Hi everyone, for this week, Seeker is continuing our collaboration with The Swim to raise awareness
about ocean health.
And Ben Lecomte has already seen a lot of plastic on his journey.
Plastic is a material that’s cheap, versatile, and lightweight.
It is also a major source of ocean pollution, which we’re reminded of every time a dead
whale washes ashore with one hundred and fifteen plastic cups in its stomach.
So who is most responsible for all this pollution, and why?
At first glance, the numbers seem to point the finger at a handful of countries in Asia.
A 2015 study named the five biggest contributors, which were Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines,
Indonesia, and topping the charts at number 1 by a wide margin, China.
Much of the plastic pollution from these countries stemmed from underdeveloped waste management
systems.
In China, 76% of waste was mismanaged, meaning it was either just dropped as litter or disposed
of in dumps or landfills that weren’t well contained and allowed the plastic to escape.
The study concluded that all that mismanaged plastic ended up depositing between 1.3 and
3.5 million metric tons of debris in the ocean each year, almost a third of the estimated
annual marine plastic scrap.
But don’t be so quick to pin all the blame on China.
Starting in 1992 China started importing plastic waste from other countries, and it’s bought
up a total of about 45% of the post-consumer plastic exported since then, adding about
10 to 13 percent to their domestic waste.
Why?
Because that plastic can be processed and turned into other goods.
Well, some of it can anyway.
Not all plastics are created equal, and some types of plastic are more easily recycled
than others.
You may have noticed the recycling symbol on your plastic products has a number between
1 and 7 in the middle.
Those numbers actually tell you what kind of plastic the product is made from, and some
types are easier to recycle than others.
The two most common types of recycled plastic are polyethylene terephthalate, found in clothes
and disposable bottles;and high-density polyethylene, found in detergent bottles, milk jugs, and
toys.
Those are numbers one and two, but plastics labeled 3 to 7 can be harder to process.
No matter the number China was accepting it all.
8.
Further complicating things is when materials get mixed.
Single-use coffee cups, for example, often have a thin coating of polyethylene to make
them liquid-proof, which means the materials have to be separated first before they can
be recycled.
The process is difficult and expensive, so most waste management facilities just treat
the cups as trash.
Likewise when single use food containers still have scraps of food or liquid in them, they
can’t be processed either and are just discarded.
So since China was buying up nearly half the world’s exported used plastics, and plenty
of that was too difficult or impossible to recycle and was subsequently put into inadequate
dumps and landfills, then some of the responsibility lies with the exporters.
At 693 million metric tons, The US was the second biggest seller of plastic to China
in 2016, so even though USA ranked 20th on the list of biggest marine plastic polluters,
that’s only because we weren’t handling all our trash ourselves.
At the start of 2018 though, things changed.
Citing environmental reasons, China stopped the import of post-consumer plastics completely.
The last link in the supply chain just isn’t accepting our low-quality stuff anymore.
Other countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are buying more plastic, but
those countries struggle to manage their waste already, so a lot of that plastic will likely
find its way to the ocean too.
Plus, they can never match the market size of China, so we still have a lot of trash
to deal with all of a sudden.
Our waste management systems weren’t ready for this influx of plastic, and much of what
we used to send overseas for recycling is heading right to the landfill.So what can
an individual like you do if you’re worried about plastic finding its way to the ocean
and hurting fish and sea turtles and whales?
Well lots of thing as it turns out.
You can use less plastic, full stop.
You can recycle more, and be better at recycling too by rinsing your used plastics and being
aware of what plastics your local recycling facility can handle.
And you can demand that manufacturers use more recycled plastics.
Even though the recycling process increases the cost, some companies are planning to make
more products with recycled materials because it’s important to their consumers.
And lastly, just don’t litter.
It’s the laziest crime.
Do it for the turtles.
Are you surprised by how much plastic gets mismanaged?
If you have some helpful tips, why don’t you share them down in the comments.
Seeker is highlighting The Swim for the rest of this week to bring awareness to the impact
of pollution since it’s one of the most important issues facing humanity today.
We ask you to help us spread the message and keep coming back to Seeker for all your environment
updates, and thanks for watching.