The planet is choking under plastic

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Diseases of the nervous system, cancer, genetic mutations - all this is awarded to a person by his everyday and, it seems, irreplaceable companion - plastic. This is the conclusion reached by the authors of the first major study on the effects of plastic on the human body, published in early March by the Center for International Environmental Law.

And this is just the tip of the plastic "iceberg". In recent years, evidence has regularly emerged of the destructive effects of this material on the environment. Making up about half of all waste, it breaks down into small particles, “travels” through habitats, enters food chains, destroys ecosystems …

The problem was realized only recently, when humanity was already firmly bogged down in a plastic "trap". Disposable household items, food packaging, cosmetics, synthetic clothing - how to give up the conveniences that you are used to for a long time? Gradually, restrictions on plastic are being introduced in dozens of countries, but, according to environmentalists, these measures are not enough to prevent global "littering". At the same time, the popular ideas of processing plastic raw materials and switching to biodegradable polymers are also criticized by experts. Profile has figured out how plastic pollution is changing our planet and whether there is an effective way to resist it.

Oceans of garbage

The mass production of plastic began just 60 years ago. During this time, the volume of its production increased 180 times - from 1.7 million tons in 1954 to 322 million in 2015 (data from Plastics Europe). Water bottles alone, the most popular product, are churned out at 480 billion a year (20,000 every second), according to Euromonitor.

At the same time, only 9% of the plastic is recycled. Another 12% is incinerated and 79% ends up in landfills and the environment. As a result, out of 8, 3 billion tons of plastic produced by man by 2015 - as much as 822 thousand Eiffel Towers or 80 million blue whales weigh - 6, 3 billion tons turned into trash (according to Science Advances).

The UN forecast looks threatening: if nothing is done, the amount of unrefined plastic will grow from 32 million tons in 2010 to 100-250 million in 2025. And by the middle of the century, humanity will generate 33 billion tons of plastic products per year - 110 times more than in 2015. As a result, the mass of plastic in the oceans will be greater than the entire remaining population of marine animals, predicted in a report by the IEF and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The oceans take on the brunt of plastic pollution: because of the cycle of currents, "garbage islands" are formed in them - two each in the Atlantic and Pacific (north and south of the equator), and one in the Indian. The situation is most severe in the Pacific North: in the late 1980s, scientists predicted the appearance of a garbage patch between California and Hawaii, and in 1997 it was discovered empirically by yachtsman Charles Moore, who landed on his yacht in the thick of the landfill.

Last year, environmentalists clarified the size of the spot. It turned out that it is four times larger than previously thought: 1.6 million square kilometers, 80 thousand tons of plastic. And the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (Great Britain) found that due to currents, plastic waste reaches the most remote corners of the planet: 17, 5 tons of garbage were found on the uninhabited Pacific island of Henderson.

At the same time, plastic not only drifts on the surface, but sinks to the bottom: in the summer of 2018, scientists from the Ocean Research Center in Kiel (Germany) proved that the debris sinks, “sticking together” with particles of biological origin. At the same time, the Japan Agency for Science and Technology in the field of marine science studied photographs of the ocean depths and found many traces of anthropogenic pollution - even at the bottom of the Mariana Trench there were scraps of a plastic bag.

Plastic civilization

Microplastic is a separate problem. According to the international classification, any plastic particle less than 5 mm in length falls into this category. There is no minimum size: there are particles less than one nanometer (billionth of a meter).

Microplastics are classified as primary and secondary. Primary is most often a fiber added to synthetic clothing. When rubbing against a surface or washing, thousands of fibers are separated from it, "hanging" in the air or washed away into the sewers. The UK alone generates 5,900 tons of microplastics a year in this way, according to The Guardian.

The second most important source is particles of artificial rubber from tires, which each car leaves 20 grams per 100 kilometers. In addition, cars wash road markings that also contain plastic.

Finally, the cosmetics industry is responsible for the production of plastic "dust". Scrubs and shampoos, lipstick, toothpaste - synthetic glitter, fragrances, stabilizers are added everywhere. However, polymer granules can be found in a wide variety of products - cleaning products, self-adhesive envelopes, tea bags, chewing gum.

Added to this is secondary microplastics - "big" debris that has fallen apart into small pieces. As you know, plastic takes centuries to decompose. But it can quickly degrade to tiny parts, while retaining its molecular structure.

If they talked about plastic pollution back in the 20th century, then the problem of microplastics has sounded relatively recently. The first significant work was published in 2004 (article Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic? In the journal Science), and quantitative estimates of microplastics in the ocean began to appear only in recent years. Today it is known that in the Pacific garbage patch the share of microplastics by weight is only 8%, but by the number of fragments it is at once 94%. Moreover, these indicators are increasing, because floating debris is systematically crushed.

How much microplastics ended up in the oceans? The European Chemicals Agency estimates that if you put these dust particles together, their area is six times the size of the Pacific Garbage Patch. In April 2018, scientists from the Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany) discovered that each cubic meter of Arctic ice can store several million plastic particles - 1000 times more than was estimated in 2014. Shortly thereafter, the Greenpeace expedition found similar results in Antarctica.

There is also microplastic on land. In May 2018, geographers from the University of Bern (Switzerland) found it in hard-to-reach areas of the Alps, suggesting that the wind delivers the particles there. A couple of months ago, the University of Illinois (USA) proved that chemical contamination of the soil brought microplastics into the groundwater.

The problem has not spared Russia either. Back in 2012, the University of Utrecht (Holland) predicted that the sixth garbage patch would be formed in the Barents Sea. Last year's expeditions of the Northern Federal University (Arkhangelsk) and the Institute of Marine Research (Norway) confirmed that the forecast is coming true: the sea has already "collected" 36 tons of garbage. And in January 2019, scientists from the Institute of Lake Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences tested water from Lake Ladoga, from the coast of the Gulf of Finland and the Neva Bay for microplastics. Particles of plastic are found in every sampled liter of water.

“The level of plastic pollution in Russia cannot be assessed,” Alexander Ivannikov, head of the Zero Waste project at Greenpeace Russia, admitted to Profile.- For example, during a recent expedition to the Krasnodar Territory, we found 1800 bottles carried by the sea on a 100-meter stretch of the coastline of the Sea of Azov. People have fixed this problem for a long time - you can read the diaries of Thor Heyerdahl, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. But they underestimated her, and only now, when the situation became indecent, they started talking."

Kill with a straw

While not everyone is pitying about the presence of garbage in the ocean, the cases of animals swallowing plastic fragments cause a special resonance. In recent years, they have been increasingly encountered by wildlife researchers and ordinary tourists. In 2015, social networks were stirred up by a video filmed by the American biologist Christine Figgener: in Costa Rica, she met a turtle with a plastic tube stuck in its nose. The animal almost lost the ability to breathe, but the girl managed to save him by pulling out the foreign object with pliers.

In other episodes, people met a wolf with its head stuck in a discarded cooler bottle, a dolphin swallowing plastic bags that blocked the digestive system, a bird entangled in a packing net …

But besides the emotional stories, there are also important research findings. So, last year, biologists from Cornell University (USA) found that 1.1 billion pieces of plastic were stuck in the coral reefs of the Asia-Pacific region, which are the basis of local ecosystems, by 2025 this number may increase to 15.7 billion. Garbage makes corals 20 times more vulnerable to disease and deprives symbiotic algae.

The works describing the role of microplastics in food chains deserve special attention. In 2016-2017, biologists began to report on synthetic particles found in the organisms of the smallest crustaceans - zooplankton. They are eaten by fish and animals of a higher order, "taking with them" and plastic. They can use it in "pure form", confusing it with normal food in appearance and smell. Moreover, many ocean inhabitants move in it with the currents and thus find themselves in the epicenter of waste accumulations.

In December 2018, scientists from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK) reported the presence of microplastics in the organisms of all existing species of turtles. A month later, they published the results of an examination of 50 dead individuals of marine mammals (dolphins, seals, whales) found on the coast of Britain. It turned out that each of the animals ate synthetics.

“Microplastic is a more dangerous threat than ordinary waste,” says Ivannikov. - It migrates much faster in the environment, from one organism to another. This leads to a strong fragmentation of the material: if debris spots are formed more or less in one place, then the microplastic is, as it were, smeared over the planet with a thin layer. To assess its concentration, visual assessment is no longer enough, special studies are needed. Everyone is shocked by the footage of how the animal choked on plastic and died. We do not know how frequent such cases are, but in any case, this does not happen with all animals. But microplastics seem to be eaten by everyone."

Part of the waste ends up in the oceans, causing suffering and death of its inhabitants

Paulo de Oliveira / Biosphoto / AFP / East News

Plastic diet

A person, as the top of the food chain, inevitably had to receive his "dose" of microplastics. The first experimental confirmation that we absorb our own trash came in October last year. Scientists from the Medical University of Vienna (Austria) analyzed stool samples from eight volunteers from different countries and found the desired grains in all: an average of 20 pieces for every 10 grams of biomaterial.

Each of us does not have the slightest chance of avoiding the daily intake of plastic in our diet. In September 2017, a study of tap water samples from 14 countries appeared, commissioned by the Orb Media Association of Journalists. The main conclusion is that the sewage treatment plant is not able to retain the pieces of plastic: more than 80% of the samples were positive (72% in Western Europe, 94% in the USA). Replacing running water with bottled water does not help: six months later, a new study covering 250 bottles of water from 9 countries of the world revealed an even larger proportion of "plastic" liquid.

Shortly thereafter, German scientists discovered microplastics in honey and beer, while Korean scientists found microplastics in table salt. The British went even further, claiming that about a hundred synthetic fibers are ingested daily, along with household dust. That is, no matter what we do, we will not be able to protect ourselves.

How dangerous is microplastic? Animal studies have shown that particles smaller than 50 microns (millionths of a meter) can penetrate the intestinal wall into the bloodstream and internal organs. At the same time, marine mammals that died from infectious diseases contained much more microplastic particles than those that died from other causes, scientists from the Plymouth laboratory noticed. And in the Austrian Society of Gastroenterology, it was suggested that "eating" microplastics is associated with an increased incidence of colon cancer in young people.

All these are hypotheses and tendencies so far. Scientists refrain from final conclusions: too much is still unknown about microplastics. We can definitely only talk about the negative impact of toxic impurities added to plastic to give it different consumer properties: pesticides, dyes, heavy metals. As the plastic product degrades, these carcinogens are “released” by being absorbed into the environment.

According to Alexander Ivannikov, a recent report by the Center for International Environmental Law ("Plastic and Health: The Real Cost of Plastic Addiction") was the first attempt to trace the impact of plastic on human health at all stages of the life cycle - from hydrocarbon production to landfill. The report's conclusions are disappointing: the authors identified 4,000 potentially hazardous chemical compounds, 1,000 of them were analyzed in detail and 148 were identified as very dangerous. In a word, there is still a lot of work to do.

“Research in this area is just beginning, current work is more aimed at drawing everyone's attention to the problem,” believes Ivannikov. - Another question: is it worth it to sit back, waiting for everything to be proven? There are hundreds of synthetic, composite materials, and it can take decades to track the impact of each of them in the long term. How much plastic will be thrown away during this time? Even without research, it is clear that the plastic problem is becoming a challenge to the planet's biodiversity. It is impossible not to solve it”.

Prohibitions for every taste

Plastic waste also harms the economy: the European Union loses up to 695 million euros annually (as estimated by the European Parliament), the world - up to $ 8 billion (UN estimate; losses in the field of fisheries, tourism and the cost of cleaning measures are included). As a result, an increasing number of countries restrict the circulation of polymer products: according to last year's UN report, more than 50 countries have introduced various bans.

For example, in August 2018, the New Zealand authorities outlawed plastic bags in stores, based on a petition signed by 65,000 residents of the country. In the US, bags are banned in Hawaii, straws for drinks in San Francisco and Seattle, and a comprehensive ban on single-use plastic will soon take effect throughout California.

In the UK, as part of a 25-year environmental program, the sale of polyethylene was taxed a few pence from each package. And Queen Elizabeth II sets an example for her subjects by prohibiting disposable tableware in her residences.

Last fall, the whole of Europe declared a battle against plastic: Brussels adopted a "Plastic Strategy", which from 2021 banning the circulation of disposable glasses and plates, all kinds of tubes and sticks in the EU. For food packaging that does not have substitutes, it is prescribed to reduce the volume of use by a quarter by 2025.

A month ago, the EU authorities went even further: the European Chemicals Agency came up with a bill against primary microplastics, which should remove 90% of the sources of synthetic fibers from legal circulation. According to preliminary estimates, if the document is adopted (while the experts are studying it), the European cosmetic industry will have to change more than 24 thousand formulas, having lost at least 12 billion euros in revenue.

Asian countries are trying to keep up with the West: Sri Lanka is determined to fight foam plastic, Vietnam has taxed packages, South Korea has completely banned their sale in supermarkets. India has announced a particularly ambitious goal to eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022.

The dominance of polyethylene was attended even in Africa: he was disqualified in Morocco, Eritrea, Cameroon, South Africa. In Kenya, where livestock eats several bags during their lives, the most stringent ban was introduced - up to four years in prison for the production and use of such products.

According to the UN report, in some countries bans appear inconsistent or local authorities lack the resources to enforce compliance. As a result, the illegal plastic market is flourishing. “The problem is worried about those countries where either there is an active tourist flow, or an extended coastal zone, that is, where plastic pollution really interferes with life. But not everywhere they approached the matter wisely. Take California as an example, where a clear definition is given that there is a single-use package: it has a thickness of less than 50 microns and a useful potential of less than 125 times. Even the European Union lacks such definitions, which leaves room for speculation,”Ivannikov said.

The biggest problem, according to the expert, is that pollution has no boundaries: garbage thrown into the Moscow River will sooner or later end up in the World Ocean. In addition, microplastics generating industries, if banned in some countries, will move to places where there are no such laws, and will continue to work. Consequently, local restrictions are not enough, an international regulatory framework is needed.

However, many countries have not yet shown attention to the problem, and Russia is one of them. In our country, there was only one case of “defeat in rights” of disposable plastic: in July 2018, the authorities of the Leningrad region banned its use at cultural events in the region. There is no federal regulation of plastic; there are not even standards for the permissible concentration of microplastics in water.

At the same time, there are legislative prerequisites for limiting disposable products: Federal Law No. 89 "On Production and Consumption Wastes" sets out "maximum use of raw materials and materials" and "waste prevention" as priorities of state policy in the garbage issue.

“These phrases are enough to build a waste-free economy in the country,” says Ivannikov. - But these priorities are not being implemented. Not a single environmental agency - the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Rosstandart - undertakes the development of specific measures to popularize reusable packaging among the population and legal entities. Nobody stimulates the phased withdrawal from circulation of non-recyclable containers and non-medical packaging. Instead, support is found in a less priority, according to the law, direction - incineration, around which active lobbying activities have developed, leading to an aggravation of the garbage crisis."

According to ecologists, the problem is not in the plastic itself, but in the fact that a person uses many objects only once, for example, excess food packaging.

Shutterstock / Fotodom

Rescue of pollutants

But even with the political will, defeating the plastic invasion is not easy, environmentalists admit. It's important not to fall for popular misconceptions about how to fix a problem. For example, there is an opinion that it is enough to replace ordinary plastic with biodegradable, and the waste will disappear by itself - like fallen leaves in winter. However, Greenpeace Russia is against biopolymers.

“In fact, this name hides oxopolymers - ordinary plastic with additives that accelerate its decomposition,” explains Ivannikov. - Decay, not decay! That is, we get an accelerated formation of microplastics. It is no coincidence that Europe is planning to ban the use of such materials in 2020. Yes, there are also 100% organic polymers - starch, corn. But they are practically not represented on the Russian market. If they are introduced, it must be borne in mind that a huge mass of organic matter will additionally get to landfills, emitting a climatically aggressive gas - methane. This is permissible when the collection of organic waste for the production of compost and biogas has been established, but in the conditions of the Russian system, where 99% of waste goes to landfills, this is unacceptable."

According to the interlocutor, another “simple solution” is just as ineffective - replacing plastic bags with paper ones. After all, if they are made of wood, this already leaves a serious ecological footprint. “It is necessary to assess in a complex manner what damage to nature is caused by the production of this or that type of packaging,” says Ivannikov. - It is estimated that the complete replacement of plastic bags with paper bags in Russia will increase the area of forest felling by 15%. Is our forestry ready for this?"

According to experts, you should not flatter yourself with projects for the collection and recycling of plastic waste. One of them made a splash last year: Dutch startup The Ocean Cleanup decided to clean up the Pacific garbage patch. A floating installation, a 600-meter U-shaped tube with an underwater "bucket" for collecting particles, moved from San Francisco to the ocean. Environmentalists were skeptical about the activities of the oceanic "janitor": they say, he still will not collect microplastics, and it can very much damage living organisms.

As far as recycling is concerned, from the point of view of “greens”, it does not solve the problem of “side effects” of production. According to the estimates of the Swedish Institute for Environmental Research, 51 kg of waste is generated in the manufacture of an electric drill, a smartphone creates an extra 86 kg of garbage, and a train of 1200 kg of waste trails behind each laptop. And not everything can be recycled: many products are designed in such a way that their constituent materials cannot be separated from each other (for example, paper, plastic and aluminum in tetrapack packaging). Or the quality of raw materials is rapidly deteriorating, due to which the number of compression-heat treatment cycles is limited (downcycling phenomenon). So, most types of plastics can be recycled no more than five times.

“Even if you managed to make another bottle from a bottle, there is no guarantee that it will not get into the environment,” sums up Ivannikov. - You can catch garbage from the ocean, recycle it, but all this is a struggle with the consequences. If we stop at this, then the growth of pollution volumes cannot be stopped. The problem is not in the plastic itself, but in the fact that we use many objects only once. Rational consumption, reusable packaging with the goal of zero waste seems to be the only viable solution."