Traveling the world by the ocean, plastic waste cannot be overlooked as a global problem.ย It is in the end of it’s ‘use’ when the global problem plastic pollution becomes most obvious.ย As ocean voyagers we see Plastic bottles, wrappers, lines, containers, and shoes filling current lines, passing through an anchorage or an estuary with the tide, littering the high tide line from the beach into the trees, and burning in thick black smoke from trash fires all over the world.ย It is most contemptible and disastrously true that many stunning beaches are spoiled by plastic waste that comes from near and far.ย ย Ideally, all plastic is or could be recycled and neither the air quality or the environment are harmed in the process.ย However, in reality less than 10% of plastic produced is recycled worldwide and plastic waste is becoming a greater and greater threat to human health and the environment.ย We all need to know more in order to do better by ourselves, the environment and future generations.
“Humans have produced more than 11 billion metric tons of virgin plastic since 1950, when plastic first came into widespread use, according to Roland Geyer, lead author of one of the first scientific studies quantifying the global plastic habit. According to his research, only 2 billion metric tons are still in use today, meaning the restโsome 8.7 billion tonsโis waste. According to the U.N. Environment Programme, the world produces 430 million metric tons of plastic annually, two-thirds of which are short-lived products destined for disposal.”
Quote from: Inside Fijiโs Fiery Battle Against Plastics By Aryn Baker/Lautoka, Fiji
Thankfully, there are initiatives all over the world working to understand and address this global problem.ย A recent article quoted above from the Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network tracks the complicated and convoluted plastic problem that the island nation of Fiji is facing.ย Fiji produces plastic (Fiji Water is their biggest tax payer and employer), distributes plastic worldwide, uses plastic, receives plastic by way of ocean currents in excess of national use by 72%, dumps, buries, and burns plastic.ย Plastic at the end of it’s use is Fiji’s most problematic pollutant.
Fiji is a small island nation of 332 islands; they maintain one sanitary landfill and two municipal dumps.ย While these waste facilities make an effort to manage their own national waste they are unable to manage the added plastic pollution in the ocean landing on their shores.ย While interviewing a local woman that sorts and cleans plastic bottles for cash returns, the reports follows her as she process all ‘other’ plastic.
So, where does excess plastic waste go when it cannot be properly recycled or disposed of?ย
- In Fiji, there is a limited amount of plastic bottles that are bought back by Coca Cola and Fiji Water and many Fijians are a part of this ‘economy’.ย This ‘economy’ involves, collecting, sorting, washing, bagging, weighing and delivering select Coca-Cola and/or Fiji bottles.
- ‘Other’ plastic waste is either burned,
- buried, or
- dumped into the environment.
While the report focuses on Fiji, the story of people, burdened by heaps of plastic, burning, burying, or dumping excess plastic is replicated dozens of times daily in communities around the world, and across the Fijian archipelago, creating a toxic burden on human and environmental health that is only starting to be quantified.ย The article goes on to tease apart the impact of these different methods on the environment and human health while highlighting local efforts in Fiji to address plastic pollution on a local and global level.
It is a wake up call.ย Plastic pollution is a detriment to our environment and human health.ย The toxic effects are being found in human blood to breastmilk and scientists are beginning to study the linkage to rising cancers and developmental delays and diseases.
To read more about the problem and possible global solutions, click this link:
https://time.com/6991350/plastic-microplastics-fiji-water-recycling/
Further reading that may be of interest to boat owners comes from a British study revealing “Disturbing levels” of Fiberglass in Oysters and Mussels.ย The ocean knows no borders, these are global issues:
https://boattest.com/article/british-study-reveals-disturbing-level-fiberglass-oysters-and-mussels