World Environment Day 5th June 2023 – Beat Plastic Pollution

The Problem – Plastics in rivers, seas, oceans

Every day the equivalent of 1,440 bin wagons full of waste plastic is dumped into our oceans. That’s about 1 truck per minute. Plastic waste generation is expected to triple by 2060 and plastic leaking into the oceans has been estimated to triple by 2040. By far the biggest source of ocean plastic is from mismanaged waste. To end plastic pollution the UN is proposing a treaty to address this issue by 2040.

Then there are Microplastics…

Plastic waste that is in the environment isn’t just an issue of local pollution, but also a source of microplastics and harmful chemicals.

The circular economy is starting to drive recycling of plastics, which everyone has hailed as a positive way of making waste back into a usable resource and preventing plastics from getting into the environment.

Everyday activities also cause leakage of microplastics through wear and tear of tyres, textiles containing plastic, paints and from other sources.  

Perhaps then let’s just get on with the circular economy then…

Recycling has been promoted by the plastics industry as a key solution to the growing problem of plastic waste. Globally, only about 9% of the 370m metric tonnes of plastic produced gets recycled (source OECD - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). But is this such an easy solution?

A recent study has found recycling itself could be releasing huge quantities of microplastics.

Wastewater from a state-of-the-art recycling plant at an undisclosed location in the UK was sampled by an International Team of Scientists. They discovered that the microplastics released in the water amounted to 13% of the plastic processed.

The research was conducted at the University of Strathclyde, and the lead researcher Erina Brown stated that she was incredibly shocked and said “It’s scary because recycling has been designed in order to reduce the problem and to protect the environment. This is a huge problem we’re creating.”

We ALL really need to reduce the use of single-use plastic at the very least.

So, what’s the solution? Well, I can’t give one (can anyone), but my intention is to at least look at my own practices and reduce the use of single plastic consumption this year and summer is a great time to start to put good intentions into practice. I now buy milk from my local milkman in glass returnable bottles.