Environmental Damage Caused by Discarded Plastic
Waste Plastic is a Terrestrial Eyesore and a Lethal Marine Pollutant
Apr 27, 2009
Increased use of plastic as a convenience leads to environmental pollution. On land, waste plastic is an eyesore while at sea plastic is a lethal marine pollutant.
A report entitled “Drowning in Plastic: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is Twice the Size of France” carried in the UK Telegraph on April 24, 2009, written by Richard Grant, highlights the problems associated with discarded plastic waste. It states, “Invisible to satellites, poorly understood by scientists and perhaps twice the size of France, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not a solid mass, as is sometimes imagined, but a kind of marine soup whose main ingredient is floating plastic debris.” The rapid growth of plastic used as a convenience has resulted in a corresponding growth in waste plastic with lethal environmental problems, especially in the oceans of the world.
Global Growth of Plastic Waste
The growth in discarded plastic has mirrored the phenomenal growth in plastic products used globally.
- As far back as 1998, the growth in discarded plastic was recognized as an environmental problem. In Recycling of PVC and Mixed Plastic Waste, published by Chem Tec in 1998, the author, Francesco La Manita states, “Today, the question of the disposal of used plastics has gained increasing importance in the public discussion because of the environmental problems resulting from the rapid growth plastic waste during the last years.”
- In Handbook of Environmental Health, published by CRC Press in 2002, Herman Koren claims, “By the year 2000, 9.4% of the waste was plastic, or approximately 39.4 billion lb. Since 1960, plastic production has grown at two to three time the rate of the gross national product. More than half of all discarded plastic is packaging.”
- Plastics and the Environment, by Anthony Andrady, published by Wile-IEEE in 2003 states, “Plastics waste in urban litter does pose a serious and real waste management problem. Unlike paper, plastics do not degrade in the outdoor environment at a fast enough rate compared to that of littering. The result is a serious aesthetic problem in highly populated urban areas in almost any part of world.”
Environmental Damage of Discarded Plastic
Generally considered no more than an aesthetic eyesore, waste plastic is a lethal marine pollutant.
- In Chemistry of the Environment, published by Academic Press in 2002, the author Ronald Bailey argues that, “The principal concern associated with plastic materials scattered on land is one of aesthetics, not toxicity or harm to ecosystems. Plastic articles dumped in oceans are not aesthetically pleasing when they wash up on beaches, but of even greater importance is their danger to marine life.”
- In the October 2008 edition of the journal Environmental Research, an article, “Synthetic Polymers in the Marine Environment” by Charles Moore claims, “In the deep ocean, large high-pressure systems known as gyres tend to accrete the debris. In the largest gyre, located in the central North Pacific, neuston trawls lined with 0.333mm mesh yielded the astounding figure of six kilos of plastic fragments for every kilo of zooplankton 40.333mm in size.”
- The UN Environmental Programme, in its 2005 publication, Marine Litter, claims, “Furthermore, it has been estimated that over 13,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square kilometre of ocean today."
- Michelle Allsop highlights the danger of waste plastic to marine animals in Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans, published by Greenpeace in November 2006 when she states, “Ingestion of marine debris is known to particularly affect sea turtles and seabirds but is also a problem for marine mammals and fish. Ingestion is generally thought to occur because the marine debris is mistaken for prey. Most of that erroneously ingested is plastic."
The copyright of the article Environmental Damage Caused by Discarded Plastic in Pollution Control is owned by Laurence O'Sullivan. Permission to republish Environmental Damage Caused by Discarded Plastic in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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