machines releases far more microplastics from clothes than other washing machine settings. They encourage people to try to wash clothes with less water. Microplastics are tiny bits or threads of plastic, which are often too small to be seen.

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Scientists studied bottled water from around the world. They found tiny bits of plastic in nearly all of it. No one knows yet how the human body deals with these bits of plastic.

Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic, which are often too small to be seen. Last year, scientists working for Orb Media said they had found microplastics in tap water all over the world. Now, the same scientists have studied bottled water from popular companies around the world and found another surprising result.

Dr. Sherri Mason, a professor at a college in New York, led the work. Her group studied 259 bottles of water from 11 different companies around the world. The tests included water from Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestle Pure Life, and San Pellegrino. The scientists found microplastics in all but 17 of the bottles. Some of the bottles had only one particle. Others had thousands.

The scientists added a dye (coloring) called "Nile Red" to the water. The dye sticks to plastics and makes them show up under special light. The scientists poured the water through a filter with tiny holes. This let the water go through, but not the plastic particles.

Dr. Mason and her team tested the bigger particles to see what kind of plastic they were. Most were the same kind of plastic that is in the bottle caps. Other bits were too small to test. The scientists say they are "probably plastic". They had to use a special machine to count those tiny bits.

On average, the water bottles had about 10 particles that were bigger than the width of a human hair in every liter. That would mean a 12 ounce bottle of water might have about 3 particles that size.

Dr. Mason's work has not been checked by other scientists yet. Two of the companies that sell the water said they also did tests which showed microplastics in the water. But they thought Orb Media's results were too high. Other companies said that they worked hard to make their water safe.

The idea of people drinking and eating microplastics is new. The US does not have any laws about microplastics in food and water. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it will start to study if eating and drinking microplastics can cause health problems.

Scientists say that if people live in areas where the tap water is dirty or unsafe, they should still drink bottled water. But if people have good tap water, it is probably better to drink that.

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Microplastics Found in 93% of Bottled Water - News For Kids

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Scientists studied bottled water from around the world. They found tiny bits of plastic in nearly all of it. No one knows yet how the human body deals with these bits of plastic. Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic, which are often too small to be seen.

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Straw No More | Molly Steer | TEDxJCUCairns

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algae Single-celled organisms, once considered plants (they aren't). As aquatic organisms, they grow in water. Like green plants, they depend on sunlight to make their food.

aquatic An adjective that refers to water.

aquifer Rock that can contain or transmit groundwater.

biodegrade (adj. biodegradable) To break down into simpler materials, based on the activity of microbes. This usually occurs in the presence of water, sunlight or other conditions that help nurture those organisms.

cancer Any of more than 100 different diseases, each characterized by the rapid, uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. The development and growth of cancers, also known as malignancies, can lead to tumors, pain and death.

carbon The chemical element having the atomic number 6. It is the physical basis of all life on Earth. Carbon exists freely as graphite and diamond. It is an important part of coal, limestone and petroleum, and is capable of self-bonding, chemically, to form an enormous number of chemically, biologically and commercially important molecules.

carbon dioxide (or CO ₂) A colorless, odorless gas produced by all animals when the oxygen they inhale reacts with the carbon-rich foods that they've eaten. Carbon dioxide also is released when organic matter burns (including fossil fuels like oil or gas). Carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas, trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere. Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen during photosynthesis, the process they use to make their own food.

carbon nanotube A nanoscale - billionth-of-a-meter scale - tube-shaped material that is made from carbon. It conducts heat and electricity well.

cavity (in geology or physics) A large rigid pocketlike structure. (in biology) An open region pocketlike structure surrounded by tissues.

cell The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Most organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.

chemical A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H ₂ O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

chemical engineer A researcher who uses chemistry to solve problems related to the production of food, fuel, medicines and many other products.

coil Concentric rings or spirals formed by winding wire or some other fiber around and around a core; or the shape that such a wire would make.

component Something that is part of something else (such as pieces that go on an electronic circuit board or ingredients that go into a cookie recipe).

compost The end product in the breakdown, or decomposition, of leaves, plants, vegetables, manure and other once-living material. Compost is used to enrich garden soil, and earthworms sometimes aid this process.

compound (often used as a synonym for chemical) A compound is a substance formed when two or more chemical elements unite (bond) in fixed proportions. For example, water is a compound made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical symbol is H ₂ O.

coral Marine animals that often produce a hard and stony exoskeleton and tend to live on reefs (the exoskeletons of dead ancestor corals).

DDT (short for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) This toxic chemical was for a time widely used as an insect-killing agent. It proved so effective that Swiss chemist Paul Müller received the 1948 Nobel Prize (for physiology or medicine) just eight years after establishing the chemical's incredible effectiveness in killing bugs. But many developed countries, including the United States, eventually banned its use for its poisoning of non-targeted wildlife, such as birds.

decay The process (also called "rotting") by which a dead plant or animal gradually breaks down as it is consumed by bacteria and other microbes.

develop To emerge or come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size and sometimes even shape.

environment The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

environmental engineer A person who uses science to study and solve problems in ecosystems - from forests to the human body.

fabric Any flexible material that is woven, knitted or can be fused into a sheet by heat.

fiber Something whose shape resembles a thread or filament.

filter (in chemistry and environmental science) A device or system that allows some materials to pass through but not others, based on their size or some other feature.

groundwater Water that is held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock.

hormone (in zoology and medicine) A chemical produced in a gland and then carried in the bloodstream to another part of the body. Hormones control many important body activities, such as growth. Hormones act by triggering or regulating chemical reactions in the body. (in botany) A chemical that serves as a signaling compound that tells cells of a plant when and how to develop, or when to grow old and die.

journal (in science) A publication in which scientists share their research findings with experts (and sometimes even the public). Some journals publish papers from all fields of science, technology, engineering and math, while others are specific to a single subject.

landfill A site where trash is dumped and then covered with dirt to reduce smells. If they are not lined with impermeable materials, rains washing through these waste sites can leach out toxic materials and carry them downstream or into groundwater. Because trash in these facilities is covered by dirt, the wastes do not get ready access to sunlight and microbes to aid in their breakdown. As a result, even newspaper sent to a landfill may resist breakdown for many decades.

litter Material that lies around in the open, having been discarded or left to fall where it may.

magnet A material that usually contains iron and whose atoms are arranged so they attract certain metals.

manganese Chemical element with the atomic number 25. It's a hard gray metal in the transition series. Manganese is an important component of special steels.

marine Having to do with the oceans and their environment.

microbe Short for microorganism. A living thing that is too small to see with the unaided eye, including bacteria, some fungi and many other organisms such as amoebas. Most consist of a single cell.

microplastic A small piece of plastic, 5 millimeters (0.2 inch) or smaller in size. Microplastics may have been produced at that small size, or their size may be the result of the breakdown of water bottles, plastic bags or other things that started out larger.

microscope An instrument used to view objects, like bacteria, or the single cells of plants or animals, that are too small to be visible to the unaided eye.

molecule An electrically neutral group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types. For example, the oxygen in the air is made of two oxygen atoms (O ₂); water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H ₂ O).

nanometer A billionth of a meter.

nanotechnology Science, technology and engineering that deals with things and phenomena at the scale of a few billionths of a meter or less.

New Zealand An island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean, roughly 1,500 kilometers (some 900 miles) east of Australia. Its "mainland" - consisting of a North and South Island - is quite volcanically active. In addition, the country includes many far smaller offshore islands.

nitrogen A colorless, odorless and nonreactive gaseous element that forms about 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere. Its scientific symbol is N.

nutrient A vitamin, mineral, fat, carbohydrate or protein that a plant, animal or other organism requires as part of its food in order to survive.

nylon A silky material that is made from long, manufactured molecules called polymers. These are long chains of atoms linked together.

oxygen A gas that makes up about 21 percent of Earth's atmosphere. All animals and many microorganisms need oxygen to fuel their growth (and metabolism).

particle A minute amount of something.

PCBs Short for polychlorinated biphenyls. A family of 209 chlorine-based compounds with a similar chemical structure. They were used for many decades as a nonflammable fluid for insulating electrical transformers. Some companies also used them in making certain hydraulic fluids, lubricants and inks. Their production has been banned in North America and many countries throughout the world since around 1980.

pesticide A chemical or mix of compounds used to kill insects, rodents or other organisms harmful to cultivated plants, pets or livestock; or unwanted organisms that infest homes, offices, farm buildings and other protected structures.

petroleum A thick flammable liquid mixture of hydrocarbons. Petroleum is a fossil fuel mainly found beneath the Earth's surface. It is the source of the chemicals used to make gasoline, lubricating oils, plastics and many other products.

phthalates A family of chemicals used as solvents and sometimes added to plastics to increase their flexibility.

plastic Any of a series of materials that are easily deformable; or synthetic materials that have been made from polymers (long strings of some building-block molecule) that tend to be lightweight, inexpensive and resistant to degradation.

polyester A synthetic material used chiefly to make fabrics. The actual chemical name for the material used is polyethylene terephthalate.

polyethylene A plastic made from chemicals that have been refined (produced from) crude oil and/or natural gas. The most common plastic in the world, it is flexible and tough. It also can resist radiation.

polyvinyl chloride (abbrev. PVC) This is a plastic formed by using heat to turn a liquid resin into a solid. The plastic can be soft and flexible or rigid and hard. The raw ingredients consist primarily of chlorine and carbon.

range The full extent or distribution of something.

reactive (in chemistry) The tendency of a substance to take part in a chemical process, known as a reaction, that leads to new chemicals or changes in existing chemicals.

recycle To find new uses for something - or parts of something - that might otherwise be discarded, or treated as waste.

risk The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard - or peril - itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

strategy A thoughtful and clever plan for achieving some difficult or challenging goal.

synthetic An adjective that describes something that did not arise naturally, but was instead created by people. Many synthetic materials have been developed to stand in for natural materials, such as synthetic rubber, synthetic diamond or a synthetic hormone. Some may even have a chemical makeup and structure identical to the original.

taint To contaminate something with an unexpected, unnatural or illegal substance.

toxic Poisonous or able to harm or kill cells, tissues or whole organisms. The measure of risk posed by such a poison is its toxicity.

wastewater Any water that has been used for some purpose (such as cleaning) and no longer is clean or safe enough for use without some type of treatment. Examples include the water that goes down the kitchen sink or bathtub or water that has been used in manufacturing some product, such as a dyed fabric.

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Help for a world drowning in microplastics

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algae Single-celled organisms, once considered plants (they aren't). As aquatic organisms, they grow in water. Like green plants, they depend on sunlight to make their food. aquatic An adjective that refers to water. aquifer Rock that can contain or transmit groundwater. biodegrade (adj. biodegradable) To break down into simpler materials, based on the activity of microbes.

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(Inside Science) - About 20% of people who use contact lenses flush them down the toilet or sink. But when those contact lenses interact with wastewater treatment plants, they form microplastics that become ocean pollution. "The overall trend in America is that we're going towards contact lens use and away from glasses. And then within the contact lens market, it's a lot of daily disposables being used," said Charles Rolsky, a researcher at Arizona State University.

"We thought it would be interesting to see how people dispose of their contact lenses because there's no instructions on the box. And so we conducted kind of a brief survey. And we found around 20% of contact lens users that we surveyed were flushing them down the sink or toilet," said Rolsky. "The problem is that contact lenses are going down the drain and interacting with wastewater treatment plants. And we've known for awhile now that plastic and wastewater don't really interact very well. Basically, the interaction between contact lenses being flushed and a wastewater treatment plant creates microplastics," said Rolsky.

"Microplastics pose a threat to the environment. These small plastic pieces are able to move quite freely throughout the ecosystem. It kinda depends on where they're deposited. But sometimes the end result of wastewater goes to something like a wetland or stream or a river, and if these soil properties are carrying plastics then absolutely it has a chance to reach the ocean or any other delicate ecosystem nearby," said Rolsky.

"So there has been research shown that a lot of animals that feed on the bottom of the ocean or in the sand accidentally take up plastic particles, so if you're distributing these fragmented contacted lenses to these ecosystems, and we know research has shown animals like crabs and shrimp have taken in these plastics by accident, there's a good chance that they could do the same with a contact lens fragment," said Rolsky.

"I want people to know that what goes down the sink or toilet is potentially dangerous to the environment and we need to be aware of what we're putting down there, especially as it pertains to contact lenses. And I really want people to know that there are options for recycling these things instead of just tossing them, even in the trash can. Through recycling programs we're able to repackage those and rework them into the system, which is great, they don't end up in the environment. And really also be aware of what types of plastics are necessary, like our contact lenses, and what types of plastic are avoidable, like plastic bags, utensils, straws, so on and so forth," concluded Rolsky.

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Contact Lenses Flushed Down Toilets Pollute Oceans

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(Inside Science) - About 20% of people who use contact lenses flush them down the toilet or sink. But when those contact lenses interact with wastewater treatment plants, they form microplastics that become ocean pollution. "The overall trend in America is that we're going towards contact lens use and away from glasses.

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David Katz was upset by all the plastic going into the oceans. To help solve the problem, he had an unusual idea - to treat plastic like money. Mr. Katz calls his idea the "Plastic Bank".

Though Mr. Katz would like to remove plastic from the ocean, he realized it was more important to first stop the plastic from ever getting there. He points out that if your kitchen sink is overflowing, you don't start by mopping up the mess - you start by turning off the running water.

Mr. Katz believes that one of the main reasons so much plastic winds up in the oceans is because plastic is seen as worthless. In poor countries, people are already working so hard just to get enough food to eat, to find a place to live, and to keep themselves healthy. Spending time on recycling doesn't make sense when you're simply trying to survive.

The goal of the Plastic Bank is to use plastic to help these people solve the problems that worry them the most - food, shelter, and health. So Plastic Bank adds a value to plastic waste by paying people to recycle it.

The program began in 2015 in Haiti, a poor island nation with huge problems with waste plastic. Haiti doesn't have strong programs for recycling. Plastic is often simply thrown out. It winds up in rivers and flows into the ocean.

Plastic Bank has opened 30 "markets" in Haiti. At Plastic Bank markets, people can exchange the plastic they've collected for money or other things they need.

Plastic Bank markets sell many things that local people need, such as gas for cooking stoves or a way to recharge a cell phone. The stores also allow plastic collectors to use the money they earn to pay for health care or school.

About half of the people on Haiti have cell phones. For these people, Plastic Bank can put the money they earn into a special bank account that they can control using an app. This keeps their money safe, and allows them to send money to other people.

To make sure the plastic gets recycled, the Plastic Bank works with partners, who agree to use the plastic that is collected.

For example, the British company Marks & Spencer and the German company Henkel are both paying extra to use recycled plastic from the Plastic Bank in their products.

When customers buy these products, which are labeled "Social Plastic", they know that they are helping people in other parts of the world and keeping plastic out of the oceans.

The Plastic Bank has programs in Haiti, the Philippines, and Brazil. In the Philippines, the Plastic Bank has worked with the oil company Shell to create Plastic Bank markets at 1,000 gas stations around the country. The company is hoping to expand to Indonesia, Ethiopia, and India.

So far, the Plastic Bank has kept about 7 million pounds (over 3 million kilograms) of plastic out of the oceans.
Did you know...?
In Vancouver, Canada, the Plastic Bank has a slightly different program. In Canada, customers pay extra money, called a "deposit" every time they buy certain bottles and cans. The customers get the deposit money back when they return the container. In Vancouver, Plastic Bank allows customers to give their deposit money to plastic collectors in other countries, keeping even more plastic out of the ocean.

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The Plastic Bank - Treating Plastic Like Money

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David Katz was upset by all the plastic going into the oceans. To help solve the problem, he had an unusual idea - to treat plastic like money. Mr. Katz calls his idea the "Plastic Bank". Though Mr. Katz would like to remove plastic from the ocean, he realized it was more important to first stop the plastic from ever getting there.

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Join us in creating a just, equitable world free of plastic pollution & its toxic impacts.

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omewhere in Hilo, on Hawaii's Big Island, a team of scientists and engineers are tending to The Ocean Cleanup's 600-metre-long rubbish-herding device, after its maiden voyage to the Great Pacific garbage patch was cut short in December 2018, because it fractured into two pieces.

The project has had its fair share of problems since it was unveiled in May 2017 and has been criticised by marine scientists and environmental groups for its potential negative environmental impact. However, some still herald The Ocean Cleanup for having a positive effect on plastic pollution.

Pete Ceglinski, the Australian co-founder and chief executive of the Seabin Project - plastic-cleaning devices deployed in harbours and marinas - is one. He credits Boyan Slat, the inventor behind The Ocean Cleanup, with increasing the global awareness of the ocean plastics issue over the past six years.

But marine biologist Dr Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania says that argument is also the project's downfall. "I think that's really dangerous," Lavers says. "It gives people a false sense of hope that this team of people have got [plastic pollution] covered, and that we just need to throw some money at the problem."

Plastic pollution is a devastating problem for the world's oceans and marine life. According to the UN, about 8m tonnes of plastic waste is dumped in the seas annually. It has been discovered at the deepest point of ocean, in Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, and in Australia, CSIRO scientists found microplastics in the sediment of the Great Australian Bight. Last year Guardian Australia reported that scientists now believe "plastic is literally everywhere."

So the idea of attempting to "clean up" the ocean is a quixotic one. Can these projects really make a difference?

The answer is yes, but not as expected.

Smaller technical solutions can make an impact in a localised area. Two rubbish-sucking Seabins were recently installed in Sydney's Darling Harbour. The devices suck in water, trapping rubbish in a mesh bag, and recirculate the water back into the environment. There are 450 Seabins in 26 countries around the world, in 60 harbours throughout the US, Europe, and now the Asia-Pacific, collecting on average around 4kg of marine litter a day - or about 1.4 tonnes a year, according to Ceglinski.

Another local installation, known as Mr Trash Wheel, is making a difference in Baltimore's Inner Harbour, on the US's north-east coast. As the wheel turns, it collects litter from the harbour and stores it in a barge for later removal. "It's such a great idea," says Lavers. "If we could get something like that in major cities that have suitable harbours, it would be transformational."

Lavers, who has been studying ocean plastics for the past 15 years, says these are good examples of small-scale cleanups that can have a local impact.

However, she warns that can't be extrapolated to the open ocean or the global plastic crisis. "We can't technology our way out of this," she says. "What we really need is policy change, and behavioural change, and that's just starting to happen."

"Things have changed rapidly in the last 12 to 18 months, it's been really encouraging. We have the EU announcing enormous bans on single use plastics and microplastics - that's the bold, meaningful change we need."

Hobart city council recently announced it would ban single use plastics by 2020, while Launceston city council has pledged to do the same. The South Australian government is considering how to tackle single-use plastics and sought public comment on the issue earlier this year.

The Department of the Environment and Energy recently conducted an assessment of the voluntary phase-out of microbeads - and found it to be on track. Its Threat Abatement Plan for the impacts of marine debris on the vertebrate wildlife of Australia's coasts and oceans was also updated. And while Woolworths and Coles were banning single-use plastic bags nationwide, fast-food giants McDonald's committed to phasing out plastic straws in their Australian stores.

What those cleanup projects such as The Ocean Clean Up, Seabins and the Baltimore Water Wheel are good at is increasing awareness of the plastic problem. Says Ceglinski:"The real goal is to stop plastics from entering the water in the first place. And we can do that using the Seabin as a powerful communication tool.

He adds: "We don't want people to be okay with throwing plastic in the water because the Seabin will pick it up for them. This was one of the main reasons we set out to attack it from an educational point of view - because it all boils back down to education."

So, like Seabins quietly sucking away in harbours, community and individual cleanup action plays a role too. When you add up the numbers, at least in Australia - the potential impact of picking up rubbish on beaches is huge. "There's around 50,000 volunteers across Australia who participate regularly in beach cleanups", says Lavers.

"One single plastic bottle removed from a beach prevents it from making its way back into the ocean where it will eventually fragment into tens of thousands of micro- and nano-plastic particles. So there's value in getting bigger items off the beach while we still can, because once they become tiny fragments in the marine environment, we have little to no hope of ever retrieving them, at least not with current technology."

In Australia, Tangaroa Blue is one of the main groups that organises regular cleanups, along with Clean Up Australia, Seaside Scavenge, environmental conservation groups such as Sea Shepherd, while Ocean Conservancy organises global beach cleanups.

Heidi Taylor, co-founder and managing director of Tangaroa Blue Foundation, says cleanups must go hand in hand with reducing plastic consumption. "If all we do is clean up, then that's all we'll ever do. We have to stop debris and plastic ending up in the environment in the first place through source reduction."

The data collected from beach cleanups give groups such as Tangaroa Blue the power to hold industry and producers accountable for their role in the plastic problem. "The cleanup is how we collect evidence," says Taylor. "Volunteers don't just pick up and count rubbish, they also record brands and barcodes - data which can be used to target the sources."

Taylor noticed a difference in the beach cleanup data, after the single-use plastic bags ban came into force. "We're just seeing more thicker bags, and now we know where they're coming from because they're branded, whereas before they were all grey. "

On 4 March, the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) ticked over 13 million data points - each representing an item of marine debris picked up from an Australian beach with its details logged by a volunteer.

Lavers is using the AMDI data to determine whether the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (Marpol) - which prevents the dumping of plastic and other waste from ships - has been effective since its ratification in 2013. "Asking this question is only possible because of Tangaroa Blue and other contributors to the AMDI. There's no way we can write off beach cleanups as some small, meaningless contribution to the global plastic pollution problem."

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Plastic pollution: can the ocean really be cleaned up?

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omewhere in Hilo, on Hawaii's Big Island, a team of scientists and engineers are tending to The Ocean Cleanup's 600-metre-long rubbish-herding device, after its maiden voyage to the Great Pacific garbage patch was cut short in December 2018, because it fractured into two pieces.

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This article was created in partnership with the National Geographic Society.

Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

June 10, 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that in addition to banning single-use plastics, his government would take other, unspecified steps to reduce plastic pollution.

Trudeau did not specify the products to be banned, but said likely candidates include plastic bags, straws, cutlery, plates and stir sticks "where supported by scientific evidence and warranted."

"You've all heard the stories and seen the photos," he said. "To be honest, as a dad it is tough trying to explain this to my kids. How do you explain dead whales washing up on beaches across the world, their stomachs jam packed with plastic bags?

"How do I tell them that against all odds, you will find plastic at the very deepest point in the Pacific Ocean?"

Canada, which has 151,019 miles of coastline-the world's longest-and a quarter of the world's fresh water, joins a growing list of nations taking steps to reduce the use of disposable plastics. More than 60 nations have taken steps to reduce single-use plastics by imposing bans or taxes, according to a United Nations report published last year. In March the European Union's parliament voted to ban the top 10 single-use plastic items found on European beaches by 2021. The EU measure also calls for 90 percent of plastic bottles to be recycled by 2025. Member states must work out the details of bans before the 2021 deadline.

India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, who was overwhelmingly reelected last month to a second five-year term, declared in 2018 that India would eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022, an ambitious plan for the world's second most populated country.

Trudeau made his announcement at the Gault Nature Reserve outside Montreal. He noted that Canada recycles less than 10 percent of its disposable plastics, and is on track to throw away $11 billion worth of disposable plastic by 2030 unless things change.

He said the federal government will work with provinces and territories to introduce standards and targets for plastics manufacturers and retailers so they become more responsible for their plastic waste. Trudeau said he also supports efforts by Canada's minister of environment to create a nationwide strategy for zero plastic waste.

"This will be a big step but we know we can do this for 2021," Trudeau said.

Peru restricts single-use plastic

Visitors will no longer be allowed to carry in single-use plastics into Peru's 76 natural and cultural protected areas, from Machu Picchu to Manu to Huascarán, or national museums. This ban is now going into affect and was announced as a Supreme Decree by Peru's Environment Minister, Fabiola Muñoz, and signed by President Martín Vizcarra, back in November.

The decree says the goal is replacing single-use plastics with "reusable, biodegradable plastic or others whose degradation does not generate contamination by micro-plastics or dangerous substances."

At world-famous Machu Picchu, tourists produce an average of 14 tons of solid waste per day, much of it plastic bottles and other single-use packaging.

In December, Peru's Congress had also passed a law to phase out single-use plastic bags across the country over the next three years. According to Peru's Environment Ministry, the country uses 947,000 tons of plastic each year, while 75 percent is thrown out and only 0.3 percent is recycled.

San Diego Bans Styrofoam Food and Drink Containers

San Diego has joined a growing number of cities to ban containers made of polystyrene, better known as Styrofoam-the Dow Chemical trademark name for extruded polystyrene. The ban includes food and drink containers, egg cartons, ice chest coolers, aquatic toys for swimming pools, and mooring buoys and navigation markers. The ocean-side city is the largest in California to ban polystyrene.

Polystyrene's popularity as a container stems from its low cost, strength, insulation, and feather-weight buoyancy. Those properties also made it a scourge of plastic waste because it easily breaks into tiny, often airborne particles that are difficult to clean up and is generally rejected by recycling centers as too much trouble to recyclable.

The San Diego City Council voted 6-to-3 on January 8 to approve the ban, despite objections from owners of small restaurants who complained that the costs of using environmentally degradable containers, such as cardboard or compostable paper, could be double. The council first approved the ban last October for a trial period. This week's vote made the ban permanent.

D.C. Plastic Straw Ban Begins

One New Year's resolution, to use less plastic, is no longer optional for restaurants and other service businesses in Washington, D.C., as of January 1. By July, businesses in the district will begin receiving fines if they continue to offer plastic straws.

A number of local businesses have already started switching to reusable, washable straws or disposable ones made from paper or hay.

The law follows Seattle's ban earlier in 2018 and aims to reduce the impact of plastic straws as litter. More than 4,000 of the disposed items were found in a recent cleanup of the Anacostia River in D.C. Straws are known to hurt wildlife and are difficult to recycle, often ending up as litter. They make up only a tiny fraction of the total marine plastic pollution problem, leading some critics to say they are a distraction, while others say they are an easy place to start.

(Learn about the travel industry's war on straws and where plastic straws came from in the first place.)

Plastic Fact Named Stat of the Year

This week, Great Britain's Royal Statistical Society announced its statistic of the year. It's 90.5%, the estimated amount of plastic waste ever made that has never been recycled. Estimated at 6,300 million metric tonnes, scientists calculated that around 12 percent of all plastic waste has been incinerated, while roughly 79 percent has found its way into landfills or become litter.

That fact comes from a study published in Science Advances, "Production, Use, and Fate of all plastics ever made," by scientists Roland Geyer, Jenna Jambeck (a National Geographic Society fellow on plastic pollution) and Kara Lavender Law.

"We all knew there was a rapid and extreme increase in plastic production from 1950 until now, but actually quantifying the cumulative number for all plastic ever made was quite shocking," Jambeck, a University of Georgia environmental engineer who specializes in studying plastic waste in the oceans, previously told National Geographic.

"I am grateful to the Royal Statistical Society for the acknowledgement of the impact of this statistic, and while sobering, I am glad that it helps to spread awareness about the plastic waste management issues I see on the ground around the globe," Jambeck said in December.

"It's very concerning that such a large proportion of plastic waste has never been recycled," Royal Statistical Society President Sir David Spiegelhalter said in a statement announcing the winning fact. "This statistic helps to show the scale of the challenge we all face."

"Single-Use" Named Word of the Year

Collins Dictionary named "single-use" their word of the year in 2018, citing a four-fold increase in usage since 2013. The term means "made to be used once only" and refers to "items whose unchecked proliferation are blamed for damaging the environment and affecting the food chain," according to a press release from the dictionary's publisher.

Single-use is most often associated with the plastic pollution crisis. Some 40 percent of all plastic produced is used for packaging, much of it used only once and thrown away.

Many efforts to curb the plastic litter crisis are taking aim at single-use plastics, with the goal of encouraging more durable, reusable items.

Aquariums band together for "No Straw November"

November is the month of not shaving facial hair, and now thanks to a new conservation campaign, the month of not using straws.

Branded as "No Straw November," the campaign is a push to eliminate single-use plastic. The effort is led by the Aquarium Conservation Partnership (ACP), comprising 22 aquariums in 17 different states. They're pushing 500 businesses to commit to only serving plastic straws upon request. Already, the ACP has worked with large businesses like United Airlines, the Chicago White Sox, and Dignity Health hospitals.

They hope to commit the additional 500 by Earth Day, April 20, 2019.

The No Straw November campaign is also lobbying cities and regional governments to pass ordinances that encourage businesses to use fewer straws. Individuals are also being asked to sign an online pledge to limit their own personal single-use plastic. The efforts are part of what ACP is labeling a joint "#FirstStep" to plastic-free waterways.

Images of marine animals wrapped in plastic or caught with items like straws in their noses have been widely shared, raising awareness of the public. Aquariums have been leaders in phasing out plastic items at their own facilities.

In an interview discussing plastic straws with National Geographic earlier this year, David Rhodes, the global business director for paper straw manufacturer Aardvark Straws, said some of Aardvark's earliest clients were zoos, aquariums, and cruise ships looking to promote an eco-friendly image to their customers.

The ACP says their efforts to reduce dependence on plastic have already eliminated the need for five million straws over the past year.

Earlier this week, the ACP, partnering with the U.N. and European Commission, announced plans to create a global coalition of 200 aquariums that will campaign against plastic.

250 groups launch massive global plastic partnership

Two hundred and fifty organizations responsible for 20 percent of the plastic packaging produced around the world have committed to reducing waste and pollution.

The initiative is called the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, and it includes a diverse group of members including the city of Austin, clothing company H&M, Unilever, PespsiCo, L'Oreal, Nestle, and Coca-Cola.

The Global Commitment touts a number of high-profile partnerships. It's a collaboration with the United Nations and is being led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Other partners include the World Wide Fund for Nature, the World Economic Forum, the Consumer Goods Forum, and 40 academic institutions.

Ultimately, it's working to promote a circular economy for plastic, a concept that entails reusing or repurposing plastic instead of letting it sit in a landfill. The shift would require building or improving collection and processing facilities, and five venture capital firms have pledged $200 million toward the initiative.

Recycling used items into new products is one of the three targets set by the commitment. Corporations joining the commitment must also phase out single-use plastic packaging and ensure it can either be reused, recycled, or composted by 2025.

"While elements of the EMF Global Commitment are moving in the right direction, the problem is that companies are given the flexibility to continue prioritizing recycling over reduction and reuse," said Ahmad Ashov from Greenpeace Indonesia in a press release. "Corporations are not required to set actual targets to reduce the total amount of single-use plastics they are churning out."

Every 18 months, the targets will be reviewed, and participating businesses must publish data on their progress each year.

Governments that join the commitment are pledging to create policies that help support a circular economy.

EU Parliament approves single-use plastic ban

The European Parliament voted 571-53 this week to approve a measure to slash single-use plastic across the continent. The bill still needs to pass additional procedural measures before it can go into effect, but observers say its chances look good and could begin enforcement as early as 2021.

Citing a need to protect the ocean from a deluge of plastic pollution, the bill calls for a European ban on plastic cutlery and plates, cotton buds, straws, drink-stirrers, and balloon sticks, as well as reductions in other types of single-use plastics like food and beverage containers.

The bill was first proposed in May (see below). Great Britain has a similar effort underway (also see below).

The list of plastic items targeted was carefully selected to include items that already have ready alternatives, supporters say. Items with less available alternatives, such as cigarette filters, are being targeted for a more gradual reduction.

Belgian MEP Frédérique Ries, who proposed the bill, called it "a victory for our oceans, for the environment and for future generations," according to the BBC.

Consumer companies invest in waste collection

To keep plastic pollution from entering waterways, manufacturers either have to stop making it or make sure it's collected at the end of its life. But in some developing nations, that waste collection infrastructure is insufficient or nonexistent.

Circulate Capital, a New York City-based investment firm started in 2018, says they have raised $90 million to invest in this issue in Southeast Asia, a move endorsed by conservation group the Ocean Conservancy. CEO of Circulate Capital Rob Kaplan says this investment will go toward improving plastic waste collection on the ground and creating markets for collected material.

PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, Danone, Unilever, and Dow are committed to funding the $90 million investment, and Circulate Capital says a deal will be inked by early 2019. The firm says they are also working on ways for medium and small companies to invest.

"While we are working hard to ensure our packaging is designed to be circular, the reality is that it cannot be reused, recycled or composted without effective waste management systems in place," said Danone's Katharina Stenholm in a press release. She was referring to the concept of a circular economy, in which any waste materials in an industry, such as packaging, are reincorporated into new products.

The majority of the world's ocean plastic comes from 10 rivers, eight of which are in Asia, and Circulate Capital is working with scientific advisors, including National Geographic explorer Jenna Jambeck, to pinpoint where their investments can be the most effective.

Plastic bottles, for example, can be collected by small local companies and sold to manufacturers to make new products. Though discarded plastic is often of lower quality, some projects already underway have proved the model can function, and Circulate Capital hopes its investment can lead to new innovations. ( Read about an effort to recycle stranded fishing nets into carpet.)

"There's no silver bullet to stop plastic pollution," says Kaplan. "We're not going to be able to recycle our way out of the problem, and we're not going to be able to reduce our way out of the problem."

But, he hopes Circulate Capital's investments can serve as one piece of the puzzle. He estimates more than a billion dollars would be needed to really build out more efficient waste infrastructure in Southeast Asia. Circulate Capital hopes to bump their commitments to at least $100 million over the next few year as a move in that direction.

Redirecting plastic streams away from the sea

Major companies have been taking steps to eliminate the amount of plastic waste they produce, but what about plastic already in rivers or on beaches that could easily enter the ocean?

That's where NextWave, a coalition founded by companies including Dell and an environmental group called the Lonely Whale, comes in. By employing people living in coastal regions, the group collects discarded plastic within 30 miles of waterways to prevent it from making its way to the sea. So far, NextWave has focused on two types of plastic commonly found in marine environments: Nylon 6 and polypropylene.

This reclaimed plastic is then shipped to manufacturers who reuse it in lieu of producing new plastic. Plastic collection sites are chosen based on where cleanup could have the biggest impact and where the plastic could more easily be taken to an existing recycling facility. These location decisions are informed by science from chemists Jason Lochlin and Jenna Jambeck, a National Geographic explorer.

Today, computer company HP announced it would be joining the NextWave coalition. Since 2016, HP has been working with locals in Haiti to collect a total of 550,000 pounds of plastic that the company has since used to create ink cartridges. According to a press release, HP partnered with a non-profit called the First Mile Coalition, aimed at improving Haitian labor conditions, to create up to 600 jobs collecting plastic bottles.

Along with HP, Ikea has announced that it, too, will partner with NextWave. In addition, the furniture company has committed to phasing out single-use plastics from its stores by 2020, and to designing more sustainably sourced products, including more items made with recycled plastics, by 2030.

Ten companies are now members of NextWave, and they plan to source reclaimed plastics from Indonesia, Chile, the Philippines, Cameroon, and Denmark. NextWave does not yet have numbers for how much plastic they could potentially keep out of the oceans in total, but their website highlights that their partnership with Dell alone kept a total of 3 million pounds of plastic from entering the ocean over the past five years.
Correction: This story has been updated to note that HP worked with the First Mile Coalition in Haiti and to clarify the types of plastic NextWave works with.

American Airlines cuts plastic from lounges

After announcing this summer that they would ban plastic straws and stirrers on their flights (see below), American Airlines now says they will phase out single-use plastic in their lounges.

The airline has lounges in the U.S. and around the world. A representative from the company says the lounges won't serve drinks with straws, and plastic won't be used for flatware. Plastic water bottles will no longer be served, and reusable bags will be given to customers taking food to-go.

Changes to the airlines' lounges are currently going into effect, and onboard straws will be eliminated by November 1. Straws will be available for those who request one, and drink stirrers will be replaced by bamboo sticks.

Cumulatively, the company says their changes will eliminate 71,000 pounds of plastic waste annually.

Foodservice companies phase out single-use plastic

Some 13,000 schools, workplaces, and venues will be plastic bag and stirrer free by 2019, thanks to a new sustainability push by foodservice company Sodexo.

The company provides cafeteria-style meals and concessions to many such clients. Among them is National Geographic's Washington, D.C. headquarters, where compostable utensils and plant-based menus are offered.

Sodexo follows in the footsteps of other foodservice giants, Aramark and Bon Appétit Management, which announced similar sustainability measures this past summer (see below).

In addition to bags and stirrers, Sodexo plans to phase out polystyrene foam (colloquially called Styrofoam) containers by 2025. Plastic straws, a controversial item, will now only be available by request, which the company hopes will cut down on customer usage.

The move, says a representative from the company, will eliminate 245 million single use items that would have otherwise been used at its locations.

The decision is being applauded by environmental groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, who say that reducing consumption is a key step toward preventing plastic from entering landfills and marine environments. These non-profit groups are increasingly imploring food servers to cut back on the single-use plastic items they buy and sell to customers.

"As a company serving consumers in universities, workplaces, hospitals, schools, stadiums, and so many other venues, we understand both the potential impact we can make through a commitment to reduction and the real benefit that some of these products bring to people every day," Sodexo's vice president for corporate responsibility, Ted Monk, said in a press release.

President Trump Signs Bill to Clean Up Ocean Plastics

President Trump called out other nations, including China and Japan, for "making our oceans into their landfills" when he signed legislation last week to improve efforts to clean up plastic trash from the world's oceans.

"As president, I will continue to do everything I can to stop other nations from making our oceans into their landfills," Trump said at a White House signing ceremony. "That's why I'm please-very pleased, I must say-to put my signature on this important legislation."

The law, passed with bipartisan support, amends the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Act and funds the program through 2022. The law fosters efforts to clean up plastic trash from the world's oceans and encourages federal trade negotiators to prod "leaders of nations responsible for the majority of marine debris" to improve management of waste that ends up in the oceans.

Trump agreed with Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the bill's co-sponsors, that trade talks with the Philippines should include plastic waste. "We're okay with that," he said. "I understand. A lot comes from there."

Trump also blamed other unnamed countries that "abuse the oceans" and whose trash floats to the West Coast of the United States," creating, he said, "a very unfair situation."

"It's incredible. It's incredible when you look at it," Trump said. "People don't realize it, but all the time we're being inundated by debris from other countries."

Comparatively, the beaches of the United States are among the world's cleanest. Kamilo Beach in Hawaii, which faces the Pacific gyre, where ocean trash collects, is the exception. But most of the world's plastic trash collects in coastal regions and on beaches in developing nations that lack adequate municipal waste collection systems.

Japan has had for years one of the world's highest recycling rates and earlier this year, China stopped buying the world's trash. The United States was one of the top sellers of recycled plastic to China.

The president's full remarks are here, and the text of the Save Our Seas Act is here.

Red Lobster Phasing Out Plastic Straws

The world's largest seafood restaurant company, Red Lobster, announced Monday that it will begin only offering plastic straws upon customer request starting this November in its 700 restaurants. By 2020, the company plans to only offer a more eco-friendly alternative to plastic straws.

The company says the shift should eliminate more than 150 million plastic straws per year, with the goal of reducing the marine plastic pollution problem.

"We are proud to be the first large casual dining restaurant company to make a commitment to eliminate plastic straws from our restaurants," Kim Lopdrup, CEO of Red Lobster, said in a statement. "This is a meaningful step in our long-standing commitment to protect and preserve the world's oceans and marine life. We hope our work helps raise awareness around the issue of plastic straws and encourages other businesses to make similar changes."

Red Lobster says it is looking into alternatives to plastic straws that will still meet the needs of customers with disabilities. (Learn more about plastic straw bans and how the travel industry is cutting back on plastic straws.)

California Approves Bill to Limit Straw Use in Restaurants

California has become the first state to implement a partial ban on plastic straws. Dine-in restaurants will no longer be allowed to automatically provide customers with straws. Instead, customers who need plastic straws will have to request them.

Restaurants that violate the ban will receive warnings first, and repeat offenders will be fined at a maximum of $300.

"Plastic has helped advance innovation in our society, but our infatuation with single-use convenience has led to disastrous consequences. Plastics, in all forms-straws, bottles, packaging, bags, etc.-are choking the planet," California's governor Jerry Brown said in a statement.

The new ban comes on the heels of previous plastic straw bans from companies and cities. Earlier this year, Seattle become the first large municipality to ban plastic straws in restaurants. Large corporations like United Airlines and Disney have also announced this year that they intend to phase plastic straws out of their offerings to customers. Many of these businesses and cities have said they will retain a stock of plastic straws available to customers upon request.

While some environmentalists applaud the move to reduce single-use plastic-plastic that's used once and then thrown away-bans on plastic straws have been met with some controversy.

Republican lawmakers in California opposed the ban, saying it would burden small business and do little to fight the larger plastic pollution crisis. Plastic straws make up less than one percent of the plastic found at sea.

Disability advocates also say straw bans place an unfair burden on people who have conditions that don't allow them to easily drink without straws. Some alternatives like paper fall apart and metal harm the inside of a person's mouth, they say.

Although California isn't the only region moving to limit single use plastic, the state has often tried to lead the nation in environmental legislation, particularly after what Gov. Brown says is a vacuum left by the Trump administration's decision to leave the U.N. Paris Climate Agreement.
Read the brief history of how plastic straws took over the world.

Giant Trash Collector Heads to Pacific Garbage Patch

The campaign to rid the world's oceans of plastic trash marks a turning point on Saturday as a giant, floating trash collector steams out of San Francisco on a mission to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Over the course of the next year, the device will undergo the ultimate tests and face some tough questions: Can technology prevail over nature? Did the engineers at The Ocean Cleanup in the Netherlands invent the first feasible method for extracting large amounts of plastic debris from the sea? Or will the wilds of the open Pacific tear it to shreds, turning the cleaner itself into plastic trash? Alternately, even if a Pacific storm does not devour the device, will it attract marine animals such as dolphins and turtles and fatally entangle them?

"I don't think it's going to work, but I hope it does," says George Leonard, the Ocean Conservancy's chief scientist. "The ocean needs all the help it can get."

United Airlines Bans Plastic Straws from Flights

United Airlines today joined others in the travel industry by banning plastic straws and cocktail picks on their flights.

The airline will instead use a biodegradable bamboo alternative, starting in November.

Alaska and American airlines moved to ban plastic straws earlier this year, and some cities, like Seattle, have outlawed their use entirely.

As one of the reasons for switching to a more sustainable form of straw, United cited this alarming fact: "Because straws don't biodegrade and are nearly impossible to recycle, it's likely that every straw ever used still exists on our planet."

"It's a small, but meaningful step to help minimize the impact plastic products have on our environment," the company said in a press release.

Carlsberg Beer Dumps Plastic Can Rings

Danish brewer Carlsberg will become the first beer producer to ditch those evil plastic multipack rings that hold beer and other cans together for holders made of recyclable glue, according to a company press release.

Carlsberg also says it will cut the amount of plastic used in its traditional can holders by 76 percent.

Here's how the glue-packs work: A drop of super-strong, temperature-tolerant glue is stuck on the side of a can, connecting it to the can next to it. If you want a beer, snap off a can. The glue will be recycled along with the can when it's recycled.

Carlsberg described the move as a "world first for the beer industry."

Disney Announces Ban on Plastic Straws

The Walt Disney Company announced a ban on single-use plastic straws and stirrers at nearly all its theme parks and resorts. The policy, which is set to be in place by mid-2019, will cut down on the upwards of 175 million straws and 13 million stirrers that are used at these locations each year.

Paper straws will be available upon request and, for guests with disabilities, the company is developing alternative options for traditional plastic straws. Disney will also eliminate polystyrene cups at its parks and cut down its reliance on single-use plastic bags. Instead of disposable bags, guests will have the option to buy reusable shopping bags.

Additionally, the company will reduce the amount of plastic in guest rooms by 80 percent. Over the next few years, Disney will transition to refillable amenities in hotels and on cruise ships. When single-use plastics cannot be reduced, Disney will continue to recycle and properly dispose of waste, the company says.

Disney has other conservation measures in place. In Orlando at Disney's Animal Kingdom, plastic straws and cup lids have been banned since the park opened in 1998.

Other theme parks, including SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and Sesame Place, have announced initiatives to phase out straws and other single-use plastics. Earlier this month, Seattle banned plastic straws, and San Francisco is working to ban straws and other plastic items starting July 1, 2019.
In July 2018, Disney was approved to purchase 21st Century Fox, the parent company of National Geographic.

National Geographic Travel Partner Bans Single-Use Plastics

On July 25, Lindblad Expeditions, an adventure cruise company that has teamed up with National Geographic Expeditions, announced it had become 100 percent free of single-use plastics. Now, disposable plastic bottles, cups, straws, and stirrers are entirely banned from the fleet's 13 ships.

"The ocean is under major assault on so many fronts, and its protection is both a business mission and a personal passion," Lindblad Expeditions CEO Sven Lindblad says in a press release. "The health of our planet is dependent on our oceans, and it is essential that we change our behavior with regard to plastics."

Lindblad is known for its trips all over the world, particularly to places like Alaska and the Galápagos Islands. The company began working toward this plastic-free goal in 2007 when it banned single-use water bottles from its ships. Instead, it gave guests stainless steel bottles that could be refilled at filtered water stations on the ships. According to a study by the Adventure Travel Trade Association and the nonprofit Travelers Against Plastic, the average adventure travel operator uses nearly 30,000 single-use plastic bottles each year.

About 80 percent of tourism takes place near coastal areas, putting our oceans at a higher risk of plastic pollution. When packing for air travel, consider using three-ounce reusable containers for your toiletries and load them into a durable transparent washbag instead of a plastic bag. On flights, bring your own earphones and turn down "comfort bag" items wrapped in plastic. Bring your reusable water bottle with you and fill it up when you can.

For more tips, read how one of our writers attempted to explore Belize plastic-free.

Big Companies Take Aim at Plastic Straws

Retail, restaurant, and consumer-facing companies could potentially make a big impact in the fight to reduce plastic straw use. They drive much of the demand for straws from plastic manufacturers.

But these businesses are increasingly responding to consumer pressure.

Starbucks is among the most recent companies to announce they'll ditch plastic straws-in this case by the end of 2020. Instead of getting sucked up through a straw, their cold drinks will be served in containers with special plastic lids. Those lids are less likely to get stuck up a turtle's nose and should prove more recyclable than straws, but the company has still received some pushback because the lids are still made of plastic.

McDonald's is also planning to phase out plastic straws at their UK and Ireland locations, coinciding with UK and EU proposals to cut down single-use plastic.

Among the other companies that have moved to reduce how much they use plastic: Bacardi Rum plans to cut their straw usage over the next two years by a billion, food service management giants Bon Appétit Management and Aramark plan to reduce their single-use plastics by 2019 and 2022, respectively, Alaska Airlines will begin phasing out plastic straws this summer, and American Airlines will begin phasing out plastic straws this summer.

It remains to be seen if companies follow through on their goals, and it's clear that banning plastic straws is not going to solve the whole pollution problem. Supporters say reducing our use of straws is an easy first step, while detractors say it could distract from more important issues. In either case, taking aim at plastic straws has become rather fashionable this summer.

Chile's Ban on Retail Plastic Bags Stands

Chile's Constitutional Court ratified a bill that bans retail use of plastic bags across the country on July 6, ruling against an appeal that had been filed by the plastics industry. In June, Chile's Congress had unanimously approved the new ban, citing concerns of plastic pollution in the ocean and on land.

The country's Association of Industrial Plastics had sued to block the new law on constitutional grounds. But the court rejected their arguments.

Large retailers will have six months to phase out single-use plastic bags, while small businesses will have up to two years. The ban builds on a law passed under the previous president that had called for a prohibition on plastic bags along the country's 4,000-mile coastline.

In announcing the new ban, Marcela Cubillos, Chile's environment minister, told the New York Times, "We are convinced that our coast imposes an obligation to be leaders in cleaning up our oceans."

Chile's ban is the first country-wide one in the Americas. Similar bans have been passed in China, Kenya, France, and elsewhere. Many regional and local areas have bans or other restrictions, including taxes or fees aimed at discouraging the use of single-use plastic bags.

Seattle Becomes First U.S. City to Ban Plastic Straws and Utensils

In an attempt to reduce the amount of plastic waste polluting the land and water, Seattle banned the use of plastic straws and utensils in bars and restaurants starting July 1.

The roughly 5,000 eateries in the city are being encouraged to eschew providing straws or disposable utensils, or at least to switch to paper alternatives. A less green but still legal option, according to the city, is compostable plastic straws or utensils.

"Plastic pollution is surpassing crisis levels in the world's oceans, and I'm proud Seattle is leading the way and setting an example for the nation by enacting a plastic straw ban," Seattle Public Utilities General Manager Mami Hara said in a statement.

A similar ban that was proposed for Hawaii was defeated by opposition from industry. Other proposed bans are being debated in San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C., among other places.

Some advocates for the disabled have warned that straw bans need to take into account special needs. ( Learn more about the history of plastic straws and other efforts to remove them.)

<p>A whale shark swims beside a plastic bag in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen. Although <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/facts/whale-shark">whale sharks</a> are the biggest fish in the sea, they're still threatened by ingesting small bits of plastic.</p>

EU, UK, and India Propose Plastic Bans

In draft rules released May 28, the European Commission proposed a ban on 10 common items that it says make up about 70 percent of the litter in EU waters. This includes plastic straws, drink stirrers, plates, and more.

The rules would still need approval from member states and the European Parliament to move forward. They would likely not go into effect for several years.

The proposed law would also mandate that EU countries collect and recycle 90 percent of plastic bottles by 2025. Plastic producers would be on the hook for most of the expense of waste management and cleanup efforts.

In April, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced her intent to establish a ban in her country on sales of single-use plastics, including straws and cotton swab handles.

Calling plastic waste "one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world," May said she would work with industry to develop alternatives. An estimated 8.5 billion plastic straws are tossed out in the U.K. every year.

On June 5, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intent to eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022. With a fast-growing economy and population of 1.3 billion, India struggles to manage its vast waste stream, and is a significant contributor to global ocean plastic.

"Let us all join together to beat plastic pollution and make this planet a better place to live," Modi said.

Experts caution that Modi's goal is far from being realized, and would likely take significant changes and investment from industry and the public. Already, industry lobbyists have taken aim at the efforts. The state of Maharashtra, home to megacity Mumbai, eased a ban on single-use plastic just a week after it unveiled the plan this summer. The state is working on a number of exemptions, for plastic of a certain thickness, products of a certain size, medical equipment, and other uses.

National Geographic is committed to reducing plastics pollution. Learn more about our non-profit activities at natgeo.org/plastics. This story is part of Planet or Plastic?-our multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic waste crisis. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge.

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A running list of action on plastic pollution

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The world is waking up to a crisis of ocean plastic-and we're tracking the developments and solutions as they happen.

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General Information

" Now ocean plastics could be killing oxygen-making bacteria," Wired, May 17, 2019
"The core of the problem is that plastic pollution is a very new science. Researchers are still feeling their way through an environmental threat whose epicness is likely only second to climate change. Some 8 million metric tons of plastic enters the sea every year. And between 2015 and 2025, the amount of plastic pouring into the ocean could increase tenfold. That is objectively, monumentally terrible, but in exactly what ways it will be so, science isn't yet sure."

" Oxo degradable plastic packaging is not a solution to plastics pollution, and does not fit in a circular economy," New Plastics Economy, May 2019
"Oxo-degradable plastic packaging is not a solution to soil or marine pollution - on the contrary, we believe it contributes to microplastic pollution and poses an environmental risk. "

" Pope urges action against 'endless fields' of plastic in oceans," Reuters, September 1, 2018
Pope Francis addressed the issue of plastic waste in the oceans, calling for both attention and action towards the problem.

" We Made Plastic. We Depend on It. Now We're Drowning in It, " National Geographic, June 2018 Provides an overview of the plastic pollution crisis globally, including how it began, its current environmental impact, and potential solutions. This article focuses mainly on the environmental impact, noting that in the US less than 10% of plastic gets recycled, resulting in the killing of millions of marine mammals every year. There are some great pictures and graphics - one from UC Santa Barbara effectively displays the exponential growth of plastic production since 1950.

"A Brief History of Marine Litter Research," Plastics Europe, 2015
See graph entitled "Global plastic production...and future trends"

"Marine Litter Report: 2014-2020 Vision" Surfers Against Sewage, October 2014This booklet gives a broader overview of the plastics problem and future policy-based steps against it. The origin of such litter, its toxic chemicals, and its impact on marine life, world finances, and ecosystem services are discussed-as well as both ongoing and suggested initiatives to stop the problem.

"The Answer for Remote Islands," Waste Management World, January 2, 2013Due to their small size, the development of on-island waste treatment centers that meet legislative code has always been a struggle, especially when it comes to strategies for environmental protection.

"A Citizen's Guide to Plastics in the Ocean: More than a Litter Problem" Center for Environmental Education, 1988
This book gives an overview of the history of plastics in America, their impact on marine life, and laws relating to marine wildlife conservation and trash management. The authors divide up related laws and possible policy-based solutions into categories, such as Ocean Dumping Laws, Pollution Laws, and Wildlife Conservation Laws, as well as providing smaller-scale efforts.

"Plastics in the Ocean: More Than A Litter Problem," Center for Environmental Education, February, 1987
This book represents the formalized report prepared by the Center for Environmental Education for the EPA regarding the adverse effects of plastics in the oceans. It was rendered more reader-friendly in 1988 with "A Citizen's Guide to Plastics in the Ocean..." It details a broad scope of topics: environmental impacts, economics and safety, types and quantities of plastics debris, sources of plastics debris, regional analysis, legal authorities, and programmatic solutions. The Ocean Foundation's summary of the 2018 Klosters Forum on plastic pollution.

The plastic myth-busters: http://marinelitter.no

Human Health Risks from Plastic

Freinkel, Susan Plastic: A Toxic Love Story Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (April 18, 2011)
Plastic is not healthy. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life.

" We Know Plastic Is Harming Marine Life: What About Us?," National Geographic, June 2018
We know little about the effect of plastic on our health. Nanoplastics are smaller than microplastics-virtually invisible-and scientists lack technology to detect and thus measure these plastics. However, they could have the ability to move into cells, causing damage.

" It's not just the oceans: Microplastic pollution is all around us," CNN, April 22, 2018
Microplastics are predicted to be more commonly found on land than on water, and have been found in resources such as soil, tap water, and air. Microplastics pass through wastewater plants, and may contain harmful bacteria-in turn affecting human health. There is otherwise little research on adverse effects.

" Fact Sheet: The Plastic Threat to Human Health," Earth Day Network, 2018
Recent studies suggest the health impacts of different plastic components on human health and the extent to which these plastics have been found in human bodies. The article gives a very brief overview of such study results.

"Plastic: A Toxic Love Story" by Susan Freinkel, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011
This book is a discussion of the impact of plastic on our lives through the lens of eight objects: comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. The section on the IV bag (start pg. 85) speaks to the impact on human health; without exposure limits, the PVC in blood bags proved dangerous. This ubiquity of industrial plastics continues into today.

" Preemies May Be Exposed To High Levels Of Phthalates In The NICU" (NPR, 2014), " Hidden Toxicity in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: Phthalate Exposure in Very Low Birth Weight Infants" (Journal of Critical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology, 2016) )
Flexible plastic tubes used in neonatal care units break down as they are used, reportedly releasing phthalates into the bloodstream, endangering babies already undergoing critical care.

Environmental Impacts of Ocean Plastics Pollution

" Transfer of Hazardous Chemicals from Ingested Plastics to Higher Trophic Level Organisms," Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, April 2018 Field observations indicate that when plastics are ingested by marine organisms they become imbedded in their tissue. When these organisms are eaten, the hazardous chemicals from these plastics in their tissue are transferred. " Microplastics in eviscerated flesh and excised organs of dried fish," nature, July 14 2017Research shows that due to the increase in ocean plastics pollution, microplastics are frequently appearing in edible fish tissues. " Freshwater Contamination: The Overlooked Source of Ocean Plastics Pollution," Oceans Deeply, June 29, 2017Research by Dr. Sherri Mason shows that our freshwater environments are being heavily polluted with plastics, and this water is feeding into our oceans, driving ocean plastics pollution. In conclusion, most of the plastics pollution that occurs in our oceans starts with plastics pollution in our freshwater environments. " Report: Microplastic Can Penetrate Fish's Brains, Altering Behavior," Oceans Deeply, October 9, 2017Research shows that nanoplastic can be ingested by marine organisms, move up the food chain, and affect their ability to hunt. " Plastic Waste Inputs from Land into the Ocean," Science, February 2015 This article estimates that 275 million metric tons of plastic waste was generated in 2010. Unless waste management practices improve, this number could increase by an order of magnitude in the next decade. " The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review," Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2002Provides an overview of the main impacts plastics pollution has on marine species. Impacts include "entanglement in and ingestion of plastic litter" and the ingestion of microplastics. Ocean plastic pollution is hazardous waste the US should ban

Production-based Solutions (Green Chemistry)

" How to Convert Climate-Changing Carbon Dioxide Into Plastics and Other Products," Rugers, November 18, 2018
Rutgers Scientists have developed electrocatalysts that can convert carbon dioxide into plastics, fabrics, resins, and other products. Methylglyoxal, one of the catalysts, can be used as a safer alternative to toxic formaldehyde - a substance that threatens fish, shellfish, and other creatures in our rivers, lakes, and oceans.

" Nobel Prize Awarded for Evolving Green Chemistry Catalysts," Royal Society of Chemistry, November 5, 2018
Frances Arnold is one of this year's nobel laureates in chemistry for her work in Directed Evolution (DE), a green chemistry biochemical hack in which proteins/enzymes are randomly mutated many times over, then screened to find out which ones work best. It could overhaul the chemical industry.=

" Key Elements of Green Chemistry," North Carolina State University, 2018
The conclusion section of this article provides 12 critical and well-worded principles of green chemistry, including: Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses, Designing Safer Chemicals, Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries, Design for Energy Efficiency, Reduce unnecessary steps, Design for Degradation, and Real-time analysis for Pollution Prevention

" Green chemistry, Introduction," Britannica Academic, August 25, 2015
This article provides history on green chemistry in the United States. In 1991, abiding by the 1990 Pollution Prevention Act, the EPA launched the Alternative Synthetic Pathways for Pollution Prevention research program. The program marked a EPA shift from post-release management to reduction/elimination of hazardous substances during their production. It was expanded to include the development of green solvents and chemicals, and coined "green chemistry" in 1996.

"Plastics and Sustainability," by Michael Tolinski, Scrivener Publishing, 2012
Tolinski provides an analysis of fossil-fuel based plastics versus bio-based plastics, looking at how they differ economically and in terms of product requirements, disposal, and consumer satisfaction. He ultimately discusses finding a balance between the two plastics.

Circular Economy

Franklin, Kate Radical Matter: Rethinking Materials for a Sustainable Future
Thames & Hudson (April 17, 2018)The ten "Big Ideas" that will shape and inform the choices of materials, design methods, and manufacturing processes made by designers in the years to come Charter, Martin (Editor) Designing for the Circular Economy
Routledge (August 6, 2018)This book highlights and explores 'state of the art' research and industrial practice, highlighting CE as a source of: new business opportunities; radical business change; disruptive innovation; social change; and new consumer attitudes. " Call to ban import of plastic waste," the Star, September 27, 2018 There has been a push to ban plastic waste imports into Malaysia. Malaysia-previously acting as a recycling center for foreign trash-has expressed concerns over public health and its environment over additional waste and related dumping problems. " 'Impossible' recycling in the real world," Euractiv, September 20, 2018 A difficult aspect of the recycling process is profiting off of the end result, but a recycling plant in the Netherlands has managed to do so recycling household packaging. The recycled product of polyethylene film can be used for food packaging. " More Recycling Won't Solve Plastic Pollution," Scientific American, July 6, 2018This article provides an overview of the plastics problem, specifically the uninhibited acceleration of plastics production. It then states that recycling is not enough - we must find production based solutions, such as the circular economy approach and zero-waste lifestyles. " Plastic waste export tide turns to south-east Asia after China ban," Financial Times, June 13, 2018 Current recycling policies in the UK disregard the location of recycling processes or where that recycled product might end up. Recently a vast amount of UK plastic waste has been exported to south-east Asia, as China-the previous destination for such exported waste-no longer accepts it. This is an unsustainable practice. " Your Recycling Gets Recycled, Right? Maybe, or Maybe Not," NY Times, May 29, 2018The US usually outsources some of its recycling to foreign countries, namely China. however, a new policy enacted by the Chinese government to halt the trade of "foreign waste" is forcing many recycling centers in the US to put recyclables in landfills. "Circular economy measures to keep plastics and their value in the economy, avoid waste and reduce marine litter," Economics, 2018 This article addresses the global growing recognition of the need to address marine litter and rethink our approach to plastic and packaging, and outlines measures for enabling a transition to a circular economy that would fight single-use plastics and their negative externalities. These measures take the form of a policy proposal for G20 countries. " Consider the plastic drinking straw: Why do we suck so much?" NY Times, October 23, 2017 This article explains why we use straws so much despite their very negative environmental impact. Although they can only be used once for a couple hours, they take millions of years to degrade and often end up in our oceans. " Designers Take Plastic Packaging off the Streets and out of the Ocean," Oceans Deeply, October 18, 2017The MacArthur Foundation launched a Plastics Economy design challenge that gave $1 million to companies that took the plastic out of their packaging. This initiative supports the idea of a circular economy. "The Personal Care Wipes Market," Nonwovens Industry Magazine, February 5, 2015The personal care wipes market has seen consistent growth over the last decade and is not slowing down. The industry is attempting to prevent the negative environmental impacts of these wipes by providing information about appropriate disposal, using plant-based materials for wipes, and using solar energy to produce wipes. "Moby Duck" by Donovan Hohn, Viking, 2011In the section "The Fourth Chase" (pg. 226-227) Hohn provides a journalistic account of plastic's cultural history, and gets at the root of what made plastics so disposable in the first place. He notes that after the austerities of WWII, consumers were more eager to gorge themselves on products, so in the 1950s when the patent on polyethylene expired, the material became cheaper than ever. The only way the plastic molders could make a profit was by convincing consumers to throw out, buy more, throw out, buy more. In other sections, he explores topics such as shipping conglomerates and Chinese toy factories. " Bali takes on plastic pollution," DWIn Bali, Avani Eco converts cassava into a form of plastic bags and straws. This is a natural root and makes plastic pollution more easily biodegradable.

Political and/or Individual Action Against Plastics

"Jamaica takes aim at the trash crisis that is ruining paradise," Washington Post, October 13, 2018Jamaica is amongst 20 Caribbean and Latin American countries banning the importation and manufacturing of single-use plastics (e.g. straws, bottles, bags). "China's waste ban has rocked the recycling world and revealed Hong Kong's dire record. What next for the city's rising mountains of trash?," South China Morning Post, September 19, 2018This article details the international exchange of waste; since the 1980s, about half of the world's plastics, paper, and scrap metals have been absorbed by China. China cut off this lifeline to the global recycling industry, causing countries to overhaul their own recycling processes and shift into circular economies as a result. China's actions majorly exposed Hong Kong - a city known for its waste problem. Will Hong Kong learn to effectively manage its own waste? "Stop recycling takeout containers, Philadelphia - but go ahead and leave caps on water bottles," Philly Voice, September 18, 2018In this interview with the Philadelphia Street Department's Scott Graph, reporter Emily Rolen discovers that 1) yes, you can recycle plastic bottle caps, 2) yes, you should wash plastic containers that once contained food before disposing of it, 3) yes, you can rip the top off the pizza box to recycle (no grease), 3) papers and cardboard are better recycled if they are DRY, 4) plastic cups, cutlery, and styrofoam cannot be recycled because there is no market for it, and 5) don't recycle plastic bags, clothing tags, or cassette tapes. "In India's Largest City, A Ban on Plastics Faces Big Obstacles," Yale Environment 360, August 28, 2018A strict ban on the sale, manufacturing, and use of disposable plastics was put in place in Mumbai. Those in violation faced fees of up to $350 and/or jail time. In the first week, over 300 plastic bag manufacturers were forced to close, resulting in significant unemployment. Still, the government held strong on the ban and haven't showed any sign of backing down. "Indonesia combines Islam with environmental activism," DW, June 14, 2018Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), together with Greenpeace and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and Environment are cooperating on an awareness campaign during Ramadan to solve the problem of plastic waste in Indonesia. " Citizen Scientists Pick up Tons of Ocean Trash-and a Lot of Data," Oceans Deeply, August 1, 2017 The participation of millions of U.S citizens in beach cleanup has generated vast data on pollution and marine plastic debris. The government faces problems assessing the accuracy and usage of that data, as these efforts have increased awareness of such problems, but may not lead to policy change. "Life Without Plastic" by Chantal Plamondon and Jay Sinha, Page Street Publishing Company, 2017. This book provides an overview of the toxicity of plastics and their threat to human health. Action-oriented, it gives readers a guide on alternatives to plastic-containing items and steps in reducing their dependance on plastic. "Plastic-Free," by Beth Terry, Skyhorse Publishing, 2012Beth Terry details her tips and advice on avoiding the use of plastic in day-to-day life, and why more people should do so. "Marine Litter: A Global Challenge,"United Nations Environment Programme, 2009. This report looks at the issue of marine debris with respect to affected regions. For each region, it provides an assessment of the litter's origin as well as its environmental and human impacts, programs in place to reduce such impacts, and recommendations for improvement. "Tackling Marine Debris in the 21st Century," The National Academies, 2001This report assesses the effectiveness of national and international efforts to reduce the presence and impact of marine debris. It identifies overall areas that need to be addressed in solving the debris problem and provides recommendations to do so. " Visiting Kenya a year into its plastic bag ban," DWThe plastic bag ban has been controversial in Kenya. Some citizens don't see any problems with it and actually enjoy seeing less plastic trash, while others see it as a big inconvenience. The main problem seems to be that there aren't many good alternatives to plastic bags. The leader of the plastic bag ban movement in Kenya suggests Kenyans embrace upcycling as a way to combat the loss. #DIVEIN: Six easy choices you can make each day to curb ocean plastics How much do you know about ocean plastic? What can you do to stop it? The keynote done for EDN at the Embassy of Finland frames the issue of plastic in the ocean How to stop plastics polluting our ocean - this item has my language on wildlife interactions How did we get here?

Plastic Waste to Energy Solutions

"Waste-to-energy plant under construction in Haiti," Renewable Energy Caribbean, February 20, 2018
The lack of a public waste program in Haiti means that its urban and natural environments tend to be littered with waste. This makes it a good candidate for a waste-to-energy plant, which will convert municipal waste to electrical power and cooking fuel.

"Caribbean Regional Waste-to-Energy (WtE) Technology Expo and Conference frames main pillars for a regional waste to energy programme," Global Network Regional Sustainable Energy Centres, February 9 2016
A conference was held in Grenada to talk about the feasibility of different waste to energy solutions for small island nations.

" Caribbean Island of Barbados To Get Waste-To-Energy Plant," by Gina-Marie Cheeseman, Triple Pundit, March 26, 2014
Barbados made plans to build a waste-to-energy plant, supplying some if its electricity needs through the transformation of solid waste to energy.

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Redesigning Plastics - The Ocean Foundation

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" Now ocean plastics could be killing oxygen-making bacteria," Wired, May 17, 2019"The core of the problem is that plastic pollution is a very new science. Researchers are still feeling their way through an environmental threat whose epicness is likely only second to climate change.

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Understanding
the problem

We believe that, to develop the most optimal cleanup technologies, it is essential that we truly understand the problem. Unfortunately, very little is known about the properties and dynamics of ocean plastic pollution - this is why we invest in scientific research. By understanding the sources, transport, and fate of plastic in the ocean, we create the foundation onto which we develop our cleanup solutions.

Sampling at sea is key to understanding the quantity, composition, and locations of ocean plastic. We embarked on a series of field expeditions, pushing the boundaries of observational science regarding ocean plastic pollution; in 2015, we conducted the Mega Expedition, crossing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) with over 30 vessels, and subsequently, in 2016, the Aerial Expedition (the first aerial mapping effort of ocean plastic in a subtropical gyre) gave us greater insight into the severity of the problem we aim to solve. In 2018, we published our comprehensive study, concluding that there is up to 16 times more plastic in the GPGP than previously estimated.

While our main objective is to quantify the problem, we also have a strong interest in characterizing ocean plastic pollution. We researched the toxicity of ocean plastic with the analysis of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) found on plastic samples collected in the North Pacific during the Mega Expedition. We also studied the distribution of buoyant plastic in the water column in different weather environments during our North Atlantic expeditions. We are now looking even deeper with sampling at depth several thousand meters below the surface, looking for the missing plastic.

To gain the most comprehensive understanding of plastic pollution, we need to improve the detection of plastic in the marine environment. Following our aerial reconnaissance mission in the North Pacific, we collected a vast amount of data combining visual observations and imagery, shortwave infrared (SWIR) multispectral signal, and Lidar measurements. We published a first proof of concept for plastic detection at sea using SWIR technology and have been working with several agencies to research remote sensing of marine litter from space. By significantly investing in remote sensing, we expect that this tool can help us to have a better understanding of the dispersion of ocean plastic and contribute to future research on the observation of ocean plastic pollution at a global scale.

Aerial view of a ghost net in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

To succeed in removing 90% of ocean plastic by 2040, source reduction is necessary. In 2017, we published a first estimate of global plastic emissions from rivers into the ocean. We developed global models for plastic waste generation and invest in research to understand how this material leaks into aquatic environments. Researchers from The Ocean Cleanup travel to various parts of the world to conduct field experiments in polluted rivers, in accordance with a consistent systematic sampling methodology. Using modelled environmental data for currents, wind, and waves, and characteristics inherent to plastics relating to weathering, degradation, or buoyancy, we then predict the dispersion of plastic pollution in the ocean. Our numerical models are calibrated against data collected at the ocean surface, in the water column, and in the sediments of the five oceans. These efforts have continued as we strive to find the missing plastic and close the plastic mass balance.

Our aim is to go full circle until we have achieved our mission. Meaning that, every time we remove plastic from the ocean, we plan to recycle it and turn it into durable products to fund the continuation of our cleanup operations. As a non-profit, 100% of the revenue from these products goes back into cleanup. That said, we do have our work cut out for us; the plastic floating in the ocean has been circulating there for years, potentially decades, degrading from the impacts of nature. Recycling this waste is a challenge, but it's a challenge we are willing to take on to bring our project full circle.

After much research and testing, we were able to give the plastic caught from the System 001/B campaign a new life: The Ocean Cleanup sunglasses. As we collect more plastic, we will continue to conduct further research to find the optimal ways to recycle the various plastics we remove from the ocean

Become a citizen scientist

Join the largest cleanup in history and become a citizen scientist. Help The Ocean Cleanup gather data on plastic in waterways around the world to help us optimize our global cleanup strategy. Such an undertaking is a great challenge, and we can only do this with your help. No degree or experience is necessary, generally, all you need is a smartphone.

Featured research

Highlighting some of the studies that our scientists and researchers have been working on here at The Ocean Cleanup.

Plastic mass balance

To efficiently plan for our global cleanup strategy, we need to understand where plastic comes from, where it travels, and where it accumulates. With the current state of knowledge, a significant amount of plastic that may have entered the ocean is still unaccounted for. We are currently developing a model framework that simulates the transport of plastic in the global ocean, eventually providing a mass balance budget for plastic in the ocean. With our continued field observation efforts, collecting data in the five oceans from surface to seabed, we are actively looking for the missing plastic.

Mapping the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

After two major expeditions in the North Pacific subtropical waters, including a multi-vessel, field exploration mission in 2015 and the first aerial reconnaissance mission of a garbage patch in 2016, we published our findings on the quantification and characterization of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 2018. We estimated that in 2015, the GPGP covered an area of 1.6 million km ² containing nearly 80,000 metric tons of buoyant plastic waste, with debris ranging from large ghost nets and ropes to a multitude of centimeter and millimeter-sized hard plastic fragments.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Explained Illustration by: in60seconds

Global riverine emissions of plastic

Quantifying plastic pollution in the world's ocean requires a deep understanding of emissions. It is commonly accepted that most plastic found in or near the marine environment is coming from terrestrial sources. Rivers particularly may play an important role in transporting mismanaged plastic waste from land into the ocean. We are developing numerical models for the prediction of plastic emissions from rivers in combination with several field sampling expeditions. Following a systematic methodology, we are conducting research in multiple rivers of the world to create a complete picture of how plastic enters the oceans.

Our latest scientific publications

Abstract

Despite recent advances in remote sensing of large accumulations of floating plastic debris, mainly in coastal regions, the quantification of individual macroplastic objects (>50 cm) remains challenging. Here, we have trained an object-detection algorithm by selecting and labeling footage of floating plastic debris recorded offshore with GPS-enabled action cameras aboard vessels of opportunity. Macroplastic numerical concentrations are estimated by combining the object detection solution with bulk processing of the optical data. Our results are consistent with macroplastic densities predicted by global plastic dispersal models, and reveal first insights into how camera recorded offshore macroplastic densities compare to micro- and mesoplastic concentrations collected with neuston trawls.

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Abstract

Despite an increasing research conducted on ocean plastic pollution over the last decade, there are still large knowledge gaps in our current understanding of how floating plastic debris accumulating in subtropical oceanic gyres may harm the surface-associated pelagic community known as neuston. Removing floating plastic debris from the surface ocean can minimize potentially adverse effects of plastic pollution on the neuston, as well as prevent the formation of large quantities of secondary micro- and nanoplastics. However, due to the scarcity of observational data from remote and difficult to access offshore waters, neuston dynamics in subtropical oceanic gyres and thus the potential impacts of plastic pollution as well as of cleanup activities on the neuston remain uncertain. Here, we provide rare observational data of the relative distribution of floating plastic debris (0.05-5 cm in size) and members of the neuston in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Our results reveal that the dominant neustonic species co-occurring with high concentrations of floating plastic debris in the North Pacific Garbage Patch (NPGP) such as Porpita porpita, Halobates spp., pteropods, isopods, heteropods, and crabs depict either a low atmospheric drag due to physical attributes or a potential plastic-associated fitness benefit such as increased surface area for oviposition and structure for habitat. We further observe relatively higher plastic to organism ratios inside the NPGP for most target species compared to waters outside the NPGP. The findings presented here provide a first observational baseline to develop ecological models that can help evaluate the long-term risks of plastic pollution and of offshore cleanup activities for neuston in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. We further suggest that offshore mitigation strategies aiming at removing floating plastic debris from the ocean surface need to evaluate both, the direct impact of neuston bycatch during plastic removal on neuston population dynamics, as well as the potential benefits of reducing the negative effects of plastic pollution on the neuston.

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Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Alex Oude Elferink International Law of the Sea, Utrecht University

Professor in International Law of the Sea, and Director Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS), School of Law, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Prof. Oude Elferink has been working with NILOS since 1997. His expertise is in the field of public international law, with a focus on the law of the sea. He is both involved in academic legal research and consultancy work.

Alex Oude Elferink is also a law of the sea professor at the University of Tromsø and works at the University's K.G. Jebsen Centre for the law of the sea. He also lectures at Utrecht University and the University of Tromsø.

Prof. Dr. Gerhard J. Herndl Ecology and Biological Oceanography, University of Vienna

Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, Chair of Aquatic Biology and Head of Division Bio-Oceanography at the Dept. Limnology and Oceanography (formerly: Dept. of Marine Biology) at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Herndl is also Adjunct Senior Scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), The Netherlands.

Dr. Herndl received his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, 1982, is Elected Member of the Austrian Academy of Science and received an ERC Advanced Grant in the year 2011.

Frederik Gerner Chairman on behalf of The Ocean Cleanup

Fredrik joins the Scientific Advisory Board as a representative member of The Ocean Cleanup's Supervisory Board, where he focuses on Technology and R&D.

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Help us continue advancing the scientific knowledge of the plastic pollution problem

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To effectively design our cleanup technology it is essential that we understand the problem. In order to develop solid cleanup strategies, efficient collection technology and recycling processes, we must understand the amount, composition and distribution of the plastic in the oceans.

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In partnership with the National Geographic Society.

Every year, tens of thousands of people worldwide volunteer for the Sisyphean chore of picking up trash from beaches. The largest effort is conducted every September by the Ocean Conservancy, which in 30 years of cleanups has collected 300 million pounds and more than 350 types of items.

New trash inevitably appears. Sometimes it takes only minutes. Nicholas Mallos, who directs the Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program, has watched that in amazement.

"I have been on beaches in Hong Kong, Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, and Indonesia where you can watch plastics and debris in the barrel of each wave crash onto the beach. Literally, the trash starts getting replaced as soon as you pick it up," he says.

So why bother?

The short answer is, it's better than the alternative. But more importantly, what volunteers find on those beaches illuminates in new ways the scale of marine plastic problems and the potential for solutions.

National Geographic has also teamed up with Wattpad to raise awareness of the global plastic issue through a creative storytelling challenge. We're asking people to share a story-real or fiction-inspired by this global issue. Learn more and share your story here: www.wattpad.com/user/NationalGeographic

"If the top item found is tires, we're talking about illegal dumping," says Kara Lavender Law, a research oceanography professor at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. "If it's bottle caps and cigarette butts, it is probably litter."

The cost to local governments to clean beaches along 90 towns in Washington, Oregon, and California was estimated at more than $500 million in a 2012 study. But clean beaches provide economic benefit to local communities in the form of tourism dollars.

In southern California, researchers calculated that in Orange County alone that potential could translate into $46 million in just one summer. A survey of Californians taken for the same study found that 66 percent ranked the absence of debris and good water quality as "very important" to deciding whether or not to visit a beach.

Beach cleanups raise public awareness to the threat of debris more effectively than in less participatory public education programs, multiple studies show. Volunteers say the cleanups make them more mindful of how they dispose of their own disposables.

Learning from litter

They also add to the growing body of knowledge about where and how plastics travel across the seas and where they end up in the greatest abundance. Documentation of what cleanup volunteers collect and its density from location to location and what items are most and least abundant helps identify hot spots. Some of what's learned can make a difference.

"It adds another layer of granularity to identify these leakage points around the world," Mallos says.

On isolated Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, mid-way between Brazil and Namibia, Ocean Conservancy volunteers discovered "an exorbitant number" of plastic bottles on one beach, Mallos says. An audit of the brand names on the bottles revealed that none of them were sold on the island, but came from Asian countries thousands of miles away. Piecing the story together, the group concluded the bottle trash had not leaked from poor waste practices on the island, but rather more likely came from traveling fishing fleets working nearby waters.

The Ocean Conservancy has long audited the trash collected by item. For the first time in 2017, all of the top ten items retrieved were plastics, displacing glass bottles, aluminum cans, and rope that had been stalwarts on the list. The list includes cigarette butts (with plastic filters), food wrappers, bottles, bottle caps, and shopping bags.

"The Ocean Conservancy's top ten list has been tremendously useful because it highlights the top trash items found globally, which for the most part do not differ from country to country," says Law. "The fact that there is such consistency over time in different geographic regions helps identify the items most commonly lost to the environment, whether in litter form or accidental."

Counting plastic

Greenpeace, in partnership with a consortium of environmental groups known as Break Free From Plastic, has begun cataloguing items gathered in cleanups by brand name. The approach was tested on a beach in Manila Bay in 2017 and expanded this year to include 236 beach cleanups in 42 countries that yielded more than 187,000 pieces of plastic trash. The most recent cleanups were conducted primarily on ocean beaches, but also included riverbanks, city parks, and streets.

An audit of the items collected found that the brands most commonly retrieved belong to three multinationals: Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle.Together the three companies accounted for 14 percent of the branded items collected worldwide for the audit. Seven other multinationals were included in the audit, with smaller amounts documented. The report did not rank brands produced by local or regional companies.

Law says the results are not surprising. Coke is the world's largest producer of bottled drinks and manufactures 128 billion bottles of soft drinks and its bottled water, Dasani, a year, according to figures supplied by Coke. Nestle, which operates in 189 countries worldwide, is the world's largest food and beverage producer. PepsiCo, with six global divisions, has a worldwide reach.

Identifying global brands doesn't necessarily advance the science, Law says. "Unless you are looking at a geographically limited company that you can trace, I think it's more a matter of trying to engage the people producing the products."

Jane Patton, who authored the Greenpeace audit report, says that's exactly the point.

"What we are doing is moving the conversation upstream and identifying responsibility not with the person who consumes the Coke, but to have a conversation about who made that bottle in the first place and who is responsible for that bottle once it is consumed," she says.

"We are calling for the corporations to urgently and immediately stop over-packaging their products, to redesign products so waste can be eliminated, and to take responsibility for the waste once it ends up in the environment."

Companies take action

All three companies have pledged to reduce plastic waste by redesigning products to make them more recyclable, reducing unnecessary plastic packaging, and increasing the amount of recycled material used to manufacture their plastic products. Each company has set targets for those goals that range from 2020 to 2030.

"Nestle is committed to achieving its vision that none of its packaging, including plastics, ends up in a landfill or as litter," says Rumjhum Gupta, a company spokeswoman. "Greenpeace's report highlights the challenges we face as a society in tackling the issue of packaging and plastic waste. As the world's largest food and beverage company, we recognize the issue and we are working hard to eliminate non-recyclable plastics."

Ben Jordan, director of Coke's environmental policy, says Coke "shares the Greenpeace goal of eliminating waste from the ocean. We believe that all of our packaging material has benefits. What we have to do is manage it properly. We need better collection, more use of recycled content, complete recycling, whether a plastic bottle or aluminum can."

Coke partners with the Ocean Conservancy to sponsor the group's annual beach cleanups, and Jordan says the information documented at them can be helpful in the effort to reduce marine debris.

"If it only tells you who sells what in what markets, it's not that surprising," he says. But if we can learn something about our waste ending up in surprising places or litter being a bigger problem in one market versus another market, then absolutely, more information is better."

PepsiCo, in a statement, says it has invested in product redesign and is working to "bring the latest sustainable packaging advances to market. We don't have all the answers yet, and we will continue to collaborate with a number of leaders in this area to learn and share the latest science and practical solutions."

As marine debris worsens, the number of beach cleanups is growing as other groups organize them. They are not a solution, but there is value in doing them, Law says.

"Beach cleanups are very personal. It's very local. It's their beach," she says. "There is satisfaction to say, 'I removed ten pounds of trash from my beach.' Even if it's only ten pounds, that's ten pounds that isn't going to go into the open ocean."

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Beach clean-up study shows global scope of plastic pollution

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What items retrieved from beaches tell us about trash.

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5 Steps that Could End Plastic Pollution

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5 Steps that Could End Plastic Pollution

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Pick it up. Image: REUTERS/Jon Nazca

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5 steps that could end the plastic pollution crisis - and save our ocean

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It's time to think positively about reducing plastics and take effective action to tackle the global problem. This report outlines some tactics.

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EARTHDAY.ORG™ is changing human attitudes about and behavior toward plastics and reducing plastic pollution. The End Plastic Pollution campaign helps people understand the impacts of plastic pollution on human and ecosystem health and how everyday actions can lessen the problem.

The campaign draws attention to the harmful effects of plastic in our environment - harming marine and human health, littering beaches and landscapes, clogging waste streams and landfills - and empowers people to make a difference.

Increasing awareness is the first step toward making more informed decisions in our lives. Through toolkits, calculators and other resources, EARTHDAY.ORG provides instruction on how to cut plastic use and create a healthier world.

Unfortunately, single-use plastics are so prevalent that trying to avoid them can seem hopeless. That's why our campaign also focuses on systematic problems of plastic use, including the large-scale sources of plastic.

End Plastic Pollution informs policymakers and contributes to the international discussion on plastic pollution and its causes, including pushing for national legislation and corporate commitments. EARTHDAY.ORG also engages with and informs a global network of NGOs, grassroots organizations, campus youth, mayors and other local elected leaders, faith leaders, artists and athletes, and students and teachers.

The End Plastic Pollution campaign elevates the issue of plastic pollution in the global agenda and demands effective action to reduce and control it.

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Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display Skip to Content EARTHDAY.ORG™ is changing human attitudes about and behavior toward plastics and reducing plastic pollution. The End Plastic Pollution campaign helps people understand the impacts of plastic pollution on human and ecosystem health and how everyday actions can lessen the problem.

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We must change the current flow of plastic pollution by stopping plastic problems at the source. This includes eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics, advocating for better product alternatives and switching to reusables for our everyday needs. We encourage individuals, industry and governments to protect our ocean, waves, and beaches by supporting legislative polices that move us away from unnecessary single-use plastics.

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Plastic Pollution Coalition's expansive global alliance includes more than 1,300 organizations and businesses, and more than 14,000 individuals who have the shared goal of helping to create a more just, equitable, regenerative world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts.

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The path to innovation is not always a smooth, straight line. In some cases, it's U-shaped.

In September, a 2,000-foot-long floating barrier, shaped like a U, was dispatched to the Great Pacific garbage patch between Hawaii and California, where roughly 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic have formed a floating field of debris roughly twice the size of Texas. Made of connected plastic pipes, the barrier was meant to catch and clean-up the plastic.

Invented by Boyan Slat when he was just 17, the barrier has so far done some of what it was designed to accomplish. It travels with wind and wave propulsion, like a U-shaped Pac-Man hungry for plastic. It orients itself in the wind and it catches and concentrates plastic, sort of.

But as Slat, now 24, recently discovered with the beta tester for his design, plastic occasionally drifts out of its U-shaped funnel. The other issue with the beta tester, called System 001, is that last week, a 60-feet-long end section broke off.

The first issue, Slat said, was likely due to the device's speed. In a September interview with NPR, he said the device averages about four inches per second, which his team has now concluded is too slow. The break in the barrier was due to an issue with the material used to build it.

"In principle, I think we are relatively close to getting it working," Slat said in an interview Saturday with NPR's Michel Martin. "It's just that sometimes the plastic is also escaping again. Likely what we have to do is we have to speed up the system so that it constantly moves faster than the plastic."

For the material failure, Slat said his team will probably try to locally reinforce the system to combat the problem of material fatigue.

"If you have a paper clip and you move that back and forward many times, essentially the material gets weaker," he said. "That's likely what has happened with material of the cleanup system."

Slat and the team at his nonprofit, The Ocean Cleanup, are now bringing the system back to Hawaii for repairs and upgrades. Slat told NPR in 2016 that his structure is 10 times further away from land than the world's most remote oil rig, subject to battering waves and storms.

When the material failure occurred, it wasn't due to the result of a major Pacific storm. It was just normal wear and tear, Slat said.

"We've had conditions twice as worse as we had last weekend, but the system already sort of moved back and forth about 1.5 million times since it's been out there," he said.

With an estimated cost of $24.6 million reported by Forbes, and a challenging work environment, the project is high-risk and Slat hopes, high-reward.

But experts on plastic pollution have expressed concerns about the project's effectiveness.

George Leonard, chief scientist at Ocean Conservancy, told NPR in September that only 3 to 5 percent of the total amount of ocean plastic actually winds up in systems of circulating currents. He estimates that about 8 million metric tons of plastic go into the ocean each year - roughly the equivalent of one dump truck full of plastic every minute.

Critics say efforts should be aimed at preventing plastics from going into the ocean in the first place, and that Slat's barrier project could divert resources away from that goal. Others have expressed concern about the barrier's impact on marine wildlife.

Slat said that marine wildlife is be able to safely pass underneath a 10-foot deep screen under the pipe meant to catch debris. However, Wired reported that the pipes could attract and lead animals straight into plastic-polluted waters, and may also shed nano-sized particles of plastic into the water when hit with the sun's rays.

The concern is that ultraviolet light from the sun can potentially disintegrate the plastic, but The Ocean Cleanup responded by telling Wired that the high-density polyethylene plastic used in their tubes can reflect UV radiation.

Slat's confidence in his design hasn't wavered, and said he was unfazed by the current setbacks.

"Considering the things we have been able to prove in the past few months and considering the problems that we have faced, they seem quite solvable," he said. "I'm confident that the team will be able to design appropriate solutions for this and that we'll have the system back in the patch in a few months from now."

His team hopes to make the system fully operational sometime this year. If the project succeeds, Slat's vision is to deploy a fleet of 60 more devices, projected to remove half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch's plastic within five years.

In this vision, one he has held since his teens, support vessels would act like ocean garbage trucks; ships would carry the plastics back to land, where they would be processed, recycled, and reused - not dumped back into the ocean.
The audio for this story was produced by Dana Cronin and edited by Natalie Winston.

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An Engineering Wunderkind's Ocean Plastics Cleanup Device Hits A Setback

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Four months into its testing phase, the Ocean Cleanup's plastic-catching device isn't catching as much plastic as intended.

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Anna Du noticed plastic scattered on the shoreline. She was walking along Castle Island's beach. That's in South Boston. She reached down to pick it up. She quickly realized there were many more tiny pieces than she could handle.

"When I realized how many pieces there were. It seemed impossible," says Du. She was in sixth grade at the time.

Du approached the problem like any good scientist. First, she did a little research. That's how she learned that 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. And there's an additional 150 million metric tons that are already there.

Then she got to work building something that could help solve the issue. She built a remote-operated vehicle. It is referred to as an ROV. Her ROV could move through water. It could spot plastics on the ocean floor.

Du entered her ROV in the Broadcom Masters competition. It is one of the top science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) contests. It is for young students around the world.

The competition is organized by the Broadcom Foundation and Society for Science and the Public. It has been running for eight years. This year, nearly 5,000 sixth, seventh and eighth graders were nominated. This was after they competed in regional science fairs. Of those, 2,500 applied online for consideration. That pool was narrowed down to 300 projects dubbed "Broadcom Masters." The top 30 finalists gathered in Washington, D.C. to showcase their projects. The top prize was $25,000. There were other cash prizes as well.

Du's ROV is made with PVC pipes. It is inspired by ROVs of all sorts. For instance, it is like the Curiosity lander that spies on the surface of Mars. It is also like the deep sea arctic Nereid ROV at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Du's ROV has two separate systems. There is a navigation system and a detection system. The navigation system is pretty simple. It uses propellers to move through the water. It also uses a novel combination of fishing weights and foam pool floats that allow it to move up and down.

"The real invention here is the sensing." That's according to Dana Yoerger. He is a roboticist and engineer. He works with WHOI's Nereid. It is a ROV that travels great distances in the arctic. It hosts a suite of sensors on board. These include acoustic, chemical and biological sensors. Du was in awe of Nereid and nicknamed her ROV Nereid Jr. But her vehicle has a different skill set than its namesake. "The ROV is nicely done for a 12-year-old and hers is quite clever," Yoerger adds.

The detection system is the "actually cool part." That's according to Du. She uses a high resolution infrared camera along with three different kinds of light to spot the plastic. Du's detection methods are comprised of two different wavelengths of infrared light. They illuminate the absorption spectra in microplastics. This makes them stand out from the sand and plant life.

She also uses visible light to spot unnatural colors. These might make the plastics stand out. (Du was also one of ten finalists in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge this year. You can see a demo in her application video.) The apparatus doesn't actually collect the microplastics. But it does identify where they are accumulating. She has applied for a patent on the functional elements of the ROV.

"She has an impressive basic kind of engineering instinct to break down a problem like this and then go after it," says Casey Machado. She is also a WHOI engineer who works with Nereid. "She was able to follow that up with the technical work, construction and design to make a working prototype, which is very cool. It's sounds simple, but it's a level of thinking that's really impressive."

When Du first read about the challenge of locating ocean microplastics she found out that they are unlike the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. They are not floating on the surface. She knew that an ROV would be the most efficient tool for the task. Taking buckets and buckets of water samples and analyzing them in a lab could never be done to the scale needed. She needed a mobile lab that could find the plastics in-situ.

Du attends public events and workshops at MIT. She has been going since she was five years old. She picked up the engineering skills necessary to build her ROV from these sessions. She also learned skills from maker labs at local libraries and YouTube.

She says actually getting her device to move through water well was tricky-even down to choosing the right kind of glue. It would be used to hold the PVC pipes together. Before she added fishing weights, the ROV would flip over. This happened when she tried to move it up and down. There was a lot of trial and error as she tested her ROV in Boston Harbor.

When asked about future plans, she mentions wanting to somehow address the effects of climate change.

"Especially with climate change happening all around the world, I think there's a lot of problems that could be solved with new inventions," says Du. "Right now, I'm mainly just focusing on plastics because there's still a long way to go."

Du credits her parents for fostering and supporting her interest in STEM. For years they have been taking her to MIT's student outreach activities on weekends. She says she has been able to meet students and scientists there. As a result, she has her sights set on attending the university and becoming an engineer.

"I know I want to be an engineer because I like building things to help solve world problems," says Du. "But I'm not sure what kind of engineer I want to be yet."
Source URL: https://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/12-year-old-girl-built-robot-can-find-microplastics-ocean/

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This 12-year-old girl built a robot that can find microplastics in the ocean

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Anna Du noticed plastic scattered on the shoreline. She was walking along Castle Island's beach. That's in South Boston. She reached down to pick it up. She quickly realized there were many more tiny pieces than she could handle. "When I realized how many pieces there were. It seemed impossible," says Du.

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Chileans are the first people in the Americas to vote for a total ban of plastic bags in a bid to reduce plastic waste.

Chile is the seventh largest country in South America with more than 18 million inhabitants. However more than 3.4 billion bags are used in Chile every year. That means 200 bags per person!

Several cities along the southern Chilean coast, already limit the use of plastic bags since last year. Now the Chileans have voted for a law to have a complete ban on bags for the whole country.

"We have taken a fundamental step to take better care of Chile and the planet. Today we are more prepared to leave a better planet to our children, grandchildren and the generations to come". (Chilean President Sebastián Piñera)

Big retailers and supermarkets have to stop of handing out plastic bags within the next twelve months. In two years time the law will come into effect for smaller shops.

In the meantime, when packing any purchases, shops are limited to hand out a maximum of two bags per customer. Plastic rubbish bags are still allowed to be used.

Strict bans of plastic bag were first introduced in Bangladesh in 2002. But bans are also in effect in some other countries, including Kenya and Rwanda on the African continent. Mauritius, a small African country in the Indian Ocean, prohibits the supply, manufacture and import of plastic bags.

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Chile is the first country in South America to introduce a ban on plastic bags Chileans are the first in the Americas to vote for a total ban of plastic bags in a bid to reduce plastic waste. In at least 12 communities along the southern Chilean coast, plastic bags are already hardly used since last year.

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Last week, almost every country in the world except the United States signed a new agreement to control plastic waste. The new agreement should help track plastic waste and make sure more of it actually gets recycled.

When China stopped accepting recycling in 2018, it caused problems for many countries around the world. These countries were used to shipping their plastic waste to China for recycling. Soon, many countries begin shipping their recycling to other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

For these countries, taking the recycling seemed like good business at first. But it soon became clear that there were problems. Much of the waste had so many kinds of materials mixed together that it was almost impossible to sort and recycle. Some was mixed with garbage. Huge amounts of waste began to pile up.

To make things worse, many companies which said they would recycle the waste, didn't. Some recycled only a few materials that were easy to recycle, and got rid of the rest. Others didn't recycle anything. What wasn't recycled was usually dumped or burned, leaving many areas of these countries flooded with trash.

Many countries have stopped taking recycling, but it's too late for the environment. The plastic is still piled up on the land, and the rivers and streams are clogged with plastic. In some areas where waste was burned, many people were made sick by poisonous chemicals released by the burning plastic.

The problems aren't just limited to these countries. There are about 220.5 billion pounds (100 billion kilograms) of plastic waste in the oceans. This number grows larger every year. Whales, dolphins, and other sea animals are turning up dead on beaches, their insides full of plastic waste.

But there is hope that change is on the way. Last week, 187 countries signed a United Nations (UN) agreement to help control plastic waste.

Almost every country in the world except the US signed a special agreement requiring countries to be very clear about their plastic trash. Countries will now be responsible for tracking their plastic waste inside their country, and after it leaves. This should cut down on the plastic dumping that has caused such massive pollution.

Instead of making a brand-new agreement, the United Nations added plastic to an existing agreement, called the Basel Convention. The Basel Convention was originally meant to control dangerous chemicals, so adding plastics makes sense.

By making sure that plastic waste is easily tracked, and everyone knows where it is going, the new rules will make life safer and more fair for everyone.

Even the US, which didn't sign the agreement, will be affected by it. That's because almost any country where the US tries to ship its plastic waste will be following the new rules.

Of course, just tracking plastic is not enough to solve the problem. People everywhere need to use far less plastic. Many countries are already beginning to take steps to make this happen. The question is whether action can be taken quickly enough.

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187 Countries Agree to Control Plastic Waste

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Last week, almost every country in the world except the United States signed a new agreement to control plastic waste. The new agreement should help track plastic waste and make sure more of it actually gets recycled. When China stopped accepting recycling in 2018, it caused problems for many countries around the world.

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The EU decides to reduce disposable plastic items and ban them from 2021. On 27 March, the EU parliament voted in favour of a ban on the use of disposable and single-use plastic items. This is seen as an important step to counter the plastic pollution of our environment. 85% of the trash in the ocea…

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A very hungry caterpillar can eat a lot of plastic bags.

Scientists have been feeding caterpillars called waxworms polyethylene - one of the most common plastics used in shopping bags - and found that just 60 little caterpillars can eat more than 30sqcm in a week.

The scientists' findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B this week, suggest that armies of hungry caterpillars could be put to work to eat waste plastic.

In just days, their feasting could digest what would otherwise take hundreds of years, helping solve Earth's big plastic pollution problem.

The caterpillars are the larvae of the greater wax moth. In nature, the caterpillars get into beehives and eat the wax the bees use to make honeycomb. Honeycomb and polyethylene have a similar structure when you look at them both under a microscope.

"They are really avid* 'plastivores'," Christophe LeMoine of Brandon University, Canada, who led the study, told The Times.

"We think it is quite phenomenal* that these insects are able to survive for weeks on a diet made entirely of plastic."

Scientists studied the gut bacteria of the waxworms and believe the bacteria is key to their special pollution-smashing talent.

The study found that when the caterpillars were given antibiotics* to reduce the bacteria in their gut, they were not able to digest the plastic as easily. When caterpillars were fed only polyethylene they ended up with more bacteria in their gut than if they had a normal diet without plastic.

The scientists found that some gut bacteria (kept alive outside the body of a caterpillar) could survive for a year if it was fed only plastic, but that plastic broke down faster if it was inside the body of a caterpillar rather than outside.

"There appears to be a synergy* between the waxworm and its gut bacteria that accelerates* plastic biodegradation*," Dr LeMoine said. "A better understanding of how this works may guide future efforts to design the 'perfect' plastic biodegradation system."

More work needs to be done on what to do with caterpillar poo, which is toxic* when the caterpillar has been eating plastic.
GLOSSARY

avid: keen

phenomenal: remarkable

antibiotics: medicine to kill bacteria

synergy: two things working together

accelerates: speeds up

biodegradation: break down using nature

toxic: poisonous

EXTRA READING Our paradise islands polluted by plastic Lego's big search for plant-based plastic Kids feeling eco-anxiety about plastic waste Human poo study finds microplastics QUICK QUIZ

1. What sort of caterpillar is this?

2. Name the type of plastic mentioned in the story.

3. What in the caterpillar's digestive system breaks down the plastic?

4. Why are bees mentioned in this story?

5. What is wrong with the caterpillar's poo?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What do you think?
Scientists are working hard to solve the problems caused by plastic. Some people think plastic should be banned. Write reasons for and against this idea. Then, choose which side you agree with. Use the reasons to help you to design a poster that will help convince other kids to agree with you.

Time: allow 40 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Health and Physical Education, Geography, Visual Communication Design, Personal and Social Capability

2. Extension
Can you think of a solution to the problem of what to do with the toxic caterpillar poo?

Time: allow at least 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Verb adventures
With a partner see if you can identify all the doing words/verbs in this text. Highlight them in yellow and then make a list of them all down your page. Now see if you and your partner can come up with a synonym for the chosen verb. Make sure it still makes sense in the context it was taken from.

Try to replace some of the original verbs with your synonyms and discuss if any are better and why.

HAVE YOUR SAY: What is the best way to deal with Earth's plastic problem?
No one-word answers. Use full sentences to explain your thinking. No comments will be published until approved by editors.

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Very hungry caterpillar eats Earth's plastic pollution

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A very hungry caterpillar can eat a lot of plastic bags. Scientists have been feeding caterpillars called waxworms polyethylene - one of the most common plastics used in shopping bags - and found that just 60 little caterpillars can eat more than 30sqcm in a week.

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Recently, researchers have reported on two different ways to break down different kinds of plastic. The new advances could lead to easier, high-quality recycling, and help deal with toxic plastic pollution.

The world is drowning in plastic, but only 9% of plastic products are ever recycled. Every year, over 17 trillion pounds (7.72 trillion kilograms) of plastic are washed into the oceans.

But bacteria may help recycle, even when humans don't.

Bacteria are tiny living things - so small you need a microscope to see them. Bacteria feed themselves in many different ways. Some bacteria can "eat" other things by changing the chemicals in those things into something that will help the bacteria grow.

The secret to this is enzymes. Bacteria use enzymes to cause chemical changes. Enzymes can work like a pair of scissors, snipping and breaking apart other materials.
PET
Most people are familiar with PET* plastic. It's used in water and soda bottles. About 140 billion pounds (63.5 billion kilograms) are produced every year. Most PET is thrown away, but even when it's recycled, it can't be made into new bottles. Usually it's turned into products like carpets.

In 2012, in a pile of decaying leaves, scientists discovered an enzyme called LCC* that slowly breaks apart PET plastic. Years later, scientists working at the French company Carbios chose LCC from nearly 100,000 enzymes. It was the best at breaking down PET.

But the scientists wanted to improve LCC. They studied the enzyme and the way it attacked the PET. By testing thousands and thousands of slight changes to the enzyme, they came up with a new version of LCC. The new version can survive at higher temperatures and can eat through PET very quickly.

The process turns the PET plastic back into the materials that it was made from. Those materials can then be used again to make new bottles or other products.

The researchers tested their new LCC against the original enzyme, and were impressed with the results. When the conditions were just right, the new enzyme was able to break up 90% of the PET in just 10 hours. The original enzyme took about 20 hours and only broke up half of the PET.

Carbios hopes to start recycling plastic on a large scale by 2024 or 2025.
Polyurethane
Polyurethane is light and flexible. It's used in products from shoes to diapers. It's also used in larger products like furniture, refrigerators, and even buildings. In 2015, Europe produced around 7 billion pounds (3.18 billion kilograms) of polyurethane.

But polyurethane is hard to recycle, since it doesn't melt when it's heated. It also contains dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer.

In March, German scientists reported on a new kind of bacteria that can help break down polyurethane. The scientists found the bacteria, called Pseudomonas sp. TDA1, in an area with lots of older, cracking plastic. It's the first kind of bacteria known to help break down polyurethane.

The scientists hope that by studying the way the bacteria attacks polyurethane, they'll discover new ways of breaking down this dangerous plastic.
* PET stands for Polyethylene terephthalate. LCC stands for leaf-branch compost cutinase.

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Bacteria Show New Ways to Recycle Plastic

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Recently, researchers have reported on two different ways to break down different kinds of plastic. The new advances could lead to easier, high-quality recycling, and help deal with toxic plastic pollution. The world is drowning in plastic, but only 9% of plastic products are ever recycled.

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Image: A loggerhead turtle.

Scientists used to think turtles were drawn to plastic by how it looked. Now, scientists say it's not only the appearance but the smell of plastic!

The University of North Carolina did an experiment with 15 loggerhead turtles. They watched how the turtles reacted to different materials.

The turtles ignored clean plastic and water. They found plastic from the ocean more interesting. The turtles would stick their noses out of their tanks and search for plastic from the ocean.

This led scientists to think the turtles were drawn to the smell of this plastic.

The scientists believe ocean plastics can trap algae. It then releases a smell that turtles mistake for food.

The scientists did not let the turtles eat any plastic during the experiment. Afterwards, the turtles were released into the wild.

Plastic can be a big problem for loggerhead turtles if they eat it. Dr Kenneth Lohmann says it can block their "digestive systems".

Scientists believe there are 150 million tonnes of plastic in the world's marine environments.

So, how can we help the turtles? Dr Kenneth Lohmann says the best thing we can do for the turtles is to stop "plastic from getting into the ocean."

People are taking action. In April 2020, the UK government plans to ban a range of single-use plastic items. Most shops won't be able to sell plastic straws or cotton buds with plastic stems.

Girlguiding says they will ask Guides and Brownies to take a plastic pledge. It asks them to promise to speak out about plastic waste.

Even the Olympic Games is trying to be greener. Sportspeople will sleep in cardboard beds.

Athletes will stand on podiums made from plastic waste when they win a medal during the Olympic Games.

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Image: A loggerhead turtle. Scientists used to think turtles were drawn to plastic by how it looked. Now, scientists say it's not only the appearance but the smell of plastic! The University of North Carolina did an experiment with 15 loggerhead turtles. They watched how the turtles reacted to different materials.

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ONE of the most remote islands in the world is covered with almost 38 million pieces of plastic despite no one living there, Australian and international research has found.

High-density* pollution on the beaches of Henderson Island, more than 5000km from any significant human population, shows Pacific Ocean currents carry plastic debris* over huge distances without breaking down, according to the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

"What's happened on Henderson Island shows there's no escaping plastic pollution even in the most distant parts of our oceans," IMAS researcher Dr Jennifer Lavers said.

Henderson, part of the UK's Pitcairn Islands group, is so remote it is only visited every five to 10 years by researchers.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Located near the centre of the South Pacific Gyre* ocean current makes it a focal point* for debris carried from South America or dumped by fishing vessels into the sea.

Items found include boat buoys, rope, containers, lids, bottles and netting.

The most recent visit by IMAS, led by the British nature conservation charity RSPB, found its beaches were littered with 671 items per square metre, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Far from being the pristine* deserted island that people might imagine of such a remote place, Henderson Island is a shocking but typical example of how plastic debris is affecting the environment on a global scale."

Sampling at five sites showed there was an estimated 17 tonnes of plastic debris larger than two millimetres on the island and more than 3570 new pieces of litter washed up each day on one beach alone.

"Plastic debris is an entanglement* and ingestion* hazard for many species, creates a physical barrier on beaches to animals such as sea turtles, and lowers the diversity of shoreline invertebrates," Dr Lavers said.

"Research has shown that more than 200 species are known to be at risk from eating plastic, and 55 per cent of the world's seabirds, including two species found on Henderson Island, are at risk from marine debris."
GLOSSARY
high-density: area with lots in it

debris: bits and pieces

gyre: system of swirling ocean currents

focal point: main bit

pristine: perfect and pure

entanglement: wrapped and caught in

ingestion: swallowing and consuming
LISTEN TO TODAY'S STORY CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES Activity 1. Stop the plastic plague
Create a poster encouraging others to make sure they dispose of plastic waste thoughtfully. Your poster should give at least one good reason (using words or pictures, or both) to show why this is important.
Extension:
Make a list of as many items as you can think of that are made of plastic and could end up in our oceans if we do not dispose of them properly.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity Curriculum links: English, Visual Arts, Ethical Capability Activity 2. So much rubbish!
To get an idea of just how much plastic rubbish is washed up on the beach at Henderson Island, make a small model based on the figures in the article.

The article tells us that "its beaches were littered with 671 items per square metre."

Your model will be one one-hundredth of this size, so you will need a 10cm x 10cm square of paper.

Rub a glue stick over your square of paper and sprinkle it with sand or press it into your school sand pit so that it is coated with sand.
Then collect seven pieces of plastic rubbish (we are rounding to the closest whole number).
Use PVA glue to attach your plastic rubbish to your sand square.

This is what the beach at Henderson Island must look like!

You could join your model up with your classmates to make a larger model.
Extension:
Write a paragraph describing what it would be like to visit the beach at Henderson Island.

Extra resources:
10cm x 10cm paper squares, sand, glue sticks and PVA glue and plastic rubbish.
Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity Curriculum links: English, Mathematics, Science, Ethical Capability VCOP ACTIVITY(Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation)
Activity: A note from the sea
Write a letter from one of the marine animals or creatures that is being effected by all the litter. The letter is to explain what is happening to them and why. You can decide who it should be sent to, and whether the letter is to convince the audience to take action, like start cleaning up the school yard, or come to the beach and help pick up rubbish etc.
Time: allow at least 15 minutes to complete the task Curriculum Links: English, Big Write & VCOP Activity provided by Andrell Education www.andrelleducation.com.au EXTRA RESOURCES TINY BATS HAVE A BIG JOB QUEENSLAND COUNTS CYCLONE COST GREAT WHITE SHARK FUTURE IN BALANCE WONDERFUL WORLD CAPTURED ON CAMERA TASSIE'S WATER SPARKLES BLUE IN A SENTENCE, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TODAY'S STORY Kids News loves reading your best grammar, vocabulary and spelling. We publish the best comments.

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ONE of the most remote islands in the world is covered with almost 38 million pieces of plastic despite no one living there, Australian and international research has found. High-density* pollution on the beaches of Henderson Island, more than 5000km from any significant human population, shows Pacific Ocean currents carry plastic debris* over huge distances without breaking down, according to the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

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The world may be seriously underestimating* the amount of plastic waste along its coastlines, according to researchers who studied Australia's Cocos Islands.

Australian scientists found hundreds of millions of plastic fragments* on the otherwise beautiful white sand beaches.

And they believe the plastic seen on the surface of the Cocos Island beaches and on beaches around the world may just be the tip of the iceberg*.

Cocos Islands is a group of 27 small atolls* 2100km west of the Australian mainland in the Indian Ocean.

The study's lead scientist Jennifer Lavers said it was what they found when they dug below the surface that most shocked them.

"I've been working on remote islands as a marine biologist* for 15 years or so and all of them have at least some debris*, so I've come to expect it," said Dr Lavers, who is from the University of Tasmania.

"One of the big surprises was that when I was digging down in the sediment* to look at how much was buried and where, the quantity sometimes did not drop off with depth."

Dr Lavers and the team dug holes across beaches on the Cocos Islands and found plastics, mainly in the form of small or microparticles*, throughout the sand layers.

They estimated the true amount of plastic pollution on the beaches surveyed may be as much as 26 times greater than the small pieces on the surface.

The study, published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, concludes that global plastic waste surveys "have drastically* underestimated the scale of debris accumulation*".

The scale of plastic production has exploded worldwide in recent years. Half of all the plastic ever made was made in the past 13 years.

Humans throw millions of tonnes of plastic into the sea every year, and much of it gets washed back ashore onto beaches where it poses a risk to wildlife.

It can also enter the foodchain in the form of microplastics, which have been found at all ocean depths and locations.

Dr Lavers said that though we have heard a lot about the big ocean garbage patches recently, such high plastic concentrations found on a remote group of islands was deeply concerning.

"While the five oceanic* gyres* or 'garbage patches' tend to garner* a lot of research and media attention, the Cocos Islands are not located near or within one of these gyres," she said.

"Plastic is everywhere, in all corners of the ocean, being distributed by current* systems big and small."

The team estimated that as much as 25 per cent of the plastic items surveyed on Cocos were disposable or "single-use", such as food packaging, straws, forks and knives and toothbrushes.

Dr Lavers said there needs to be changes in behaviour all over the world, from production to use to re-use to begin to deal with our plastic waste problem.

"Some islands have significant quantities to the point that it forces one to pause and consider all aspects of their life, from the simple items used each day (for example, to brush one's teeth) to how I communicate the outputs* of my research," she said.

"These islands change you."

VIDEO: Cocos Islands are considered a paradise. They are very remote and a long way from any of the ocean garbage patches, yet researchers found much more plastic than they expected, even all the way down through the sand.
GLOSSARY

underestimating: guessing lower than the real amount

tip of the iceberg: saying that means we only see or know about a tiny amount of the total

fragments: small pieces

atolls: ring-shaped coral reef; there may be islands on the rim of the ring

marine biologist: scientist who studies ocean life

debris: rubbish

sediment: small particles that settle to the bottom of water

microparticles: tiny pieces that can only be seen with a microscope

drastically: extremely or very

accumulation: build up

oceanic: to do with oceans

gyres: circular patterns of currents in an ocean

garner: gather or collect

current: movement of water or air in a particular direction

outputs: something made or produced, as in the results of research by a scientist

EXTRA READING Plague of plastic
Remote island plagued by plastic
Hobart votes to ban single-use plastic Human poo study finds microplastics Rubbish trap to the rescue for oceans Your big ideas on recycling could save the world Diver breaks record with deepest submarine trip
QUICK QUIZ

1. Where are the Cocos Islands?

2. What have other studies underestimated?

3. What are microplastics?

4. What makes this find especially concerning?

5. What percentage of the plastic they found was "single-use"?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Pause and consider plastic in your life.
"Some islands have significant quantities to the point that it forces one to pause and consider all aspects of their life, from the simple items used each day (for example, to brush one's teeth) to how I communicate the outputs* of my research."

The plastic situation on the Cocos Islands is probably true in many other places too. It is deeply concerning how much plastic we use in our lives. Many of us have begun to be more plastic aware and try to reduce our use of 'single-use' plastic. But we are probably using plastic in areas of our life we are not even thinking of.

In your mind, go through all aspects of your typical daily life. Begin with when you get out of bed in the morning and finish as you return to bed in the evening.

In a chart, list every plastic item that is used. In the second column, mark next to each item if it is 'single use'. For example, the plastic bag that holds cereal inside the box is usually thrown away once it is finished, as is your toothbrush (single use). In another column write down if there is another option you could use instead of plastic for this product. (Bamboo toothbrush perhaps? paper straws?) If there is not another option that you are aware of use the internet to see if you can find any. The other option might be to make your own of that product (for example toothpaste packaging is plastic - maybe you could try finding a recipe to make your own toothpaste so you don't need to buy the toothpaste in plastic packaging?)

Time: allow 40 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Sustainability, Science, Critical and Creative thinking

2. Extension
Look through your list above. Choose three plastic items you would like to eliminate from your daily life. How do you plan to do this?

You might need to convince parents or carers or teachers to help you. Write them a short letter explaining why you would like to stop using these plastics in your life, what other option you could try instead and what the benefits are to you and to the environment. Are there any disadvantages with this change? For example, does it cost more, or take more time? Is it still worth the change? Include these points in your letter.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Sustainability, Science, Critical and Creative thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Recycle and reuse
It's time to do our part for the environment and recycle, but we are going to try and be a little different in getting our message across. Instead of recycling physical waste, I want you to recycle and reuse vocabulary and facts from the article to create a positive and powerful message about pollution.

You can present the message as a poster, an article, or turn it into an radio or TV ad.

Remember to use your VCOP skills to bring all the information together to really express your message.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Have you changed the way you use plastic this year? What have you changed? What do you plan to do differently in the future?
No one-word answers. Use full sentences to explain your thinking. No comments will be published until approved by editors.

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Tonnes of plastic rubbish on beautiful Cocos Islands beaches

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The world may be seriously underestimating* the amount of plastic waste along its coastlines, according to researchers who studied Australia's Cocos Islands. Australian scientists found hundreds of millions of plastic fragments* on the otherwise beautiful white sand beaches.

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For centuries, historians and archaeologists have defined periods of human history. They have defined them by the technologies or materials that made the greatest impact on society. Examples include the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. It also includes the Iron Age. But what age are we in now? For some researchers, that question can be answered with one word. Plastics. That's according to Atlas Obscura's Cara Giamo.

The idea of named ages is not to be confused with geologic subdivisions of time like the Holocene. Nor should it be confused with the proposed Anthropocene. This proposed age is a period resulting from massive human impact on the planet. This most recent geologic epoch is not yet official. But there have been many calls for its designation. A recent study argued that the Anthropocene began during the mid-20th century with the detonation of the first nuclear bombs. That's according to Ker Than, writing for Smithsonian.com.

The last geologic epoch was the Holocene. It is thought to encompass both the Bronze and Iron Ages. But we do not yet have a tool or material to define our current age. Scientists point to a few specific changes that humans have wrought on the planet. These include nuclear fallout and the rapid spread of materials like aluminum, concrete, and silicon. These offer forensic proof of humanity's influence on Earth.

Plastic "has redefined our material culture and the artifacts we leave behind." It "will be found in stratified layers in our trash deposits." That's according to archaeologist John Marston.

There is no place on Earth that plastics are naturally made. The wide variety of synthetic polymers would not exist if it weren't for human action. About six billion tons of plastics have been made and spread around the planet. They have been spread from forests to oceans since the first plastic polymers were invented. Plastics are one of the most significant changes that humans have made to the Earth's makeup along with the first nuclear detonations in 1945. So reports Andrew C. Revkin for the New York Times.

Most plastics don't easily degrade. This only adds to the problem. Recycling isn't an adequate solution. Not all types of plastic are easily recyclable. And there are only a few recycling plants in the United States that can process all varieties of plastic.

This means that much of the materials thrown into recycling bins can crisscross the planet several times. This is before they are processed to produce rugs, sweaters, or other bottles. That's according to Debra Winter writing for The Atlantic. Millions of tons of plastic are recycled every year. But millions more end up in landfills or the ocean. The problem has reached the point where it's possible that in just a few decades there might be more plastic in the world's oceans than fish.

"With a presumed life span of over 500 years, it's safe to say that every plastic bottle you have used exists somewhere on this planet, in some form or another," Winter writes.

Even if human populations worldwide change their plastic-using ways, the damage may already be done. Plastics are filling landfills and washing up on coastlines around the world. So the Plastic Age might soon take its place next to the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the history of human civilization.
Source URL: https://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/are-we-living-plastic-age/

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For centuries, historians and archaeologists have defined periods of human history. They have defined them by the technologies or materials that made the greatest impact on society. Examples include the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. It also includes the Iron Age. But what age are we in now?

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Since the 1970s, people in many countries have been taught to recycle. Now, many places are cutting recycling programs, and often items that are sent off for recycling are never recycled at all.

In many Western countries through Europe, the Americas, and Australasia, people have become used to putting their recycling into bins which get taken away for recycling. In many of these countries, the recycling actually wound up getting shipped overseas, usually to China.

Nobody made a lot of money on recycling. Not everything that is recyclable is worth money. Companies earned money recycling some items and lost money recycling others. But in general, it was a good idea and seemed better and cheaper than burying it as trash in a landfill.

To make recycling easier, companies started "single-stream" recycling. That means that people don't have to sort their recycling, they can just dump it all into one bin (with paper often separate). As a result of single-stream recycling, many more people began recycling.

But single-stream recycling made it much harder for recycling companies to sort out and clean the different materials. Plastic is the hardest. Not all plastics are the same, and only certain kinds of plastics can be recycled together.

Single-stream recycling made the materials to be recycled "messy". This made it harder and more expensive for recycling companies in China to make money. Over time, these messy shipments of recycling materials began to pile up in China. They were harder to sort, and much of the material could not be recycled without losing money.

In 2018, China decided to change what recycling it would accept. China's new rule put a stop to shipments of messy recycling. Most people in the recycling business believe it's impossible to get single-stream recycling clean enough to meet China's new rules.

Recycling companies in Western countries needed to find something else to do with their recycling. They began to ship it to other places in Southeast Asia, like Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. These countries quickly became overloaded and put their own limits on recycling. Next came countries like Indonesia, India, and Turkey. India has already put new limits on its recycling.

Sadly, many new "recycling" companies started up in those countries, but they only recycled the most valuable materials. They burned, buried, or simply left the rest, causing serious pollution.

Companies and governments in Western countries are now struggling to deal with their recycling. Costs have gone up for recycling companies, raising costs for governments. In some US cities, recycling costs are four times as high now as they were a year ago.

Many places still collect recycling, but are getting rid of it in other ways. Some places are burning their recycling in special ovens that can create energy from the process. Other places are simply sending it to landfills.

Recycling is still important and many people are trying to figure out ways to save the process. But there's one thing everyone agrees on: We need to use less plastic.

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Recycling: China Stops Taking It, We Keep Making It

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Since the 1970s, people in many countries have been taught to recycle. Now, many places are cutting recycling programs, and often items that are sent off for recycling are never recycled at all. In many Western countries through Europe, the Americas, and Australasia, people have become used to putting their recycling into bins which get taken away for recycling.

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Unsightly plastic bottles, bags and other trash give just a hint of the largely unseen problem of plastic pollution. Scientists have found tiny bits of it throughout the ocean. The bad news: Sea life can’t tell the difference between plastic and food.

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Initiatives to Reduce Plastic Pollution
Lisa DiCaprio
Conservation Chair, NYC Group
While consumers worship at the altar of convenience created by single-use plastics, seabirds, turtles, fish, and marine mammals, such as dolphins and whales, are dying from plastic debris in various macabre ways: strangulation, entanglement, suffocation from encasement in plastic, and starvation as plastic fills their stomachs, stealing the space required for food.

The Sierra Club NYC Group is advocating for three NY City Council bills to reduce plastic pollution. If you live in NYC and your council member's name does not appear on any of these bills, please call and/or write to request their co-sponsorship. Find the list of NYC council members and their districts .

Int. 0936-2018, introduced by Council Members Rafael Espinal, Helen Rosenthal, and Barry Grodenchik, bans food service establishments from providing non-biodegradable, plastic straws and beverage stirrers. (An exemption is allowed for individuals requiring a straw because of a medical condition.)

Int. 0846-2018, introduced by Council Member Ben Kallos, prohibits the sale or distribution of single-use water bottles on NYC property.

Int. 0839-2018, introduced by Council Member Rafael Espinal, prohibits the sale or distribution of single-use bottles for commercial purposes at NYC beaches and parks.

Plastic pollution is now a global crisis as plastics represent the most common form of debris in our oceans and the Great Lakes. The National Geographic issue, Planet or Plastic ?, highlights these "10 shocking facts about plastic":

More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic are already floating in our oceans.

Worldwide, 73 percent of beach litter is plastic: filters from cigarette butts, bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, grocery bags, and polystyrene containers.

World plastic production has increased exponentially from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 162 million in 1993 to 448 million by 2015.

By 2050, virtually every seabird species on the planet will be eating plastic.

As of 2015, more than 6.9 billion tons of plastic waste had been generated. Around 9 percent of that was recycled, 12 percent was incinerated, and 79 percent accumulated in landfills or environment.

Around the world, nearly a million plastic beverage bottles are sold every minute.

Estimates for how long plastic endures range from 450 years to forever.

The largest market for plastics today is packaging materials. That trash now accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste generated globally - most of it never gets recycled or incinerated.

Some 700 species of marine animals have been reported so far to have eaten or become entangled in plastic.

More than 40 percent of plastic is used just once, then tossed.

500 million straws are used once and discarded every day in the US.

According to a January 2016 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the percentage of oil production used for new plastics will increase from 5% to 20% within 35 years. The twentyfold increase in the production of plastics since 1964 is projected to double within 20 years and to quadruple by 2050. The concludes: "In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight)." To reduce the proliferation of single-use plastics, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has launched the New Plastics Economy initiative to apply the principles of a circular economy to the design and use of plastics.

Contrary to the claims of the plastic industry, single-use straws, stirrers, and plastic bags are not recycled. These bags clog storm drains and cause flooding, become trapped in tree branches and, like straws and stirrers, end up either in landfills or in our waterways and oceans.

Microplastics are polluting our oceans and endangering marine life and human health. In the ocean, the sun and seawater break up plastics into microplastics (smaller than five millimeters), which are now found on remote islands and from the deepest ocean seafloor to floating ice in the Arctic that will release these microplastics when it melts. Microplastics act as sponges for chemical pollutants in the water, which concentrate on them. They are also eaten by small marine plankton and filter feeders, such as clams and oysters, and are passed up the food chain along with the adhering toxic chemicals.

Microscopic fibers, called microfibers, are one of the most common types of microplastics. Clothing made from synthetic fabrics, such as acrylic, nylon, rayon and polyester, as well as blends of synthetics with natural materials (wool, cotton, linen, and hemp), release millions of plastic fibers when they are washed. Waste treatment plants, even those with advanced technologies, are not designed to capture microfibers. According to a June 2016 by researchers from the University of California at Santa Barbara, "up to 40% of them enter rivers, lakes, and oceans." Pollution from plastic fibers is increasing as synthetics now comprise more than 60% of new fabrics and polyester is the fastest growing fabric manufactured by the global textile industry.

The North Pacific Gyre, commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is one of five gyres - swirling current systems collecting trash in the oceans - and has the densest accumulation of plastics. As related in a March 2018 New York Times , it comprises an estimated 87,000 tons of debris and is "a swirling oceanic graveyard where everyday objects get deposited by the currents." The article, "The 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' Is Ballooning, 87,000 Tons of Plastic and Counting" by Livia Albeck-Ripka, refers to a study published in Scientific Reports which determined that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, first observed in the late 1990s, now occupies an area about "four times the size of California and comprises an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of rubbish." By various measurements, including those based on aerial photographs, the scientists concluded that 99.7% of the debris is plastic.

In June of this year, eXXpedition North Pacific , an all-women scientific expedition, sailed from Honolulu to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to collect data for analyzing the impact on marine life and human health of plastic pollution, including the toxic chemicals that are released when plastics disintegrate.

An increasing number of companies throughout the world are voluntarily implementing policies to reduce plastic packaging and eliminate the distribution of single-use plastic straws, stirrers, utensils, and food containers. In February of this year, inspired by David Attenborough's Blue Planet 2 series on the BBC, Queen Elizabeth II banned plastic straws and bottles at all royal estates.

While important, these initiatives are insufficient, thus legislation to ban single-use plastics is gaining momentum within and outside of the US.

Several cities, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Malibu, Oakland, Berkeley, and Miami Beach, have imposed a ban on single-use plastic straws, which represent the sixth most common type of litter. Along with plastic stirrers, they comprise more than seven percent of plastic products. Seattle's ban includes single-use plastic utensils and became effective on July 1. One week later, Starbucks, a Seattle-based company, pledged to phase out disposable plastic straws in all of its 24,000 establishments by 2020. Currently, Starbucks annually provides more than a billion straws to its global customers. In August, San Francisco passed the Plastic, Toxics, and Litter Reduction Ordinance that bans the sale and distribution of single-use plastic and bioplastic (plant-based plastic) straws, utensils, and stirrers. Typically, bans on plastic straws allow the distribution of straws to customers requiring them for medical reasons.

Metal, paper, wheat and corn stalks, sugar cane, and bamboo are alternative materials for straws, which in the US were originally made of straw; specifically, cut and dried rye stalks, then paper and, most recently, plastic since World War II. Biodegradable straws will decompose in nature, but not in oxygen-deprived landfills. Straws designated as compostable must be sent to an industrial compost facility, and fossil fuel-based plastics will only break up into microplastics.

For this article, I purchased a variety of straws. Plant-based PLA (polyactic acid) corn-plastic straws are indistinguishable from conventional plastic straws because they are not marked as a PLA product. This makes single-use plastic bans that allow compostable straws difficult to enforce. Moreover, they have the same impact in the environment as plastic straws. For example, a recent 5 Gyres Institute bioplastics case study determined that straws made from PLA did not substantially degrade in the ocean within a two-year period.

When mingled with their fossil fuel-based counterparts, corn-plastic products contaminate the recycling stream. By contrast, bans allowing for biodegradable straws are enforceable because straws made out of materials such as paper and bamboo (which is biodegradable and reusable), are visually distinct from plastic straws.

According to a June 2018 UN report, 50 countries have either imposed bans or pledged to reduce single-use plastics .

On April 16, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the formation of the Commonwealth Clean Oceans Alliance , comprising the 52 nations of the Commonwealth, to focus on eliminating single-use plastics to reduce marine pollution.

Soon afterward, on May 28, the European Commission, which proposes legislation for the European Union, announced a that, if approved by the EU's 28 member states, will ban several single-use plastic items, such as straws, plates, and utensils for which sustainable alternatives are available. In announcing this directive, Frans Timmermans, the vice president of the European Commission, , "We are at risk of choking our oceans in plastic." Previously, on January 16, the EU that all plastic packaging must be reusable or recyclable by 2030.

In New York State, the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter has endorsed the bill, introduced in February 2018 by State Senators Liz Krueger and Brad Hoylman, that will ban single-use plastic bags and place a ten-cent fee on all other carryout bags. The Senate version is and the Assembly version, introduced by Assemblyman Steve Englebright, is . To increase the number of sponsors, we can call and write our representatives in the NYS Senate and Assembly, and ask them to co-sponsor S7760/A9953. Find the list of NYS Senate legislators and Assembly legislators . Go for more information on the bill.

This 2018 NYS state bill is a response to the bill passed by the NYS Legislature in 2017 to prevent the implementation of a NYC law that mandated a five-cent fee on paper and single-use plastic bags.

In NYC, we can also promote the 0 x 30 reusable bags made of 90% recycled material that the NYC Department of Sanitation is donating as a way to achieve NYC's goal of Zero Waste to Landfills by 2030. If you take the Zero Waste Pledge , the Department of Sanitation will send you a free 0 x 30 reusable bag. I am currently working with environmental activists and Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who represents me in the City Council, to distribute these reusable bags in our City Council District 6. Please write and/or call your council member and ask him/her to request 0 x 30 reusable bags from the Department of Sanitation, which they may provide at their District Office and at public events, including street fairs.

We must all act individually and collectively to reduce plastic pollution. The livability of our planet depends on our oceans, the primary source of earth's oxygen. As Sylvia Earle, the world-renowned oceanographer, states in her 2009 , My Wish: Protect Our Oceans, "Ninety-seven percent of our Earth is oceans. No blue, no green. If you think that the ocean isn't important, imagine Earth without it. Mars comes to mind. No ocean, no life-support systems."
Resources on Plastic Pollution and How We Can Protect Our Oceans
The National Geographic special issue on plastic pollution, Planet or Plastic? You may read the articles , which are accompanied by dramatic visuals, online or purchase the issue online.

Sylvia Earle, a world-renowned oceanographer and president of the environmental organization Mission Blue, February 19, 2009, TED Talk, My Wish: Protect Our Oceans .

Albatross is a film on how plastic pollution is affecting the albatross population on Midway Island. Watch the or the entire film .

Annie Leonard, The Story of Microfibers .

American Museum of Natural History, Earth Day 1970-2018: Sea Changes .

Sierra Club Marine Team

UN Global Partnership on Marine Litter

https:// Ocean Conservancy and oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas

#breakfreefromplastic: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org

Greenpeace Million Acts of Blue campaign

Judith S. Weis: Marine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Tryggvi Adalbjornsson, " Take Our Quiz: The Trash Most Likely to Litter a Beach ," The New York Times, June 26, 2018

Graeme Wearden, " More plastic than fish in the sea by 2050 ," says Ellen MacArthur, The Guardian, January 19, 2016

International Bird Rescue

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Lisa DiCaprio Conservation Chair, NYC Group While consumers worship at the altar of convenience created by single-use plastics, seabirds, turtles, fish, and marine mammals, such as dolphins and whales, are dying from plastic debris in various macabre ways: strangulation, entanglement, suffocation from encasement in plastic, and starvation as plastic fills their stomachs, stealing the space required for food.

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Editor's Note (11/27/2017): This post was updated with new statistics on plastic waste generation and recycling, as well as new information on methods of reuse.
What would modern life be like without plastic? According to The World Economic Forum, plastic production has exploded over the last half-century, growing from 16.5 million tons in 1964 to 343 million tons in 2014; it is projected to double by 2036. Where does all of it go when we're done with it?

In 2014, Americans discarded about 33.6 million tons of plastic, but only 9.5 percent of it was recycled and 15 percent was combusted to create electricity or heat.

Most of the rest ends up in landfills where it may take up to 500 years to decompose, and potentially leak pollutants into the soil and water. It's estimated that there are already 165 million tons of plastic debris floating around in the oceans threatening the health and safety of marine life. And an average of 8.8 million more tons enter the oceans each year, including microplastics, tiny particles less than five millimeters long from cosmetics, fabrics or the breakdown of larger pieces, which may be ingested by marine wildlife.

Relatively little of our plastic waste is recycled because there are various types of plastic with different chemical compositions, and recycled plastics can be contaminated by the mixing of types. Plastic waste is also contaminated by materials such as paper and ink. Separating plastics from other recyclables, and different types of plastic from each other, is labor-intensive and so far there has been no easy solution.

Although the Society of Plastic Industries developed seven codes to distinguish types of plastic for recycling, in reality, only two-polyethylene terephthalate (PET, used for synthetic fibers and water bottles) and high density polyethylene (HDPE, used for jugs, bottle caps, water pipes)-are routinely recycled. But in more and more cities like New York and Chicago, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic bags are now being recycled too. And increasingly, the recycling industry's use of near‐infrared spectroscopy, which can identify the chemical composition of plastics, is improving the efficiency and speed of recycling.

Plastics that can be recycled are first sorted, shredded and rid of impurities like paper. The shreds are then melted and formed into pellets, which can be made into other products.

MoistureShield in Arkansas, and Virginia-based Trex recycle polyethylene into outdoor decking material, fencing, and doors and windows. Coca Cola is increasing the amount of recycled plastic in its bottles to 50 percent.

Plastic is made from petroleum or natural gas in a chemical process that combines smaller molecules into a large chainlike molecule, often with other substances added to give it particular qualities. (Some, like phthalates and bisphenol A, can have harmful health effects.) Plastic production is estimated to use four percent of global oil production-both as the raw material and for energy in the manufacturing process. Because these polymers embody energy from fossil fuels (and actually have a higher energy value than coal and wood), leaving so much of it in landfills is not only an environmental hazard, it is a huge waste of a valuable resource that could be used to produce electricity, heat, or fuel.

The Plastics Division of the American Chemical Council asked the Earth Institute's Earth Engineering Center to explore ways of recovering the energy inherent in non-recycled plastics. The 2011 report, which was updated in 2014, determined that the amount of energy contained in the millions of tons of plastic in U.S. landfills is equivalent to 48 million tons of coal, 180 million barrels of oil, or one trillion cubic feet of natural gas. If all this plastic were converted into liquid fuel, it could produce 5.7 billion gallons of gasoline, enough to power 8.9 million cars per year. And the fact is, there are now technologies that can put all this waste to good use.

The report examined three ways of utilizing non-recycled plastic for energy production: converting it directly into liquid fuel, using separated plastics as fuel in special types of power plants, and increasing the amount of garbage burned in waste-to-energy facilities.

Plastics can be converted into crude oil or other types of products through pyrolysis, a high heat process that does not use oxygen. Agilyx, an Oregon-based company, has developed a system that heats polystyrene from foam cups, packaging materials, and Styrofoam to create a styrene monomer, a building block of the plastic industry. The final liquid product can be sold to other refiners to produce oil or to make more polystyrene.

Plastic2Oil in Niagara Falls, NY, uses unwashed, unsorted waste plastic to produce ultra-low sulfur fuels that do not require further refining. The company maintains that its process is "highly green, clean and scalable."

A number of other companies in the U.S., Africa, Asia and Europe are investing in technology that produces liquid fuel from plastic wastes.

According to the updated Earth Engineering Center report, power plants specially designed to use non-recycled plastics as fuel could theoretically produce 61.9 million MWh of electricity, enough to power 5.7 million homes.

Burning more garbage inwaste-to-energy facilities would recover the energy inherent in plastics and reduce greenhouse gas emissions since landfills emit methane (a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide) as garbage decomposes. Unlike incinerators of the past, modern waste-to-energy facilities produce electricity and heat in boilers designed for complete combustion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said they produce electricity "with less environmental impact than almost any other source of electricity."

If the amount of garbage sitting in U.S. landfills in 2011 was burned in waste-to-energy facilities, it could theoretically yield enough electricity to power 13.8 million households and reduce coal use by 100 million tons a year. In 2015, 71 waste-to-energy facilities and four other power plants in the United States burned 29 million tons of garbage, generating nearly 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

A 2009 United Nations Environmental Programme report on converting plastic waste into a resource described the production of gaseous fuels, using high heat to decompose plastic waste, and solid fuel derived from a mixture of waste plastic, paper, and wood. The materials are first shredded, sorted then made into pellets. A number of companies in Japan are producing both solid and gaseous fuels. The Showa Denko company, headquartered in Tokyo, uses heat gasification to recycle plastic waste into ammonia, used to manufacture many products, and CO2 for carbonization.

Liter of Light, a grassroots movement with partnerships around the world, has found another way to recycle plastic bottles. It helps energy-poor communities convert discarded soda bottles into solar bottle bulbs to illuminate homes and streets. The organization has installed over 350,000 bottle lights in more than 15 countries.

The best solutions for our plastic problem are still to reduce our use of them, and to reuse and recycle whenever possible. More policies that ban plastic bag use, require bottle deposits and expand recycling would help. But millions of tons of plastic waste still sit in landfills around the country; technologies that are able to tap this waste as a resource can offer multiple benefits, helping to clean up the environment, lessen our dependence on foreign oil, decrease our use of non-renewable virgin resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and generate energy.

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Americans discard about 33.6 million tons of plastic each year, but only 9.5 percent of it is recycled and 15 percent is combusted in waste-to-energy facilities. What happens to the rest of it?

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How Humans are Turning the World into Plastics

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How Humans are Turning the World into Plastics

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Modern life would be impossible without plastic - but we have long since lost control over our invention. Why has plastic turned into a problem and what do we know about its dangers? This video is a collaboration with UN Environment and their Clean Seas campaign, If you want to take action to turn the tide on plastics, go to cleanseas and make your pledge. We also partnered with askscience on reddit - on you can talk to experts and ask questions about about plastic pollution today!

Sources used in the video

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Plastic pollution: how humans are turning the world into plastic

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Modern life would be impossible without plastic - but we have long since lost control over our invention. Why has plastic turned into a problem and what do we know about its dangers?

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Hannah Ritchie and Veronika Samborska and Max Roser

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How much plastic ends up in the ocean? Where does it come from?

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Plastic threatens our health from before production to long after it's thrown away: Report

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Plastic pollution is a "threat to human life and human rights" and, in order to stem this problem, we have to overhaul how we produce, use and dispose of it, according to a large international report released today.