What Is Being Done To Clean The Oceans

"The average person eats over 70,000 microplastics per twelvemonth!"

When it comes to plastic, we are outnumbered on this planet.

I mean that literately.

Plastic started being produced in significant amounts around 1950, and since then, there have now been cumulatively over 8.3 billion tons produced.

You read that right – in less than 70 brusk years, the globe has produced more than than 2,000 pounds of plastic for every man, woman, and child on this unabridged planet.

And likewise since 1950, cumulatively speaking – we've merely recycled 9% of that amount!

Even if subtract all plastic since 1950 that was either recycled OR incinerated (E'er!) AND we likewise deduct all of the plastic notwithstanding exist used today – nosotros are still left with over 5 billion tons of plastic garbage!

So, information technology should be no surprise microplastics are a global problem.

Microplastics are defined as a particle of plastic 5mm in bore or less, and so basically the size of a sesame seed or smaller – and they are more often than not formed over fourth dimension past larger plastic pollution in oceans that breaks down over time due to directly sunlight exposure and weathering.

As we discussed in detail in a by blog by, microplastics are everywhere in our world, from the water we potable, the nutrient that we swallow, and the air that we breathe.

In that web log postal service, we also discussed the history of microplastics, how they are formed, and how bad the problem has gotten.

Co-ordinate to the Surfrider Foundation, studies have conclusively found microplastics straight in our tap water, bottled water, beer (NO!!!), dear, salt, sugar, shellfish and indirectly in dozens of fish that accept microplastics in their gut likewise as livestock that consumes ground up small fish in their feed.

The trouble is bad, and while they are no silverish bullets or magic pills to get in all disappear, in that location are a number of solutions that can certainly make the situation much ameliorate.

Equally important, if we COMBINE all of these solutions together (and many more solutions not included hither), and recognize that like cancer, we must attack this crisis on all angles. Merely so, will nosotros actually start to see real and sustained progress and a global reduction

1. Embankment Cleanups

What excites me most about embankment clean ups is that they are something we ALL can participate and volunteer in! River and lake cleanups work too if you don't alive nigh an ocean and many of these bodies of waters also feed into our oceans.

At present later on mentioning 5 billion tons of plastic garbage outstanding on our planet, a beach make clean up might feel similar giving a homeless guy a quarter in terms of global impact.

But here's why you are wrong.

Co-ordinate to the Articulation Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Surroundings Protection (GESAMP),

"The product of microplastics by the fragmentation of larger plastic items is most constructive on beaches, with high UV irradiation and concrete abrasion by waves. Once submerged, cooler temperatures and reduced UV ways fragmentation becomes extremely slow."

In other words, embankment cleanups brand a huge difference considering the combination of directly sunlight and strong forcefulness of waves are nature'southward all-time microplastic creator.

2. Bounding main Cleanups

While beach cleanups are the best style to Forbid microplastic in the first identify, the Sea Cleanup Project is the best way (at to the lowest degree the best one I can find) to clean upwards existing microplastic as well as reducing further microplastic by removing bigger pieces that will break down into smaller and smaller pieces over time.

In case you are unfamiliar with the five great garbage patches, they are basically the build up of UNIMAGINABLE amounts of plastic and other marine litter that floats on the ocean surface and creates floating "garbage patches" the size of states!

Through use of optimal wind and wave energy for system mobility, the Ocean Cleanup Projection has created a long system 2,000 anxiety that floats with iii-pes skirt underneath that acts as a net.

Using data and algorithms to predict sea currents, The arrangement is able to motion faster than the plastic and to slowly encircle parts of these great garbage patches.

This allows the system to slowly capture and envelope the plastic, regardless of whether they exist microplastics or much larger plastic structures.

The Ocean Cleanup'south goal is to ultimately deploy 60 systems worldwide, and to clean up 90% of all sea plastic pollution past 2040.

3. Government bans on single use plastic

As we discussed in one of our past blog posts, very recently the entire EU parliament overwhelmingly voted to ban unmarried use plastic.

According to the NY Times, this ban includes "Nether the proposal, canonical on a vote of 571 to 53 on Wednesday, ten unmarried-employ plastics that well-nigh often terminate upwardly in the ocean will be prohibited in the European Union, too as oxo-degradable plastics, such as bags or fast-food container packaging."

This is then disquisitional because, at least for right now, the ban simply includes the elevation ten items for which "reasonable and cost effective substitutes be."

In other words, EVERY government in the globe could do this rather easily, and with relatively minimal pushback from consumers.

And we tin can get a helluva lot farther with single use plastics.

The truth is, we really don't need them.

Similar to how we have pushed out tobacco and cigarette smoking in the United States in the last ii decades, we tin can slowly (but surely) button out unmarried use plastics through a combination of awareness marketing, tax subsidies to make plastic-complimentary alternatives cheaper, punitive taxes for producers and consumers etc.

CONCLUSION

Every bit mentioned previously, embankment cleanups, bounding main cleanups, and government bans on single use plastic (that hopefully get progressively more than inclusive of many more single employ plastics) will non solve the sea microplastic crisis by itself.

However, if all efforts are washed at the same fourth dimension, in a concerted endeavor by, we really tin brand a huge deviation over fourth dimension.

We can use beach cleanups to aid minimize microplastics by reducing the microplastic problem at the source of pollution which is ofttimes on beaches, we can help cleanup what's already in our oceans and equally importantly forestall bigger plastics in oceans from degrading further and becoming more than difficult to clean in the future.

Finally, by banning single use plastics, we reduce the possibility of "newer" produced plastic from e'er getting on our beaches or in our oceans in the get-go place.

These solutions are non individually, or collectively, a silverish bullet. Such is to exist expected from such a global crisis that has been rapidly getting worse over decades.

This is a lot more like trench warfare, and will accept several years of fighting on multiple fronts with dozens of allies effectually the world.

If you're upward for the fight, time to dig in.

 Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/environs/2018/mar/15/microplastics-found-in-more-than-ninety-of-bottled-water-study-says

https://www.earthday.org/2018/03/29/fact-canvas-single-apply-plastics/

https://ourworldindata.org/faq-on-plastics#how-much-of-global-plastic-is-recycled

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution#mismanaged-plastic-waste product

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-surround/

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html#transcript

http://www.gesamp.org/site/assets/files/1720/24472_gesamp_leaflet_pq.pdf

https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/guidanceregulation/lawsregulations/ucm531849.htm

https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/MicroplasticsOnePager_0.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/manufactures/PMC4780615/

https://www.surfrider.org/coastal-blog/entry/track-your-plastic-ingestion-list-of-foods-and-drinks-containing-microplast

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2018/625115/EPRS_BRI(2018)625115_EN.pdf

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-invisible-microscopic-climate-crisis-microplastic-that-we-swallow-drink-and-exhale/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/reducing-millions-of-tons-of-co2-through-eu-single-use-plastic-ban/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-fight-climate-change-and-plastic-pollution-at-abode/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/reducing-co2-plastic-waste-at-the-same-time/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/loop-industries-leading-the-sustainable-plastic-revolution/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/506055-2__trashed/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-global-marshmallow-test-can-we-delay-gratification-for-a-more than-sustainable-earth/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/dare-greatly-the-green-screen-brb-motility/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/humanitys-plastic-footprint-is-probably-more than-dangerous-than-its-carbon-footprint/

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/can-we-innovate-our-style-out-of-the-climate-crisis-natural-biodegradable-sustainable-alternatives-to-plastic/

Source: https://laquilaactive.com/3-solutions-to-reducing-microplastics-in-our-oceans/

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