Supermarkets urged to cut back on plastic
SUPERMARKETS are being urged to create a plastic-free aisle in every store to prevent tons of waste packaging ending up in the oceans.
Around 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, yet just 12 per cent is recyclable, and much of it is washed into the seas where it is toxic to wildlife.
Marine conservation charity Plastic Oceans Foundation is to lobby the big supermarkets to urge them to offer food in biodegradable packaging.
The Government is considering add- ing a charge of up to 20p to plastic bottles, which can be reclaimed when they are recycled, in an effort to cut waste.
The 5p charge added to plastic bags in 2015 has already led to usage falling by 80 per cent.
“There is a growing realisation that plastic is not disposable and is harming our planet, yet the maddening thing is that it’s virtually impossible to buy food without packaging,” said Sian Sutherland, a trustee of the charity, who will meet bosses of the big supermarkets in the coming weeks.
“We have more choice than ever for everything. There are countless glu- ten-free, organic or kosher aisles, and yet we have absolutely no choice about buying food packaged in plastic.
“Not only does it make us feel guilty about all this packaging we are using, but also science is starting to show us that wrapping food in plastic can bring health problems.”
A Plastic Planet’s campaign, A Plastic Free Aisle, will launch in the next few weeks, and environmentalists say their plan is “clear, simple and do-able”. The foundation’s film, A Plastic Ocean, aims to highlight the scale of the problem.
SCIENCE EDITOR WHEN strong winds prevented filmmaker Jo Ruxton from sending a submarine to her chosen location off the coast of Marseille she was naturally nervous.
The crew had just one chance to record evidence of the build-up of rubbish on the seabed for her award-winning film A Plastic Ocean, but were forced to divert miles away from where divers had reported a growing dump.
She needn’t have worried. As the submersible reached a deep trench one mile from the surface, the team was confronted with a junkyard of human debris. Tyres, plastic water bottles, synthetic netting, unexploded bombs and even an old parachute emerged from the gloom.
The world’s oceans are now choked with human waste. Each year more than 300 million tons of plastic is produced globally, of which 10 per cent will end up in the sea. It is estimated that there is now a 1:2 ratio of plastic to plankton and, left unchecked, the total weight of plastic will outweigh the total weight of fish by 2050.
Not only is the floating haze of scum unsightly, it is swallowed by marine animals who cannot digest it. Chemicals leach into the water and even humans who eat seafood ingest 11,000 pieces of microplastic each year.
Ruxton, who has previously worked as a producer on the BBC’s Blue Planet, said: “People watch wildlife documentaries and think the oceans are still pristine but they aren’t. I’ve known film crews spend two hours clearing up beaches before they can take shots of turtles.”
Yet there are signs that the tide may be starting to turn, and Britain could be leading the way.
In 2010, the University of Warwick announced that it had developed a new process which can recycle 100 per cent of plastic waste. The technique, called pyrolysis, “cracks” plastic into basic molecules to form an oil called Plaxx, which can then be used as a fuel or to make new plastic.
The university’s spin-off company, Recycling Technologies, has just opened its first large plant in Swindon, Wiltshire, which operators say will process the plastic of the entire town.
The goal is to create similar plants across the world and even install small versions on dredgers, which can trawl the water sucking up plastic waste and turn it into fuel on board to power the ships.
Plastic is notoriously difficult to recycle and only 12 per cent of household waste is reprocessed – the rest is either burnt or goes to landfill. The new system aims to turn dumped plastic into a valuable commodity.
“This could really be a game-changing technology,” said Adrian Haworth, marketing director of Recycling Technologies. “There is a worldwide need for it. Only a small amount of plastic is recycled, most ends up in landfill or in the ocean. We need to stop this happening in the first place.
“Eventually we hope to be able to mine landfill sites for plastic, and we’ve had a discussion with a dredging company, with the idea that they would collect the plastic in ports and turn it into fuel on board.”
The US navy and even some cruise ships already operate on-sea recycling systems which take the waste of its crew and passengers and heats it up to temperatures of more than 9000F (5000C) to turn it back into a reusable form. The plasma torch technology is powerful enough to convert plastics, metals and glass into granules or gas.
The Canadian company behind the system, called PyroGenesis, is planning plasma plants across the world, which could process up to 100 tons at a time.
Some countries, such as Germany, have been quick to use laws to help cut down on plastic pollution. Since 1991, companies that produce plastic have been responsible for dealing with their waste, and most supermarkets contain state-of-the art bottle banks which scan barcodes so packaging can be returned to manufacturers.
In 2013, social entrepreneur David Katz founded The Plastic Bank in Lima, Peru, an organisation which pays locals in coastal communities for their plastic bottles, then recycles them into “social plastic”. Further banks have since been established in Haiti and are due to open globally, and the company has released the blueprints for its recycling device so others can follow suit.
Yet many experts believe that cultural change will have the biggest impact. Since the Fifties, advertisers have been persuading consumers that plastic is a throwaway product that can be abandoned without a thought. One trillion plastic bags are produced every year, yet their average working lifespan is just 12 minutes.
“We are in a growing culture of throwaway living,” said Prof Richard Thompson, an expert on ocean plastics from Plymouth University. “There is an urgent need to recognise that there is no such place as ‘away’. Marine debris is damaging to the economy, to wildlife to the environment. It is wasteful and unnecessary, and we all agree that it needs to stop.”
Ruxton, whose film has been described by Sir David Attenborough as “one of the most important films of our time”, said: “It’s crazy how we believe that plastic just disintegrates, and it was because we were told in 1955 that we wouldn’t have to wash up any more. But we’re at a tipping point now, and if we don’t act we won’t be able to go back.
“In the Sixties we were producing eight million tons of plastic a year. Now it is 300 million, and where will we be in another 50 years? You go out now and look in the ocean and it is just so prolific. People need to realise that plastic is not disposable.”
A recent study estimated that nine in 10 of the world’s seabirds have pieces of plastic in their guts, with the southern hemisphere around New Zealand and Australia badly affected because of major polluters such as Indonesia and Thailand.
Some albatross and shearwater have been found to have nearly 3,000 pieces of plastic – up to 17.6lb – in their stomachs, the equivalent of a human eating 12 pizzas. It can’t be digested, so the birds eventually die through malnutrition.
In countries such as Tuvalu, where plastic wastes washes up by the ton, locals have reported fertility problems.
Prof Susan Jobling, of Brunel Uni-
versity, discovered that most plastics contain hormone-disrupting chemicals. Ninety-two per cent of adults in Western countries have plastic and chemicals in their system and their children have twice as much.
“I hope it will make people really think about how they use plastics and make them wonder, for example, if they really need a plastic drinking straw or a single-use plastic bottle,” Prof Jobling said.
There are worries that what is visible could be just the tip of the iceberg – 70 per cent of all ocean debris sinks down beyond the surface, and huge rubbish dumps could be accumulating unseen at the bottom of the ocean.
Plastic becomes brittle in seawater because it’s subjected to sunlight, waves and salt. It breaks up until it’s smaller and smaller and mixes with plankton, meaning tiny particles are consumed by marine life. Craig Leeson, director of A Plastic
Ocean, said: “Plastic is the most durable material man has ever made, and every piece ever produced is still on the planet in some shape or form. People are using water bottles thinking they are do- ing themselves a favour, when they are actually damaging their own health.”
David Jones, executive adviser on the film, added: “The irony is that the water in most of these bottles sold to people is not as good as their tap water. We need to make plastic valuable again. The plastic around a bottle is far more valuable than the water inside it. Plastic is worth £400 a ton, but we just throw it away.” A Plastic Ocean can be downloaded from iTunes and screenings are taking place throughout the country.
‘In Tuvalu locals have reported fertility problems’ ‘Every piece of plastic is still on the planet in some form’