Plastic Pollution Destroys Marine Wildlife

By Marlene Affeld


By negligently discarding plastic, especially plastic water bottles, fishing gear and plastic bags, people are unknowingly causing the deaths of millions of mammals, fish, birds and reptiles every year. We defile the face of the earth with plastic refuse.

Following the invention of plastic earlier this century, it has become a highly requested material used in a wide variety of unique and innovative applications. Plastic is used to manufacture, or market many of the items we use in daily life. The problem comes when we no longer want these items and how we dispose of them, especially the throwaway plastic material used for wrapping, packaging or shipping. Plastic is handy, lightweight and easily discarded. Too easily discarded.

Plastics are utilized because they are easy and inexpensive to manufacture, tough and long lasting. Unfortunately these same useful qualities make plastic a pollution problem. Inferior quality and low cost means plastic is readily discarded. Plastics take around 300 years to photo degrade. Its long life assures it survives in the environment for extended periods where it can do great harm. Because plastic does not easily decompose and requires high energy ultra-violet light to break down, the volume of plastic waste in the world's oceans is rapidly increasing. Plastic is now found in virtually all the oceans and rivers of the world, even the most remote and once pristine.

Oceanographer Charles Moore says the amount of toxic plastic pollution in the worlds oceans is so extensive it's beyond cleaning up. A toxic plastic graveyard double the size of Texas swirls in the waters of the Pacific between San Francisco and Hawaii. There Moore and his crew found that the water contained six parts of plastic for every part plankton, with a five times escalation in the amount of plastic between 1997 and 2007.

Annually in excess of 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. That is an unconscionable amount of waste, so much that more than one million bags are used every minute and their impact on the planet is devastating. Plastic bags are only part of the problem. America alone, produces in excess of 800,000 tons of plastic bottle pollution every year, and the amount is growing. World-wide the earth is defiled with over 100 million tons of plastic pollution every year.

The California Costal Commission reports that over 80 per cent of debris within waterways, most of it being plastic, originates on land rather than being generated by boats.

Plastic affects marine wildlife in deadly ways: entangling creatures and by being consumed. Turtles are particularly devastated by plastic refuse. All seven of the world's turtle species are already endangered or threatened for a multitude of reasons. Turtles become entangled in fishing nets, and many sea turtles have expired with plastic garbage bags in their stomachs. Studies indicate turtles mistake these floating semi-transparent bags for jellyfish and eat them. The turtles die an inhumane death from choking or from being unable to eat. A dead turtle found off the coast Hawaii was found to have more than 1000 pieces of plastic in its stomach including part of a comb, a toy truck wheel and lank of nylon rope.

There is considerable global concern about the longterm effect of plastic pollution on all marine mammals. These elegant creatures are already under threat for a variety of other reasons: e.g. seal and whale populations have been decimated by unregulated hunting. A recent study concluded that in excess of 100,000 marine mammals die needlessly each year from the deadly effects of plastic pollution.

Globally over 100 bird species are known to eat plastic particles. This includes 36 species found off the coast of South Africa. A recent study of blue petrel hatchlings at South Africa's remote Marion Island showed that 90% of the chicks examined had plastic in their digestive systems, apparently fed to them accidentally by their parents. South African seabirds are among the worst affected in the world. Plastics remain in the birds' stomachs, impeding digestion and causing starvation.

Scientific reviews are inconclusive about how much plastic birds and fish are eating, however scientist agree that plastic in seafood is likely to be harmful for people. Plastic is compared with better understood toxic materials such as mercury. Plastic acts like a sponge when in contact with poisons such as PCBs, concentrating them at levels that are millions of time more than in untainted seawater.

The ingredients in plastic have been linked to cancer and reproductive deformaties. Bisphenol A, found in plastic water bottles, has been shown to produce cancer in lab rats, to interrupt hormone levels and is associated with diabetes and obesity.

Scientific studies also cause concerns that the massive swirls of floating plastic could contribute to global warming by creating a thick shady canopy that makes it difficult for plankton and plant life to sustain growth.

Let's examine a few different ways where together we can make a change. The global crisis of plastic pollution demands urgent study and action. Business should be encouraged to reduce the amount of plastic used in packaging and to reuse and recycle. Plastic wrapping and plastic garbage bags should carry a warning label advising of the dangers of plastic pollution and shoppers should be encouraged to use earth-wise shopping bags of organic, natural materials or recycled plastic fibers. Please tell this to our law makers. The situation only continues to worsen. We must act now!

Support re-cycling programs and promote environmental awareness in your local community. Take a pro-active stance in asking governments to make changes and consumers to adjust their attitudes. Purchase items requiring less plastic wrapping and advise store management why we are doing so. We can speak with a loud voice when we speak with our dollars.

Choose to drink tap or carbon filtered water from a glass-lined reusable container. If you do purchase plastic bottles, dispose of the container properly. Please recycle.

With the increase in environmental awareness, it has become painfully obvious that there is more that we can do to create a sustainable society. If every one of us would take a few tiny steps, make a few different choices and consciously consider our impact on the planet, there may be a way to restore the world to its original beauty and resources.

About the Author:
Marlene Affeld's passion for the environment and all things natural inspire her to write informative and insightful articles to assist others in living a Green Lifestyle. For more Green Living info from Marlene visit Nandu Green at http://nandugreen.com/index.php/Green-Lifestyle/Sustainability.html

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