A blog set out to explore, archive & relate plastic pollution happening world-wide, while learning about on-going efforts and solutions to help break free of our addiction to single-use plastics & sharing this awareness with a community of clean water lovers everywhere!

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Ocean’s Micro-plastics as Harmful as Plastic Bags -Report

Published in MarineLink.com by Eric Haun, April 28, 2015

Microplastic fragments from the western North Atlantic, collected using a towed plankton net. (Photo: Giora Proskurowski, Sea Education Association (SEA).) 
 
Tiny pieces of plastic or fibers, known as Micro-plastics, may act as a pathway for persistent, bio accumulating and toxic substances entering the food chain, and are increasingly being found in the oceans and may prove to be as harmful to marine life as more obvious, larger debris, such as plastic bags, according to a new report. 
 
The report, Sources, fates and effects of microplastics in the marine environment - a global assessment, has been published by the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), an advisory body that advises the United Nations (UN) system on the scientific aspects of marine environmental protection.
 
“While there is a need for further assessment of the problem, the report is the first attempt, at a global scale, to identify the main sources, fate and effects of microplastics in the ocean and offers improved understanding of the scale of the problem. The assessment suggests that there needs to be a wider awareness of the potential harm that microplastics in the oceans could cause,” said Dr. Stefan Micallef, Director Marine Environment Division, at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Administrative Secretary of GESAMP. 
 
“Even tiny particles, such as those used in cosmetic products or abrasives, could potentially harm marine life if ingested. We need to work globally to ensure that plastics do not end up in the oceans,” Dr. Micallef said. 
 
Microplastics refer to small plastic particles, less than 5 mm in diameter, but some as small as 10 nanometres. Microplastics may be purposefully manufactured for particular industrial or domestic applications (such as facial cleansers), or result from the fragmentation of larger items, especially when exposed to sunlight. Microplastics have been found distributed throughout the world’s oceans, on shorelines, in surface waters and seabed sediments, from the Arctic to Antarctic. They may accumulate at remote locations such as mid-ocean gyres, as well as close to population centers, shipping routes and other major sources. 
 
The potential problems of micro-plastics in the marine environment were brought to the attention of GESAMP in 2010 and the assessment report has been developed by a working group of experts which has met regularly during the past five years. 
 
The report notes that while the physical impacts of larger litter items, such as plastic bags and fishing nets, have been demonstrated, it is much more difficult to attribute physical impacts of microplastics. Nonetheless, laboratory tests indicate that even very tiny particles can cause cellular damage in mammals. Microplastics have been found inside the bodies of a wide variety of marine organisms including invertebrates, fish, birds and mammals, and the ingestion of microplastics may have an effect on the feeding, movement, growth and breeding success of the host organism. 
 
Plastics often contain chemicals added during manufacture and can absorb and concentrate contaminants such as pesticides from the surrounding seawater and there is emerging evidence of transfer of chemicals from ingested plastics into tissues. 
 
The report recommends better control of the sources of plastic waste, through applying the principles of the “3 Rs” (Reduce, Re-use, Recycle), and improving the overall management of plastics as the most efficient and cost-effective way of reducing the quantity of plastic objects and microplastic particles accumulating in the ocean. 
 
The report warns that even if all releases of plastic to the environment were to cease immediately, the number of microplastics in the ocean would be expected to continue to increase as a result of continuing fragmentation. 
 
The report provides six recommendations: 
  1. identify the main sources and categories of plastics and microplastics entering the ocean; 
  2. utilize end-of-life plastic as a valuable resource rather than a waste product;
  3. promote greater awareness of the impacts of plastics and microplastics in the marine environment;
  4. include particles in the nanosize range in future assessments of the impact of plastics in the ocean;
  5. evaluate the potential significance of plastics and microplastics as a vector for organisms in future assessments; and
  6. future assessments should address the chemical risk posed by ingested microplastics in greater depth.
 
GESAMP will continue to further develop knowledge on microplastics in the marine environment.

Monday, April 27, 2015

What Happens To The Plastic You Throw Away?

Published in IFL Science April 22, 2015 | by Kristy Hamilton



Photo credit: Screenshot of TED-Ed YouTube video.


This is the haunting journey of three plastic bottles that impact the fate of the planet. The emblematic animation traces the life cycle of three different types of plastic and the consequences each have on our world.

Plastic is a synthetic material that can be molded into a variety of shapes while soft and then set into a rigid form. Its versatile nature has shaped society in ways that are both helpful and harmful for humanity.

If this is the case, is there a way to stop the negative cycle? If we can shape plastic for use, can we also mold ourselves a better future?

Watch the animation by TED-Ed below:

Local Marine Lab Uses Drones For Marine Debris Research


photo of Azores coastline from the research drone
photo of Azores coastline from the research drone
Credit Duke University Marine Lab, Dave Johnson
Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort is involved in research using drones to document marine debris on beaches around the world.  We discuss the RACE FOR WATER project, how plastics impact the environment and how similar drone technology eventually be used along the coast of North Carolina.

It’s a growing problem around the world and here in eastern North Carolina.  Marine debris not only impacts the water quality, it also harms whales, sea birds, seals and sea turtles that mistake floating plastic as food.  On March 5th, a 700 pound leatherback sea turtle was discovered washed up on the beach near Rodanthe.  Suffering from declining health and a shark bite, the leatherback sea turtle, an endangered species, had to be euthanized.  Associate Professor of Aquatic Animal Medicine for NC State University Dr. Craig Harms says during the necropsy, plastic was discovered in the turtle’s stomach.

Several pieces of thin plastic were found in the sea turtle's GI tract. Leatherback sea turtles are jellyfish-eaters, and frequently mistake floating plastic bags for their food.
Several pieces of thin plastic were found in the sea turtle's GI tract. Leatherback sea turtles are jellyfish-eaters, and frequently mistake floating plastic bags for their food.
Credit CMAST, North Carolina State University
“Every single leatherback sea turtle that we’ve done a post-mortem exam on has had some sort of plastic in their GI tract. This probably wasn’t enough to kill her because it didn’t block the passage, but eating plastic is just not a good way to put on pounds, and it also can absorb toxins that could accumulate over time.”

Dr. Harms says the leatherback also had foam in her airways, indicating that she could have become entangled in a net or trawl.

Unfortunately, these types of events are happening more and more as trash is being introduced into the ocean.  Marine debris enters the water in a variety of ways.  It’s washed into rivers and streams and eventually flows into the sea.  Debris can also come from ocean based industry and ships.  Plastics washes around the ocean and eventually comes ashore or collects in one of five rotating garbage patches in the world’s oceans, called gyres.  These are areas of floating debris that routinely choke out sea life.

Credit Duke Marine Lab, Dave Johnson
Now, Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort is involved with a project using drones to document the amount of marine debris washing up on beaches around the world.  Assistant Professor of the Practice of Marine Conservation Ecology Dave Johnston says the “Race For Water” project started about a year ago.

“We were approached, our research group and a group at Oregon State University, because we’d had experience doing surveys with this kind of stuff in other places; we have a lot of experience with marine debris up in the northwestern Hawaiian islands.  So they approached us and we convinced them that one of the best ways to cover as much area while surveying the beaches is to use unmanned aerial systems.”

The project involves a group of sailors who are attempting to circumnavigate the globe in a trimaran, a racing sailboat similar to a catamaran, but with three hulls.   The ship departed the port city of Bordeaux France on March 15th. It’s currently docked in Bermuda.  During the 300 day voyage, the crew will document marine debris and visit gyres.

Credit raceforwater.org
“Along their route, they’re visiting islands, we call those witness islands, that tend to collect the debris, plastics mostly, on their beaches.  When the ship arrives at each one of these witness islands, they’ll go ashore, they’ll do some beach sampling, and they’ll use the unmanned aerial systems to actually sample those beaches.”

Instead the quad-copter drone you’re probably familiar with, the research group is utilizing a small Styrofoam airplane to collect data and images.

“You basically throw it in the air by hand, it’s got a pre-programmed flight path so it knows when to go, knows when to take the pictures.  And then it essentially comes back and lands at your feet.”
The drone is equipped with a specially designed red-edge camera that helps scientists detect the presence of plastics along beaches.

“When we look at the pictures that we’ve done in tests when you lay plastics out on a beach and fly the drone over with this camera the plastics just pop out very brightly so that’s going to help us speed up the analysis and just make it really clear how much of the beach is covered up with this macro plastic debris.”

The images collected during the drone flyovers are sent to Johnson and his students from the sailing vessel to the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort for analysis.  He says documenting debris in the oceans and on beaches allows researchers and managers to understand the origins and persistence of different types of plastic and how they interact with marine organisms.

Credit Duke Marine Lab, Dave Johnson
“The biggest problem with plastic is that it’s around forever.  We’ve developed something that’s very useful for us.  It’s almost eternal.  It breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, but it accumulates in all parts of the ocean.”

Johnston says in 2010 alone between 4.8 and 7 million metric tons of trash entered the ocean.  The impact of marine debris on animals is widespread, even on a tiny scale.

“It’s also in the plankton, it’s in jellyfish, it’s in all sorts of things. It’s everywhere.”

With this seemingly insurmountable problem, Johnston says drone technology is offering a first step in cleaning up our oceans.  Even though fruition of this idea is probably decades away, locating the most impacted waters is key.  With a better understanding of the origin and the amount of marine debris in our oceans, Johnston says we can move towards solutions.  Using drones, the Race For Water project team will be able to get a detailed look at exactly what and how much trash is washing up on beaches around the world.

“It takes high resolution imagery so we can identify objects down to three quarters of an inch and then we get these images back so that allows us to be able to bring them into the lab and have students go through and estimate the amount of debris that might be on these beaches.”

During his past research trips, Johnston says it’s not uncommon to find old fishing gear, lighters, and toothbrushes along beaches.  He’s also found unusual items like computer monitors, televisions, and portable toilet seats.

The first Race For Water surveys were conducted in the archipelago of the Azores.  The information gathered by the drone was sent from Bermuda to the Beaufort lab where Johnston will be analyzing the images over the next few days.

“they get put together with the flight path of the drone, and they get stitched together into what we call a vague orthomosaic that’s essentially just a really big image of all of the images kind of to put it all together into one.”

This type of data collection may eventually be useful along the North Carolina coast.  In addition to analyzing marine debris, drones could be used for a number of applications.

“Being able to do wildlife surveys, look at water quality. It’s coming and it’s really nice to see the positive contributions these types of devices and these kinds of scientific platforms can have.”
Drones could also prove useful along the coast following major storms and hurricanes in storm damage assessment.  They could also be used to map the impact of climate change on reef habitats.

Credit The Ocean Cleanup
The Netherlands based initiative called “The Ocean Cleanup” is targeting garbage patches in oceans around the world to launch a system that would help eliminate plastic pollution.  The concept uses ocean currents and long floating barriers similar to oil containment booms to gather debris without impacting wildlife.  The Ocean Cleanup project will deploy a coastal pilot test next Spring, however the technology won’t be implemented at least for five more years.

Understanding how trash enters the ocean and where the currents take it is vital to cleanup efforts.  In theory, the information collected through the Race For Water project could help other organizations, such as “The Ocean Cleanup” know where to place their trash collecting barriers to maximize efforts. Duke University Marine Lab’s Dave Johnston says all of the data from the Race For Water project will be available online.

“We have a system set up on the internet where people will be able to login to the website and actually see the data, see the reflectance maps and see the actual flights of the drones.  See for themselves what we’ve found and be able to download the data if they want to use it for other things.”

When the Race For Water sailing crew leaves Bermuda, they’re headed for New York where Johnston says they’ve been invited to give a briefing to the United Nations Environmental Programme about the project.

To track the progress of the Race For Water Odyssey, go to www.raceforwater.org.

14 Great Environmental Comics

With comics becoming more topical in recent years, many creators are tackling environmental causes in their work. While the titles below vary in genre and style, their message–that nature is formidable yet also fragile–remains constant. So with Earth Day coming up on April 22, here are 14 comics that cover topics from climate change to pollution, deforestation, endangered species, and more.

Climate Changed: A Personal Journey Through the Science
Philippe Squarzoni. Abrams ComicArts, 2012
These days, trying to discuss the environment without mentioning climate change is nearly impossible. French author Squarzoni covers many aspects of the thorny issue, including why it's happening, how it's happening, and what can be done about it. The book's strength lies in its combination of extensive research and personal discovery.



The Rime of the Modern Mariner
Nick Hayes. Viking, 2012
Cartoonist Hayes offers a modern take on Samuel Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, setting the tale of his ill-fated seaman in the North Pacific Gyre (often called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch"), a whirlpool littered with plastic trash. Like the original poem, the comic is a warning to humanity not to meddle with the natural order or else suffer grave consequences. Hayes visualizes the book with a multitude of swirls and hatches, evoking woodblock prints and classic tapestries.


I'm Not a Plastic Bag
Rachel Hope Allison. Boom, 2012
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is also the focus in Allison's wordless graphic novel about waste and consumption. The book follows a plastic bag, among other discarded items, as it finds its way to the vast slurry of detritus, which Allison portrays as both a toxic blight as well as a unlikely of source of life. She also includes facts about the garbage patch as well as ways readers can become involved in stemming its growth.


Great Pacific
Joe Harris and Martin Morazzo. Image, 2012–ongoing
Harris and Morazzo take the idea of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and run with it in their farfetched series. Chas Worthington, heir to an enormous oil fortune, abandons his responsibilities and establishes a new nation on the garbage patch. This creates a flashpoint for conflict as "New Texas" struggles to maintain its sovereignty and stability among political and ecological crises.


John Muir: Earth – Planet Universe
Julie Bertagna and William Goldsmith. Scottish Book Trust, Creative Scotland, and Scottish Natural Heritage, 2014
John Muir (1838–1914) is widely considered to be one of the progenitors of the conservation movement, as well as the "Father of National Parks." Bertagna and Goldsmith chronicle Muir's life, from his childhood in Scotland to his prolific writings, friendship with Theodore Roosevelt (which culminated in the passing of the National Park bill), and founding of the Sierra Club in the late 19th century. Download the comic for free here.


Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Hayao Miyazaki. Tokuma Shoten, Viz, 1982–1994.
Before he became one of Japan's most revered filmmakers, Miyazaki was an animator and cartoonist whose first long form work, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, established his fondness for nature. Nausicaä is the princess of a secluded village that gets drawn into a conflict between two industrial nations, while an environmental disaster is brewing in the surrounding jungles. One of the story's central conflicts is man's contentious relation to nature, a theme that would play out in many of Miyazaki's films, including Nausicaä's adaptation.


Concrete, Vol. 5: Think Like a Mountain
Paul Chadwick. Dark Horse, 1996
The vagaries of environmental activism is explored when Concrete (formerly Ron Lithgow, a speechwriter whose brain was transplanted into a stone colossus by aliens) unwittingly becomes associated with a band of eco-radicals in Chadwick's award-winning series. Concrete wishes to help when he witnesses the unscrupulous practices of the logging industry firsthand, but he's wary of the group's legally-dubious methods.


Some New Kind of Slaughter
Marvin Mann and A. David Lewis. Archaia, 2009
Following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2009, Mann and Lewis explore the myth of the great flood, found throughout history including the Bible and ancient Sumeria. They trace the various flood stories to today's growing concern over climate change, and what can be learned by studying this prevalent narrative.


Delicious Island's Mr. U (Oishii Shuma no ĹŞ-sama)
Akira Toriyama, Anjo's Rural Society Project, 2013
Dragon Ball creator Toriyama wrote and drew this 24-page comic as part of a brochure distributed by the Anjo Royal Society Project, a Japanese nonprofit that advocates agriculture and raises awareness of environmental issues with children. In it, an island where man and nature live in harmony is disrupted first by two curious urbanites who later help defend it against aliens that are trying to exploit its abundant resources.


Oil and Water
Steve Duin and Shannon Wheeler. Fantagraphics, 2011
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a group of Oregonians travel to the Gulf Coast and follow the lives of those affected by the disaster, including fishermen, wildlife rescue volunteers, and a government agent. Duin and Wheeler describe the difficult situation of a regional economy that depends on the industry responsible for the spill.


Picket Line
Breena Widerhoeft. Easel Ain't Easy, 2012
2011 Xeric Grant recipient Widerhoeft's debut graphic novel centers on Beatrice, a woman who moves from Wisconsin to northern California and finds herself in the middle of a dispute between a land developer and activists trying to protect a thicket of redwoods. Everyone she meets seems to have a legitimate stake on either side of the issue, giving the already volatile situation personal ramifications.


Wild Ocean: Sharks, Whales, Rays, and other Endangered Sea Life
Edited by Matt Dembicki. Fulcrum Publshing, 2014
Cartoonists profile 12 threatened oceanic species (including hammerhead sharks, manatees, blue whales, coral, albatrosses, and bluefin tuna), portraying their ways of life in a variety of stories. Instead of issuing a dour warning, the contributors celebrate each of the creatures, although the anthology does not shy away from warning of the surmounting threats to their survival.


IDP: 2043
Edited by Denise Mina. Freight Books, 2013
Produced in collaboration with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, IDP: 2043 images Scotland 30 years in the future, after rising sea levels have completely flooded the country's low-lying regions. The story is told in six parts, with contributors including Irvine Welsh, Mary Talbot, Kate Charlesworth, and Barroux, and looks at the new way of life that is forced upon the unsuspecting residents, all from a seemingly minor change in their environment.


Swamp Thing/Man-Thing
Various
While superheroes generally don't face threats such as climate change, that hasn't stopped many creators from weaving environmental messages into their monthly adventures. Characters like Swamp Thing and Man-Thing have both fought on the side of nature, often against manmade threats. In particular, Steve Gerber's Man-Thing and Alan Moore's Swamp Thing were cast as protectors of nature during their respective runs.

adidas Wants to Make Shoes and Clothing With Plastic Trash from the Ocean

adidas wants to step up its commitment to sustainability. To do so they announced on Monday that they will be developing new materials out of plastic ocean pollution.

The Three Stripes will be teaming up with Parley for the Oceans, a group of artists, scientists, musicians and designer who have dedicated themselves to getting the world’s oceans cleaned up. The idea is simple enough, they want to develop new fabrics created from fibers from the plastic waste pollution. That is not all, adidas has also promised to remove all plastic bags from its 2,900 stores worldwide.

One can not help if Pharrell is behind this new initiative. You may recall that – on top of being heavily involved at adidas – he partnered with G-Star denim to debut a line of jeans made with fabric spun from recycled ocean debris. He is also the creative director of Bionic Yarn, which creates fabrics from recycled plastic bottles. Whether he suggested this initiative, made introductions or did not, one thing is almost certain: when adidas begins to roll out sneakers and clothing made from recycled ocean waste we can probably count on a Pharrell collaboration.

What do you think about this effort?  Will you be excited to support and rock gear made out of repurposed ocean waste?

Source: ThinkProgress

Plastics Choking Animals Targeted in G-7 Clean-Ocean Push



Published in Bloomberg.com by Stefan Nicola and Brian Parkin April 26, 2015
The biggest advanced economies plan to urge the world to clean up plastic shopping bags and bottles clogging oceans, prodded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany will put the cleanup on the agenda of the Group of Seven nations for the first time at the G-7’s summit in June in the Bavarian Alps, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said in an interview.

The goal is to encourage countries to reduce waste from plastic and tiny beads added to body scrubs and toothpastes that pollute the sea and kill marine life.

The ecological push is among the first indications of Germany’s themes for the global economic summit. Merkel, who served as environment minister in the 1990s, plans to host President Barack Obama and government leaders from Japan, the U.K., Canada, France and Italy at Schloss Elmau, a 100-year-old spa hotel, on June 7-8.

“So far no one has taken up the issue internationally, and we want to change that,” Hendricks said in Berlin. “Plastic waste is a huge problem for wildlife conservation. Animals are literally starving with a stomach full of plastic.”

Drifting as far as the polar regions, the waste accumulates at sea in huge swirls with dead fish, marine mammals and birds that get snared. One trash vortex in the North Pacific that’s about as big as Texas carries an estimated six kilograms (13 pounds) of plastic for every kilo of natural plankton, according to Greenpeace.

Ocean Economy

Decades of pollution mean that “the ocean economy is already faltering,” the Worldwide Fund for Nature and Boston Consulting Group said in a report Thursday. “If the ocean were a country it would have the seventh-largest economy in the world.”

Merkel, whose electoral district lies on the Baltic, plans to brief a conference of scientists in Berlin on her summit goals on Wednesday. As a first step, Germany will ask its G-7 partners to agree to put plastic sea waste on the agenda of the United Nations, Hendricks said in the interview last week.

Plastic waste causes $13 billion in damage to marine ecosystems each year, according to the UN Environment Program. California and cities including Chicago, Seattle and Portland have banned single-use plastic bags.

The European Union wants to reduce use of plastic bags to 40 per person in 2025 from 176 bags in 2010. Japan intends to pursue work on the topic when it presides over the G-7 next year, Hendricks said.

Microplastics from consumer products, some of them as small as a pencil tip, are a particular danger to marine animals such as fish, mussels and plankton that ingest them and either choke or pass the toxins on to larger fish and eventually to humans.

Banning microplastics in consumer products would help, Hendricks said. “In the medium term, it’s not impossible,” she said.

Plastic Removal

The biggest advanced economies plan to urge the world to clean up plastic shopping bags and bottles clogging oceans, prodded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany will put the cleanup on the agenda of the Group of Seven nations for the first time at the G-7’s summit in June in the Bavarian Alps, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said in an interview.

The goal is to encourage countries to reduce waste from plastic and tiny beads added to body scrubs and toothpastes that pollute the sea and kill marine life.

The ecological push is among the first indications of Germany’s themes for the global economic summit. Merkel, who served as environment minister in the 1990s, plans to host President Barack Obama and government leaders from Japan, the U.K., Canada, France and Italy at Schloss Elmau, a 100-year-old spa hotel, on June 7-8.

“So far no one has taken up the issue internationally, and we want to change that,” Hendricks said in Berlin. “Plastic waste is a huge problem for wildlife conservation. Animals are literally starving with a stomach full of plastic.”
Drifting as far as the polar regions, the waste accumulates at sea in huge swirls with dead fish, marine mammals and birds that get snared. One trash vortex in the North Pacific that’s about as big as Texas carries an estimated six kilograms (13 pounds) of plastic for every kilo of natural plankton, according to Greenpeace.

Ocean Economy

Decades of pollution mean that “the ocean economy is already faltering,” the Worldwide Fund for Nature and Boston Consulting Group said in a report Thursday. “If the ocean were a country it would have the seventh-largest economy in the world.”

Merkel, whose electoral district lies on the Baltic, plans to brief a conference of scientists in Berlin on her summit goals on Wednesday. As a first step, Germany will ask its G-7 partners to agree to put plastic sea waste on the agenda of the United Nations, Hendricks said in the interview last week.

Plastic waste causes $13 billion in damage to marine ecosystems each year, according to the UN Environment Program. California and cities including Chicago, Seattle and Portland have banned single-use plastic bags.

The European Union wants to reduce use of plastic bags to 40 per person in 2025 from 176 bags in 2010. Japan intends to pursue work on the topic when it presides over the G-7 next year, Hendricks said.

Microplastics from consumer products, some of them as small as a pencil tip, are a particular danger to marine animals such as fish, mussels and plankton that ingest them and either choke or pass the toxins on to larger fish and eventually to humans.

Banning microplastics in consumer products would help, Hendricks said. “In the medium term, it’s not impossible,” she said.
The biggest advanced economies plan to urge the world to clean up plastic shopping bags and bottles clogging oceans, prodded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany will put the cleanup on the agenda of the Group of Seven nations for the first time at the G-7’s summit in June in the Bavarian Alps, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said in an interview. The goal is to encourage countries to reduce waste from plastic and tiny beads added to body scrubs and toothpastes that pollute the sea and kill marine life.

The ecological push is among the first indications of Germany’s themes for the global economic summit. Merkel, who served as environment minister in the 1990s, plans to host President Barack Obama and government leaders from Japan, the U.K., Canada, France and Italy at Schloss Elmau, a 100-year-old spa hotel, on June 7-8.

“So far no one has taken up the issue internationally, and we want to change that,” Hendricks said in Berlin. “Plastic waste is a huge problem for wildlife conservation. Animals are literally starving with a stomach full of plastic.”

Drifting as far as the polar regions, the waste accumulates at sea in huge swirls with dead fish, marine mammals and birds that get snared. One trash vortex in the North Pacific that’s about as big as Texas carries an estimated six kilograms (13 pounds) of plastic for every kilo of natural plankton, according to Greenpeace.

Ocean Economy

Decades of pollution mean that “the ocean economy is already faltering,” the Worldwide Fund for Nature and Boston Consulting Group said in a report Thursday. “If the ocean were a country it would have the seventh-largest economy in the world.”

Merkel, whose electoral district lies on the Baltic, plans to brief a conference of scientists in Berlin on her summit goals on Wednesday. As a first step, Germany will ask its G-7 partners to agree to put plastic sea waste on the agenda of the United Nations, Hendricks said in the interview last week.

Plastic waste causes $13 billion in damage to marine ecosystems each year, according to the UN Environment Program. California and cities including Chicago, Seattle and Portland have banned single-use plastic bags.

The European Union wants to reduce use of plastic bags to 40 per person in 2025 from 176 bags in 2010. Japan intends to pursue work on the topic when it presides over the G-7 next year, Hendricks said.

Microplastics from consumer products, some of them as small as a pencil tip, are a particular danger to marine animals such as fish, mussels and plankton that ingest them and either choke or pass the toxins on to larger fish and eventually to humans.

Banning microplastics in consumer products would help, Hendricks said. “In the medium term, it’s not impossible,” she said.

Friday, April 24, 2015

The Ocean Cleanup Launches Mega Expedition, Largest Research Expedition In History

with combined support of Transpac race and Port of Los Angeles

Published in PR Newswire - April 20, 2015


The Mega Expedition will take place in August 2015, in which up to 50 vessels will cover a 3,500,000 km² area between Hawaii and California in parallel, creating the first high-resolution map of plastic in the Pacific Ocean.

The expedition, an initiative of The Ocean Cleanup, is supported by the world-famous Transpac sailing race, which is assisting in the recruitment of vessels. The City of Los Angeles will welcome the expedition to its port by the end of August. 

Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles: "Increasing our scientific understanding of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is essential to developing effective solutions. It's this type of creative and large-scale thinking that we need to tackle problems like this. We're proud to be welcoming the Mega Expedition to the Port of Los Angeles this year."

Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup: "When you want to clean the oceans, it is important to know how much plastic is out there. Right now, estimates vary orders of magnitude, due to the small amount of measurements, which furthermore have been taken over very long period. The Mega Expedition will allow us to produce the first-ever high-resolution estimate of the amount of plastic inside the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and we are grateful for the Mayor's and Transpac's support. This enables us to continue preparing the passive cleanup technology for our first ocean pilot, taking place in the first half of 2016."  Skippers and vessel owners can still sign up to participate. 

For more information, please visit our website or check our video at YouTube.  
Boyan Slat is currently located in Los Angeles and available for interviews on April 20.    
     
About The Ocean Cleanup Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat (1994), The Ocean Cleanup is a Dutch-registered non profit foundation aimed at developing technologies to extract, prevent and intercept plastic pollution. The Ocean Cleanup's goal is to accelerate the world's fight against oceanic plastic pollution, by initiating the largest cleanup in history. The organization published the results of its year-long study into the feasibility of large-scale, passive and efficient removal of plastic pollution from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It then raised over $2 million from 38,000 people in 160 countries, in a successful non-profit crowd funding campaign . 

In November 2014 Boyan received the United Nations' highest environmental award by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Also, he has been recognised as one of the 20 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs Worldwide (Intel EYE50). 

How it works
Instead of going after the plastic - which would take many thousands of years and billions of dollars to complete - The Ocean Cleanup will use a 100 km-long floating barrier to let the ocean currents concentrate the plastic themselves. Computer modelling indicates that a single system deployed for ten years will remove almost half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

SOURCE The Ocean Cleanup

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Most Plastic Trash Comes From Farms

Here's what they're trying to do about it

Strawberries growing in hoop houses (Andrew Fox/Corbis)

There once was a great future in plastics, but their waste is weighing that future down. Scraps and bit cumulatively reaching more than 250,000 tons end up in the ocean, and even the smallest particles cause trouble as they clog corals. Eventually some of the six billion tons of plastic manufactured since the mid-20th century becomes a sort of stone, an aggregate of bound plastic and rocks.

Scientists still aren’t sure how so much plastic ends up in the ocean, but they do know where much of it starts. Elizabeth Grossman visited a small farm owned by Kara Gilbert to track down agricultural plastics. She reports for Ensia:
On a visit to the four-acre farm on lush Sauvie Island at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers near Portland, Ore., Gilbert gives me a tour de farm plastics. The fields are just being readied for the season, but black plastic is already laid out under a hoop house. PVC water pipes are being set into place and drip irrigation tape is ready to be deployed, as are plastic sacks of fertilizer. Out in the greening field, little orange-pink plastic plant tags on ankle-high stakes flap in the wet breeze to mark rows of just-sprouted peas.
This tiny produce farm buys between $4,000 and $6,000 worth of plastic every year, Grossman writes. Multiply that number times the number of farms and keep in mind that the larger farms will use much more… you get the picture. Bales are wrapped, greenhouses covered, pesticides stored all in plastic. Gene Jones of the Southern Waste Information eXchange estimates that the U.S. uses about one billion pounds of plastic in agriculture every year.

Fortunately, we are trying to do better. Farm plastics are no longer burned or buried on farm property, or at least most states ban the practice. Now growers are trying to use less plastic by reusing when they can. Grossman writes:
By far the biggest opportunity to reduce farm plastic waste, however, is through recycling. Currently only about 10 percent of farm plastics are recycled. Increasing that number will depend on making drop-off more convenient and expanding options for giving plastic a second life.

In New York, where a statewide ban on backyard or farm burning of plastics was passed in 2009, the Cornell program worked with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to pioneer agricultural plastics recycling and do educational outreach about recycling options through extension programs and local soil and water conservation districts.
But recycling farm plastic can be challenging. Grossman spoke to an Oregon-based company that recycles baling twine, the orange plastic rope that keeps hay bales together. Apparently the material is so abrasive that many machines can’t handle it. Workers have to remove the pieces of hay still clinging to the twine painstakingly by hand. Another company makes reusable grocery bags from ag plastics. A third processes old irrigation pipes into pellets that can be used to make plastic sheets and films for growing produce.

The use of biodegradable plastics might also help — a Washington State University publication cites the benefits of plant starch-based mulches, as opposed to petroleum-based plastic mulches, used for weed suppression and to keep soil warm and moist for growing crops. 

Like many multifaceted issues, the problems posed by ag plastics won’t have one solution. Hopefully we can have many creative solutions, such as the Netherlands’ plan to nab plastic before it escapes to sea and build floating parks for humans above and fish and sea creatures below.

Marissa Fessenden is a freelance science writer and artist who appreciates small things and wide open spaces.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/most-plastic-trash-comes-farms-heres-what-were-trying-do-about-it-180954873/#Q8z4ET5FM5MiUBxT.99