Plastic-rock found in Andamans’ Aves
A team of marine biologists during routine monitoring of marine litter in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has stumbled upon a piece of rock made from plastic from a beach on Aves island. This is the first such find from India.
Known as plastiglomerate, it is a rock composed of sand, rock fragments, shells and other materials held together by plastic. It is a new form of plastic pollution, which scientists described in 2014.
“This is the first find from India of plastiglomerate. Laboratory analysis showed it has two very commonly used plastic polymers – polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride – which was holding the smaller rock and sand particles to form a rock, approximately the size of ones which are found along railway tracks,” said Punyasloke Bhadury, a professor of biological sciences at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata.
Interestingly, according to the 2011 Census, there are just two people on Aves Island. Both are male.
The findings have been published in Marine Plastic Polluislands tion, a peer-reviewed journal published by Elsevier, in March. Plastic accumulation in oceans and on beaches has turned into a global crisis. Thousands of seabirds, turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it.
Recent research findings suggest that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are facing increasing threats of plastic pollution. A research paper published in Current Science in 2019 revealed that plastic from around 10 Asian countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, were found on five in the archipelago.
Even though plastic pollution in marine environments has been studied for the past five decades, new types of previously undiscovered plastic debris keep emerging globally, scientists said. Plastiglomerate is one such form.
These man-made aggregates were first found at Kamilo Beach, Hawaii, and have since been reported in Indonesia, the US, Portugal, Canada and Peru.
“Other newly discovered forms of marine plastic pollution include plastic crust, a layer of plastic encrusted onto ocean rocks, and pyroclastic, burnt plastic that look like pebbles,” said Bhadhury. “These forms of plastic pollution have the potential to survive millions of years and may even enter the geological record.”
How did plastiglomerate, which requires molten plastic to bind sand and other debris, formed on Aves island? It could be that some plastic has been burnt close to the island, which may have later bound the sand and rock fragments, or the rock may have been washed ashore from distant places by the sea, the scientists said.
“These are newly reported forms of marine plastic pollution. This is an emerging field. Even though scientists have been studying the ill-effects of plastic, we know very little about these new forms, their toxicity, degradation, and release of secondary pollutants like microplastics and nano-plastics and chemical additives,” said Punarbasu Chaudhuri, associate professor in the department of environmental science in Calcutta University. “Scientists are still not sure about their long-term implications.”
RECENT RESEARCH FINDINGS HAVE SUGGESTED THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS FACE INCREASING THREATS OF PLASTIC POLLUTION