THE PLASTIC PLAGUE
A dolphin feeds on a floating bag. A seal strangled by rope. A whale choked by 6 metres of sheeting. Shocked? You should be... YOU could be the next victim of the man-made scourge of the oceans
WITH six square metres of plastic sheeting tangled up inside its stomach, a magnificent Bryde’s whale is struggling to o breathe and is now on its way y to a slow, agonising death off f the coast of Australia.
It is just another pointless s casualty of an ecological dissaster, perhaps the biggest enviironmental catastrophe of all ll – caused by the millions of tons ns of poisonous plastic waste being ng dumped in our oceans.
This image is just one scenene from a groundbreaking new w documentary already described ed by Sir David Attenborough as ‘the most important of our time’.e’. It is a film that lays bare the he astonishing extent of plastic tic waste killing the previously prisris tine oceans – and which could ultimately kill us, too.
Did you know, for example, that about eight million tons of plastic are dumped into the seas every year? Or that the oceans will contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish by 2025? By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish.
Launched next week, the film, A Plastic Ocean, follows a team of international team of scientists, researchers and environmental activists as they set out to uncover the truth about what is lurking beneath the surface of our waters.
Co-produced by members of the team involved in Sir David’s acclaimed The Blue Planet series, it warns that if we don’t take action immediately, future generations face an environmental disaster that might be impossible to solve.
And – by putting plastic and the toxic molecules it attracts directly into the food chain – it is not only killing the marine life, it is making us sick, too.
Their findings will astound viewers, just as it did me. As the mother of three children, I first became concerned about the impact our addiction to plastic was having on the planet eight years ago while sitting on a beach in the Philippines with a friend, Sonjia Norman, a fashion designer who would go on to become the film’s executive producer.
We noticed there were pieces of plastic bottles floating on the surface of the water and tiny multi-coloured specks mixed with the sand.
Our conversation then turned to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the swamp of seaborne plastics trapped by the ocean gyres – or circulating currents – in the north Pacific Ocean between North America and South East Asia.
This was the inspiration for a fouryear project to film in 20 locations around the world, including the seas around the Antarctic which would document in beautiful but disturbing detail the global effects of plastic pollution on marine life.
In the 90-minute film, we see rare monk seals from Hawaii tangled up and choking on discarded plastic, including beer carriers, plastic rope and abandoned fishing nets.
We see the Mediterranean fouled by an endless tide of floating garbage left by tourists and bottlenose dolphins eating plastic bags. Dead seagulls are found, their gullets heavy with plastic waste. In Sardinia, turtles are pictured swallowing bottle caps, plastic bags and balloons, believing them to be jellyfish – with fatal consequences.
An albatross is shown vomiting pen tops, cigarette lighters and even a toothbrush.
Such visible waste is disturbing, yet there is something more sinister still about the way we are destroying our oceans. The documentary team, which included scientists, researchers and presenter Ben Fogle, had expected to find that most marine waste ended up in the five oceanic currents, or gyres. The infamous North Pacific gyre, for example, is said to contain a mass of plastic the size of Texas – 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile – in clearly visible solid chunks.
But that is a misconception. While the water in the gyre did seem clear, on closer analysis it contained microscopic particles of plastics that had been broken down by the elements into a toxic fog reaching down to the seabed. It is this plastic soup that is eaten by plankton, which is, in turn, ingested by marine creatures. Whales, who swallow hundreds of tons of water, can’t tell the difference and are slowly poisoned. And it stands to reason that fish, including those that reach the human food chain, are also feeding on plastics mixed in among plankton. These minute pieces, it is believed, then attract toxins which are stored in the fatty tissues of tuna and other popular fish, and eventually consumed by us – with potentially disastrous effects.
It was reported last week that sushi, perhaps the trendiest and considered the most healthy food of all, almost certainly contains traces of plastic.
Some scientists now believe the impact of the plastic that surrounds us in everyday life may even be changing us physically. Exposure to the chemicals that make up plastic may contribute to some cancers, infertility, as well as immunity, metabolic and cognitive behavioural disorders.
The film’s research warns that we should not wrap or store food in plastic, much of which is harmful to human health, not to mention the 39 carcinogens used in its manufacturing process.
Professor Susan Jobling, director of Brunel University’s Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, was one of the first researchers to show how chemicals in plastics can mimic the female hormone oestrogen. She explains in the film that plastics can interfere with reproduction and development, and are linked to hormonerelated diseases.
In some waters the team found that plastic particles outnumber plankton by a ratio of 26 to 1. Plastic has even been found in the deepest ocean trenches, where no human has ever been, as a result of currents, which
By 2050 there will be more plastic in our seas than there are fish
carry plastic waste from coastal areas and river estuaries like a conveyor belt until it ends up in the centre of the five ocean gyres.
Such discoveries have turned me from a plastic addict to an environmental activist working to change people’s attitude to the way we use and dispose of it.
I’m not anti-plastic for the sake of it. Who could be? It’s a wonderfully durable, modern material that makes everything from my phone to bits of my car and the computers we so rely on.
But it is also seemingly indestructible. Unless it has been burned, which releases toxic gases, all of the plastic made over the past 50 years is still on the planet.
Very little, it seems, is actually recycled. Some ends up in landfill, but as the film shows, much of it finds its way through rivers to the sea – a cheap and easy dumping ground.
For decades, shoppers and busi- nesses have relied on using lightweight bags as a strong and effective means of transporting items. Plastic bags have been so cheap – often free at the point of use – that we don’t think twice about simply throwing them away. The relatively recent introduction of a 5p charge in shops has helped limit the use of throwaway bags, but they are still used by the million – not to mention the plastic packaging for fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and other foods.
We use more than 300million tons of new plastic every year. Half of this we use just once and usually for less than 12 minutes. Plastic production has increased twentyfold since 1964, and is expected to double again in the next 20 years and almost quadruple by 2050.
In Britain, just seven per cent of plastics is recycled effectively – 40 per cent ends up in landfill. Most of the plastic already in the ocean will probably be there pretty much for ever. Plastic bags can take 1,000 years to break down fully, and even then they don’t biodegrade. Anyone who looks at the facts can’t help but worry about the future we are leaving for our children, which is why I have founded a new campaign group, A Plastic Planet, to help bring about a change in attitudes. We want everyone to be able to buy food that is free from plastic. Right now, it is very hard to do so.
Yes, we are starting to get thehe message. From 2020, 0, all plastic cutlery and plates will be banned in France. Bangladesh was the first country in the world to get rid of plastic shopping bags back in 2002. California prohibited single-use plastic bags three years ago.
Britain has banned microbeads, the tiny plastic balls used in cosmetics and cleaning products, and there are widespread calls to prohibit plastic drinking straws, too, which I support.
But as laudable as such piecemeal measures are, they are not enough. If we don’t take more drastic action – and that means breaking our attachment to single-use plastic items – future generations face a scale of environmental disaster that may be impossible to solve.
We all can make a difference by changing our behaviour and lobby-
ing companiesco to follow suit. For example,exa if coffee chains could be persuaded to useu paper straws and stopped using cups lined and topped with plastic – they could use plant-based biodegradable plastic instead – it would make a huge difference.
We must demand that supermarkets deliver food in paper bags. Insist too that plastic is not buried in landfill. Buy products with less packaging. This should be the year in which we radically change our habits to make Britain ‘plasticneutral’ island. Because it is not just the seals, the gulls, or that tragic Bryde’s whale that will ultimately suffer.
It is us, too.
Pre-order A Plastic Ocean on iTunes today and pay just £6.99. The price goes up to £10.99 on Tuesday. Visit http://apple.co/2iECnfe.
It is finding its way into our food – the effect could be disastrous