What are the risks of ignoring the refuse collecting in our oceans and what can be done to ease the problem? This article aims to briefly explore a pivotal challenge facing humanity in the 21st century.
Humanity currently faces many challenges and associated risks: political and international insecurities, resource scarcity and environmental protection to name a few. However, one of the most important and time-sensitive is the global aggregation of garbage known as the ‘Plastic Soup’ or ‘Trash Vortex’. Over the last century, advances in technology and industry, coupled with government institutions which promote free consumer-driven markets have led to an increase in people’s demand for many products. Whether these products be headphones, kitchen knives, vegetables, juice or milk, they all come in plastic packaging of varying sizes, shapes and materials. However, these cheap and light materials have risks many do not consider. The most commonly used plastics in consumer products biodegrade slowly, burn toxically and float readily.
While many developed economies have advanced waste collection and processing systems, none are perfect; some waste falls through the cracks and eventually enters the seas via the coasts or waterways. Moreover, many countries with larger population densities, less waste infrastructure, drinking water issues or poor legal enforcement may generate more plastic input into the sea. In addition to the waste produced by land based activities, many marine activities produce waste as well. In freight shipping, plastics can enter the sea in various ways-- harbour activities, ocean ‘dumping’ or accidents, for example. Ocean cruises, diving and other recreational activities are examples of how tourism contributes to the waste in public waters. Cut or lost nets from fishing activities also generate a large amount of waste. Moreover, it is difficult to oversee, develop and enforce legislation dealing with maritime waste, especially in international waters. This all leads to the oceans taking in a lot of plastics which float or are suspended in salt water and flow with the currents.
If these bottles, bags and other marine debris catch a stronger current they can eventually end up in one of five oceanic gyres. A gyre, in oceanography, is a term used for the large circular currents created by winds and the earth’s movements and structure. In these gyres, the plastic collects, floats, breaks up and is suspended in deep columns. It can be mistakenly eaten by animals or entangle them and can block sunlight, starving algae or other photosynthesizing species. Moreover, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, polluting the water. The ethical implications for future generations and non-human species are dire. Society risks forever losing species and potentially also habitats, exacerbating climate change effects. The sheer size of the problem is difficult to understand, as these gyres are larger, in surface area, than many nations. The Guardian had the following to say in an article:
“More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found.”
The issue is an international, value driven and multi-facetted one, whose solution will be layered, require forward-thinking and time. For one, as the world continues to develop and embrace consumerism, waste will continue to enter the sea. The plastics are spread out in remote parts of the oceans and thus retrieving them would be costly. Moreover, as plastics take roughly a century to degrade, this is a problem future generations will have to contend with. Therefore, it should be of chief importance to focus on increasing the level of social awareness and accountability in order to mitigate the amount of waste plastic which enters, passes through, but also leaks out of the economic cycle. We, as a society, should be charged to act on our responsibilities to future generations and leave behind a world with a sustainable future. Every day we wait, the ecological problem gets worse and the solution more difficult.
Niklas Zeller
