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Tag: plastic pollution

  • ‘A single piece of plastic’ can kill sea turtles, says study Ask a question

    sea turtle Image copyright Google

    A new study suggests that ingesting even a single piece of plastic can be deadly for sea turtles.

    Researchers found there was a one in five chance of death for a turtle who consumed just one item – rising to 50% for 14 pieces.

    The team found that younger turtles are at a higher risk of dying from exposure to plastic than adults.

    The authors say their research raises concerns over the long term survival of some turtle species.

    The never ending surge of plastic into the world’s oceans is taking an increasing toll on iconic marine species.

    Image copyright BBC Sport

    From that information they were able to deduce the role of plastic in causing death – if an animal had ingested more than 200 pieces of plastic, death was inevitable.

    Fourteen pieces meant a 50% chance of dying – while one piece gave a 22% chance of mortality.

    “Because of their digestive tract, they don’t regurgitate anything,” lead author Dr Britta Denise Hardesty from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), told BBC News.

    “If it ends up in the wrong place, even one little thin, filmy piece of plastic can block that canal and mean that nothing can pass and ultimately the blockage can result in death.”

    As well as causing blockages, harder pieces caused internal injuries which often lead to death as well.

    The research team also found that younger turtles were taking in far more plastic than adults. Around 23% of juveniles and 54% of post-hatchling turtles had ingested plastic compared to 16% of adults. The scientists say that this greater susceptibility is down to where they live and how they feed.

    Image copyright Kathy Townsend

    “Young small turtles actually drift and float with the ocean currents as does much of the buoyant, small lightweight plastic,” said Dr Hardesty.

    “We think that small turtles are less selective in what they eat than large adults who eat sea grass and crustaceans, the young turtles are out in the oceanic area offshore and the older animals are feeding in closer to shore.”

    While sea turtles can live until they are about 80 and reproduce for decades, researchers are concerned for the longer term impact of so many juveniles consuming so much plastic.

    “We know that disproportionately finding it more in younger animals who won’t make it to the reproductive state will have long term consequences for the survival of the species,” said Dr Hardesty.

    “It’s very concerning.”

    Other experts in this field say the new study is an important step towards quantifying the scale of the threat that plastic poses to the lives of sea turtles.

    Image copyright Brazil Photo Press Image caption Turtles face external and internal dangers from plastic – this one was found wrapped in plastic, washed ashore in Brazil

    “The authors offer a very defensible framework for allowing us to measure the mortality risk resultant from plastic ingestion,” said Prof Brendan Godley, from the University of Exeter, who wasn’t involved with the study.

    “It also points to the likelihood that plastic may be a key threat to the smallest life stages. This is of particular concern as pieces of plastics and baby turtles are both likely to be aggregated together in similar areas.”

    The authors of the new study want to raise awareness among consumers and political leaders about the threat from plastic and to encourage creative solutions to the issue. One option may well be a plastic tax or deposit scheme.

    “Let’s rethink our relationship with plastic,” said Dr Hardesty.

    “Let’s put a true cost on plastic so they have a similar value to aluminium cans which we don’t find lost in the environment, they get picked up and they don’t get mismanaged and find their way out into the ocean,” she added.

    The study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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  • Massive plastic catcher heads for Pacific Ocean clean-up

    SF Bay Image copyright The Ocean CLEANUP Symbol caption THE FULL boom is 600m in length with a skirt that extends down 3m

    Whilst a Dutch teenager went swimming within the sea in Greece seven years in the past, he used to be stunned to peer extra plastic than fish.

    in reality, Boyan Slat used to be so appalled by way of the air pollution that he soon began to marketing campaign for the oceans to be cleaned up.

    For a long time, few other folks took him seriously. Right Here was once a university drop-out with a miles-fetched concept that for sure may just never paintings.

    However this weekend, backed by leading investment and a few large engineering, a vast plastic collection system might be towed out of San Francisco Bay.

    Formerly, the focal point of plastic muddle campaigns has been on seashores, with volunteers everywhere the arena lifting baggage and bottles from seashores.

    Image copyright The Sea CLEANUP Image caption Even those who query the means applaud Boyan Slat’s interest

    By No Means sooner than has any person gone further through trying to clear the stuff from the middle of an ocean and, in spite of sea trials and computer modelling, no-one is aware of if the experiment will paintings.

    A Few mavens worry that the trouble is a distraction from the extra pressing job of forestalling extra plastic getting into the ocean in the first place, and that the operation could cause actual harm to marine existence.

    However Boyan and his staff at the Ocean Cleanup non-benefit believe the sheer scale of plastic out there calls for that motion be taken.

    So what they’re trying to do?

    Their objective is the japanese Pacific and what’s referred to as the good Rubbish Patch, the place round currents have concentrated plastic in one massive area.

    The aim is to halve the volume of pollution within the patch every five years in order that by way of 2040 almost all of it will likely be long gone.

    “We feel we’re in an ideal hurry,” says Lonneke Holierhoek, the mission’s chief working officer.

    I Am assembly her at the mission’s headquarters in Rotterdam in workplaces which are some distance larger than I expected. The Dutch govt is a huge backer, together with some rich firms and investors.

    Symbol copyright The Sea CLEANUP Symbol caption The era has been advanced with beef up from the Dutch executive

    The mission, with a budget of a minimum of €20m (£18m), has grown from a young man’s imaginative and prescient to a serious global enterprise.

    there is a faint odor of seaweed and rubbish. on the desks and the ground are packing containers brimming with fragments of plastic hauled from the sea on in advance expeditions, a reminder of the duty beforehand.

    “If we do not do it,” Lonneke tells me, “all this plastic will get started breaking down into smaller and smaller items – and the smaller the pieces are, the more harmful and the harder to extract from the marine atmosphere.”

    As an engineer who spent the prior twenty years engaged on offshore projects, she’s now not a campaigner however any person with a wealth of experience running with huge systems out at sea.

    For her, the challenge is a determined effort to opposite the tide of air pollution. “instead of speaking approximately it or contributing to issues or protesting against it, it’s in truth seeking to clear up it.”

    How will the project work?

    the important thing aspect is that the gathering system is passive – there are not any automobiles, no machines. As An Alternative, it is going to float, acting like a synthetic sea coast, gently collecting any plastic in its trail.

    Like an incredible snake, made up of sections of tube, it is 600m (2,000ft) lengthy and can drift in a huge ‘U’ shape. Underneath it a reveal will cling down 3m (10ft).

    Because The plastic is floating just at or slightly under the skin, it simplest drifts with the power of the sea currents. But because the gathering machine could also be being shifted by the wind and waves, it will commute approximately one knot sooner, shepherding the plastic right into a dense mass.

    Image copyright The Ocean CLEANUP Image caption The crew says the screen is designed to minimise collateral affects on marine lifestyles

    Fish should be capable of swim underneath and, for the reason that software has clean surfaces, the wish is that no flora and fauna turns into entangled.

    On-board cameras will stay watch, and every six weeks or so a boat will go back and forth out to scoop up the concentrated tangle of plastic and take it back to dry land to be recycled.

    The plan is to make use of the recovered subject material to make a spread of products to be intentionally advertised as “comprised of ocean plastic” and sold at a premium worth.

    What are the downsides?

    Some experts I’ve spoken to are concerned that marine lifestyles may suffer.

    Anything drifting within the sea quickly will get coated in algae, attracting plankton which draw in small fish and then bigger ones. Industrial fishing fleets in fact set up “fish aggregation devices” to act as lures.

    Lonneke Holierhoek has a solution. An unbiased environmental study found that the affect will also be minimised, she says, as an example by way of making a noise previous to the plastic is lifted out to scare away fish.

    But Sue Kinsey of the Marine Conservation Society is among people who aren’t convinced. She admires the eagerness and inspiration in the back of the undertaking however says it could be destructive.

    “the most important problem is the ones creatures that passively go with the flow within the ocean that cannot in reality transfer out of the way – once they are in this array, they are going to be trapped there unable to move,” she says.

    She also says it’s extra price-efficient to clean up beaches instead and focus on preventing extra plastic reaching the oceans.

    Information: Why is plastic a problem? Seven charts that designate plastic air pollution

    Prof Richard Lampitt of the UK’s Nationwide Oceanography Centre also applauds the venture for elevating consciousness but reckons a lot of the plastic that gets into the ocean sinks slightly temporarily so that the hassle may not find a way to make so much of a difference.

    And he additionally highlights the carbon price of creating 60 of the gathering devices, because the plan calls for, and the shuttling of the ships again and forth, all to retrieve an anticipated EIGHT,000 tonnes of plastic a 12 months.

    “the price/receive advantages ratio doesn’t look at all sexy,” Prof Lampitt tells me.

    Back in Rotterdam, one among the mission’s scientists, Laurent Lebreton, is convinced the hassle is price it, and he displays me examples of plastic waste impacting the flora and fauna.

    A small piece of white coral has grown around the fibres of an antique fishing internet – a surprisingly stunning sight. And at the jagged edge of a plastic bottle there are unmistakeable tooth marks left via a fish that is taken a chew.

    “That plastic will get swallowed and the fish gets eaten and the plastic enters the meals chain and ends up on our plates,” Laurent says.

    “the solution is – one – ensuring plastic does not get into the natural surroundings, and – – clean up the legacy plastic that’s been collecting for the reason that 1950s.”

    It Is Going To take three weeks for the system to be towed out to the great Garbage Patch some 2,000km (1,TWO HUNDRED miles) off the coast of California. the first experience of the way it’s performing need to be transparent later this yr.

  • Plastic bags: Fee set to upward push to 10p and be extended to all shops Ask a matter

    A man holding a Sainsbury's bag Symbol copyright PA Image caption Sainsbury’s is certainly one of the most important supermarkets now not offering single-use plastic bags

    The plastic bag price may well be rising to 10p – with all stores in England having to rate.

    When You Consider That October 2015, shoppers have had to pay at least 5p for each single-use bag, with all retailers employing greater than 250 other people made to participate within the scheme.

    But now it would be extended to all stores with the fee set at 10p, Prime Minister Theresa Would Possibly has announced.

    The amendment is part of the federal government’s plan to tackle plastic pollution.

    Lately, it is estimated that greater than 3 billion baggage are provided by small and medium companies yearly.

    What’s happened for the reason that rate was offered?

    The choice of single-use plastic service baggage passed out by supermarkets in England has drastically decreased.

    In 2014 – before the fee used to be presented – the seven main shops (Asda, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, The Co-Operative Team, Tesco and Waitrose) handed out the equivalent of ONE HUNDRED FORTY plastic bags in keeping with particular person.

    In 2016-17, that fell to 24 baggage, falling additional to 19 baggage in 2017-18.

    SINCE THE rate was once offered, the collection of disposable provider luggage given out via the seven biggest grocery store chains has diminished through 86% total, according to legitimate figures. In total, THIRTEEN billion plastic luggage were taken out of flow within the prior two years.

    wish to discover extra approximately plastics?

    Symbol copyright Getty Images Image caption Paper baggage too can be used as another to plastic

    What could amendment now?

    Up beforehand, it’s just been the largest retailers that have needed to charge for unmarried-use plastic luggage in England. Smaller businesses had been allowed to price if they wish to, with the Affiliation of Comfort Stores encouraging its contributors to introduce voluntary charging schemes the place sensible.

    What are other people saying about it?

    lots of the seven best supermarkets have already stopped selling unmarried-use carrier bags in their shops, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s, which only sell reusable bags. Asda has said it’s phasing out single use plastic bags by the end of the yr, and Morrisons began doing this in March.

    James Lowman, chief government of The Affiliation of Comfort Shops, mentioned it had “lengthy campaigned for compulsory plastic bag charging to be extended to all companies simply as it is in Wales and Scotland”.

    Approximately half convenience retail outlets already charged for baggage voluntarily and such a lot supported a common price, he said.

    The British Retail Consortium mentioned it was once right for the levy to be mandatory and constant for all shops nevertheless it puzzled whether the upward thrust to 10p could help.

    “we think any more reduction shall be marginal as there has been one of these top relief already,” a spokesman mentioned.

    Environmental marketing campaign group A Plastic Planet said expanding drive on consumers was once the wrong approach.

    Founder Sian Sutherland said: “This levy increase unfairly targets shoppers even as major manufacturers continue to power plastic upon them. the federal government needs to shift its deal with to them if it is to turn out to be an international leader in tackling the plastic downside.”

    Emma Priestland, plastic air pollution campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said increasing charges had proved effective within the Irish Republic, but the executive also had to take motion towards other sources of plastic, akin to coffee cups and straws.

    So what does this mean?

    Analysis through David Shukman, BBC Information science editor

    The previous few years have observed a snow fall of presidency announcements approximately plastic pollution – but it surely’s all the time value checking the important points.

    The fanfare could also be about new measures which can be in reality entering pressure – reminiscent of the 5p charge on carrier bags in supermarkets which has in reality been a massive success. Or it might herald the launch of a consultation about whether or not to introduce new measures – just like the plan for a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles.

    Or the statement might simply be pointing out that there’ll in long run be a consultation – as with the notion for a doubling of the charge on bags to 10p and lengthening it to small stores. Thursday’s press unlock says the PM “confirms” the consultation however provides that it may not be introduced until later this 12 months. And if it all happens, will or not it’s price it?

    The 5p rate in the “large seven” supermarkets has led to THIRTEEN billion fewer baggage being in circulation, the kind of dramatic change noticed within the Irish Republic which pioneered motion on this space. Extending the fee to smaller stores may just lower a further three billion – a welcome step but never large.

    And campaigners point out that different international locations are being far more radical about all sorts of plastic waste. Kenya, the place the assertion used to be made, is leading the arena with jail sentences for somebody caught making or importing plastic bags; the time for Kenyan consultations on plastic has long past.

    What else is the government doing?

    the federal government has previously introduced a ban on microbeads.

    It has already said it wants to ban the sale of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds. There are plans too for a deposit go back scheme for drinks bottles and cans, to inspire recycling.