Nurdles also have the insidious property of soaking up toxic chemicals. Over time, even chemicals or poisons that are widely diffused in water can become highly concentrated as they're mopped up by nurdles. These poison-filled masses threaten the entire food chain, especially when eaten by filter feeders that are then consumed by large creatures. These tiny plastic particles can get sucked up by filter feeders and damage their bodies. Other marine animals eat the plastic, which can poison them or lead to deadly blockages. Then up the food chain. To humans.

 

World’s largest landfill is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch discovered in 1997. Amount of garbage in it is not even estimable. Now in 2020, there are five garbage patches worldwide; one in the Indian Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean and two in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Plastic constitutes 90% of all trash floating in the world's oceans! The United Nations Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. In some areas, the amount of plastic outweighs the amount of plankton by a ratio of six to one. Of the more than 200 billion pounds of plastic the world produces each year, about 10 percent ends up in the ocean. Seventy percent of that eventually sinks, damaging life on the ocean floor. The rest floats mostly ending up in gyres and the massive garbage patches that form there, with some plastic eventually washing up on a distant shore.

 

Land animals are also affected. Plastic has acutely affected albatrosses, which roam a wide swath of the northern Pacific Ocean. Albatrosses frequently grab food wherever they can find it, which leads to many of the birds ingesting and dying from plastic and other trash. On Midway Island, which comes into contact with parts of the Eastern Garbage Patch, albatrosses give birth to 500,000 chicks every year. Two hundred thousand of them die, many of them by consuming plastic fed to them by their parents, who confuse it for food. In total, more than a million birds and marine animals die each year from consuming or becoming caught in plastic and other debris.

 

Besides killing wildlife, plastic and other debris damage boat and submarine equipment, litter beaches, discourage swimming and harm commercial and local fisheries. The problem of plastic and other accumulated trash affects beaches and oceans all over the world, including at both poles. Land masses that end up in the path of the rotating gyres receive particularly large amounts of trash. The 19 islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, including Midway, receive massive quantities of trash shot out from the gyres. Some of the trash is decades old. Some beaches are buried under five to 10 feet of trash, while other beaches are riddled with "plastic sand," millions of grain-like pieces of plastic that are practically impossible to clean up.

 

Most of this trash doesn't come from seafaring vessels dumping junk, as 80% of ocean trash originates on land. The rest comes from private and commercial ships, fishing equipment, oil platforms and spilled shipping containers.

 

Some efforts can help to stem the tide of refuse. International treaties prohibiting dumping at sea must be enforced. Untreated sewage shouldn't be allowed to flow into the ocean. Many communities and even some small island nations have eliminated the use of plastic bags. These bags are generally recyclable, but billions of them are thrown away every year. On the Hawaiian Islands, cleanup programs bring volunteers to the beaches to pick up trash, but some beaches, even those subjected to regular cleanings, are still covered in layers of trash several feet thick.

 

Scientists who have studied the issue say that trawling the ocean for all of its trash is simply impossible and would harm plankton and other marine life. In some areas, big fragments can be collected, but it's simply not possible to thoroughly clean a section of ocean that spans the area of a continent and extends 100 feet below the surface.

 

Unfortunately, although somewhat helpful, recycling is not the answer. The EPA estimates that 75% of waste in the U.S. is recyclable, but only 30% is actually recycled. Recycling aluminum cans can save 95% of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from its original source. This not only saves energy, but also oil and landfill space.

 

Some materials can be recycled over and over without losing quality, like glass and metals. Recycling glass also minimizes air pollutants being released otherwise. Other materials have certain life expectancy, like paper, which can only be recycled five to seven times before beginning to become too damaged to be made into new paper. Still, even though paper quality begins to diminish, it can still be made into other materials, such as egg cartons.

 

Plastic is the exception to this, as it can only be recycled into a new plastic product once or twice before the polymers break down in the recycling process.

 

As public concern about plastic pollution rises, consumers are reaching for canvas bags, metal straws, and reusable water bottles. But while individuals fret over images of oceanic garbage gyres, the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries are pouring billions of dollars into new plants intended to make millions more tons of plastic than they now pump out.

 

Companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Saudi Aramco are ramping up output of plastic which is made from oil and gas, and their byproducts to hedge against the possibility that a serious global response to climate change might reduce demand for their fuels. Petrochemicals, the category that includes plastic, now account for 14 percent of oil use and are expected to drive half of oil demand growth between now and 2050. The World Economic Forum predicts plastic production will double in the next 20 years.

 

And because the American fracking boom is unearthing, along with natural gas, large amounts of the plastic feedstock ethane, the United States is a big growth area for plastic production. With natural gas prices low, many fracking operations are losing money, so producers have been eager to find a use for the ethane they get as a byproduct of drilling.

 

Shell is building a $6 billion ethane cracking plant, a facility that turns ethane into ethylene in Monaca, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh. It is expected to produce up to 1.6 million tons of plastic annually after it opens in the early 2020s. It’s just the highest-profile piece of what the industry hails as a “renaissance in US plastics manufacturing,” whose output goes not only into packaging and single-use items such as cutlery, bottles, and bags, but also longer-lasting uses like construction materials and parts for cars and airplanes.

 

Since 2010, companies have invested more than $200 billion in 333 plastic and other chemical projects in the US, including expansions of existing facilities, new plants, and associated infrastructure such as pipelines. While some are already running or under construction, other projects await regulators’ approval.

 

“That’s why 2020 is so crucial. There are a lot of these facilities that are in the permitting process. We’re pretty close to it all being too late,” said Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics and a former regional director for the US Environmental Protection Agency “If even a quarter of these ethane cracking facilities are built, it’s locking us into a plastic future that is going to be hard to recover from.”

 

The impact goes beyond the waste problem that is the focus of public concern. Although plastic is often seen as a separate issue from climate change, both its production and afterlife are in fact major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Global emissions linked to plastic—now just under 900 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually—could by 2030 reach 1.3 billion tons, as much as almost 300 coal-fired power plants. If output grows as planned, plastic would use up between 10 and 13 percent of the carbon emissions allowable if warming is to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

 

Those emissions come from nearly every stage of plastic’s life. First, there is the energy-intensive nature of oil and gas extraction. Then, ethane cracking requires enormous amounts of power, with a concomitantly large greenhouse gas footprint. The Shell plant has a permit allowing it to emit as much carbon dioxide annually as 480,000 cars.

 

An estimated 12 percent of all plastic is incinerated, releasing more greenhouse gases, as well as dangerous toxins, including dioxins and heavy metals. Industry is promoting an expansion of incineration in waste-to-electricity plants, which it describes as a source of renewable energy. What’s more, new research suggests plastic in the environment releases greenhouse gases as it degrades—a potentially vast and uncontrollable source of emissions.

 

The industry argues that plastic delivers many benefits, including environmental ones. It makes cars lighter and therefore more efficient, insulates homes, reduces waste by extending food’s life, and keeps medical supplies sanitary, among many other uses.

 

Still, convenience, like consumers’ taste for eating and drinking on the go, is a big driver of plastic use in wealthy nations. And the developing world has become an important new market too. In parts of Asia, international companies sell single portions of products such as shampoo, soap, and lotion to low-income consumers in individual packets. But while industry points to a lack of waste management infrastructure in poor countries as a cause of the ocean plastic problem, Americans use dozens of times more plastic per capita than Indians, five times more than Indonesians, and nearly three times as much as Chinese.

 

In addition to its climate impacts, petrochemical production can release airborne toxins such as 1,3-butadiene, benzene, and toluene, causing cancer and other illnesses. Many plants are in poor areas, often communities of color, although as the fracking connection drives expansion into rural areas, poor white communities will likely be increasingly affected too.

 

Still, many welcome the jobs petrochemical facilities bring, particularly in areas hit by the loss of coal and other industry. Pennsylvania granted the Shell plant a tax break valued at $1.6 billion, one of the biggest in state history. Officials in Ohio and West Virginia are wooing firms eager to build more ethane crackers, storage facilities, and pipelines.

 

One concern for the industry is the spread of laws aimed at reducing plastic’s proliferation. The European Union is banning single-use plastic items including cutlery, plates, straws, cups, and food containers starting in 2021. Eight US states and a number of cities have outlawed plastic shopping bags, and so have 34 African countries.

 

Despite efforts to reduce production, the demand for plastic is continuing to grow very rapidly in both developing nations and richer ones. Analysts predict demand growth of 4 percent per year. Annual production has already doubled since 2000, growth driven in part by plastic’s low cost and versatility.

 

In the case of plastic, though, demand doesn’t always come directly from consumers, but from companies in the food, beverage, consumer products, and other sectors who use it to package their goods.

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WHAT CAN YOU DO

1. Know where your local, state and national candidates stand on environmental issues.

https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/climate-change-and-the-2020-presidential-candidates-where-do-they-stand/

https://www.urbanaillinois.us/residents/refuse-recycling-sustainability

 

2. Call them and tell them what you support and don’t support. https://mondaybazaarblog.com/2017/09/06/how-to-call-your-senator/?fbclid=IwAR3du9wWMvKGqmASaXIRRlYpg8Rj6Gf1T5gAyCv-w_Xt25FO-1GcCPrSx1o

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3.One of the biggest steps would be to first reduce waste. Avoiding plastic can divert a ton of waste from the oceans and landfill. Cut down on what you throw away. Follow the four "R's" to conserve natural resources and landfill space: 

Refuse, reduce, reuse, and. as a last resort, recycle.

 

4. Avoid using plastic (and paper) plates and utensils. That includes reducing food delivery, which mostly consists of one-time-use, non-recyclable styrofoam. Reuse any boxes and containers you can.

 

5. Take reusable bags shopping everywhere you go! Not just the grocery store. Shop wisely. (I really try to not be judgmental, but at this point, I feel that it's just plain lazy to NOT try to do this!)

 

6. Invest in a reusable bottle for your drinks instead of buying and disposing of plastic, or plastic-lined paper ones. After that, recycle what you can. Break the cycle. Stop buying bottled water! 

 

7. This is a controversial one! Don't use plastic straws. Ask for cocktails without them. Kindly refuse them at restaurants and fast food establishments. And lids, too, if you can avoid them! Why do you need them, really? 

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8. Volunteer. Volunteer for cleanups in your community. You can get involved in protecting your watershed, too.

 

9. Educate. When you further your own education, you can help others understand the importance and value of our natural resources.

 

10.Conserve water. The less water you use, the less runoff and wastewater that eventually end up in the ocean.

Choose sustainable. Learn how to make smart seafood choices at www.fishwatch.gov.

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