Waste killing marine life

– On the palm-fringed beaches of Christmas Island, a speck of land in the Indian Ocean between Australia and Indonesia, plastic waste is piling up on the white sand and killing marine life.

Flotsam and jetsam, especially plastic bags and one-use containers, cover the shoreline. Volunteers recently collected 1.5 tons of waste in just a few days.

The scene illustrates growing concerns about the environmental damage from rising amounts of plastic waste globally.

Some eight million tons of plastic garbage – bottles, packaging and other waste – is dumped in the sea every year, killing marine life, the United Nations Environment Programme says.

Turtles, which nest year round at Christmas Island, are particularly vulnerable. Plastic clogs their gut and traps air, so they are unable to dive deep enough to feed. Instead, they are confined to the upper reaches, making them an easy target for predators and at risk of being hit by boats.

“Plastic bags look similar to a jellyfish and jellyfish is a thing that sea turtles love to eat,” said Kathy Townsend, animal ecology lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast at Hervey Bay.

Less than a 10th of plastic ever produced has been recycled, according to a June UN report that recommends governments consider banning or taxing single-use bags or food containers.

This week, Australia’s biggest grocer stopped offering free plastic bags to customers and said it would cease selling plastic straws by the end of the year.

Thailand, which makes about four or five billion plastic bags a year out of a total of roughly five trillion used globally, plans to halve production by 2027, according to Jatuporn Buruspat, head of the country’s marine and coastal resources department.

“I’m really optimistic that we can actually get on top of this,” Townsend said.

“Future generations, they’re going to look back at us and laugh and just say: ‘How wasteful were they? Look at how much stuff that they just wasted!’” – Reuters

Sydney