Unsolved Enigma: Plastic Waste to the Ocean

Plastic. Who doesn't think it's helpful? It's light in weight, some of it is strong and durable, and the most helpful one: it is disposable. Yes, you use it once and throw it all away. People won't even bother to wonder where it might end up or they won't bother to ask for one after another, because yes, it's practically free to get. The history of this material went back way across the centuries. British Plastic Federation (2017), reveals in the timeline of plastic invention that the beginning of plastic started long time ago. Throughout the years, it has become an important part of many industries, adapting and evolving to survive its own existence up until now. Its versatility amazes us, how this small material called polymer is transformed into various forms to fulfil the needs of many. Unfortunately, there are always two sides in a coin.

Concerns over plastic waste has been growing from year to year. A world without plastic or synthetic organic polymers is almost unimaginable nowadays. The growth of plastics usage is extremely extraordinary these days, wrote Geyer et al. (2017) in Science Advances Journal: Productions, Use and Fate of All Plastics Ever Made. The research was performed to do a global analysis on all mass-produced plastics ever manufactured. It was estimated that 8300 metric tonnes (Mt) of virgin plastics have been produced to recent date. Approximately 6300 Mt of plastic had been generated in 2015, only 9% had been recycled, 12% had been incinerated and a jaw dropping 79% was accumulated in land-fills or natural environment. Plastics' largest industry is packaging, from reusable to single use. This sector has been rapidly growing, from a mere 1% in 1960's to more than 10% in 2005. At the same time, this vast growing industry has triggered global solid waste generation. Not to mention, the main component of monomers in plastic making, such as ethylene and propylene are derived from fossil hydrocarbons, which means none of commonly used plastics are biodegradable. In result, they accumulate, rather than decompose. From those numbers I have mentioned above, will you imagine? majority of them are accumulated uncontrollably, and if we establish a schematic thinking, further question will come up. "Where are the most of them end up?"

Underwater Trash (National Geographic)

Eight Million Tonnes of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year, and 5.25 Trillion Pieces (and Counting) of Ocean Trash. Two staggering National Geographic headlines in 2015, written by Laura Parker. The titles sum it all. Plastics debris are suffocating ocean and the whole ecosystem is choked by it.  These plastic wastes travel through rivers, water waste and eventually into the oceans. Of those numbers, 269,000 tonnes float upon the surface while a little over four billions per square kilometres of plastics in form of micro fibres ended up sunk in the deep sea, and if you fancy to hear even a worse news, these numbers are ready to increase tenfold in the next few decades unless the citizen of earth make concrete acts to slacken it. For scientists and global world. This event rings a loud alarm. 

Dynamics of the Ocean Complicates Marine Plastic Debris Management 

The ocean is moving in dynamic motions, and with eight million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean per year, things are getting more complicated. As explain in National Geographic, Ocean Gyre is an area where two current systems or more converge. Ocean Gyre is triggered by global wind pattern and earth's rotation force, also well known as The Coriolis Effect. These gyres drive the world's global current circulation event called The Ocean Conveyor Belt. This global event is distributing the water around the entire planet and it is actually essential in regulating temperature, salinity and nutrient flow throughout the ocean. Well, to our concern, in this case it might not only circulate the water, but also all the plastic waste within.

Marine plastic debris is drifted around into these areas and for years it is accumulated. These areas are called Garbage Patches. The Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean all have their own garbage patch, these patches generally collect debris from the countries along its shoreline. Though it is hard to precisely track the origins of these wastes, it can actually be predicted by combining all the existing data.

World's Biggest Contibutors

All countries on the planet technically stand accused for this humongous event of plastic pile. However, eight out of top ten sources of ocean's plastic waste according to National Geographic and CNN are Asian Countries with China and Indonesia as worst offenders. The figures below reflect the top ten countries with biggest plastic waste to the ocean per year.

In the world's second contributor to plastic waste, Indonesia, big cities such as Jakarta, Denpasar and Palembang are the biggest culprit to the plastic pollution claimed Muhammad Taufan in The Diplomat Article: Ocean of Plastic: Fixing Indonesia's Marine Debris Pollution Law. The writer makes it clear that marine plastic pollution is required to be addressed under clear and comprehensive legal framework. He highlights despite the various number of legal actions that has been taken by Indonesia's government, the average rate of marine plastic pollution to ocean remains high. However, Indonesia vows to tackle the trend and by 2050, the world's largest archipelago targets to reduce the marine waste up to 70%. The announcement was made by the country's Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan at 2017 World's Ocean Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali. He states that Indonesia is currently developing technologies to utilise biodegradable materials such as cassava and seaweed in replace of polymers plastic materials, and in eight years of period, he aimed that Indonesia will be able to suppress the plastic waste up to 70%.

Plastic Debris Patches in 2010 (J.L. Wang, National Geographic) 

Top Countries for Mismanaged Plastic Waste (CNN)

If we are putting the two things into one perspective. The maps above shows that top six countries in top 10 contributors of plastic waste: China, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia potentially litter their plastic waste to Pacific Ocean due to their location, a place with one of the strongest gyres. West Pacific Gyre, will meet The East Pacific Gyre in the Pacific Ocean and together will form a Great Pacific Garbage Patches. Even though, United States which shares direct border with East Pacific Ocean is excluded from the worst ten offenders of plastic waste, they are still ranked 20th in the world. That means, the threat is still high.

World's Garbage Gyres and Garbage Patches (Project Oceanus)

Another article on National Geographic explains that the Great Pacific Garbage Patches is a collection of marine plastic debris in the North Pacific Ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch spans water from West Coast of United States and East Coast of Asia. This area of spinning debris is linked together by North Pacific Subtropical Converge Zone, acts like a highway, moving debris from one patch to another. The area in the centre of a gyre tends to be calm and stable. However, the circular motion of the gyre draws the debris into the centre of the area, where it becomes trapped. According to Aventurine there is at least 5.2 trillions pieces of plastic currently in the ocean and a third of which is concentrated at the Great Pacific Garbage Patches and this area of compiled debris will continue to deal damages in years to come.

The North Pacific Garbage Patch is too large for scientist to cover and trawl, and not all of the plastic debris floats on the surface. Denser plastics debris is able to sink a few centimetres or even a couple of metres down making the total waste in the area almost impossible to be accurately measured. Almost 80% of the total plastic debris in the area comes from land-based activity in America and Asia, while the other 20% comes from boaters, offshore oil rigs, or cargo ships that accidentally lose of intentionally dumps the plastics to the ocean. Experts predict, without serious act of prevention, in 2050 there will be more plastics than fish in the ocean.

Plastic Waste to Marine Life

One of the strongest point to argue and clearly the uttermost important: how dangerous it actually is to marine life, and what happened if the current trend keeps on going relentlessly without prevention efforts? The Guardian article: Plastic Waste Threat to Marine Life explains vividly that amongst the hazardous materials that currently exist nowadays in the ocean, plastics pose the biggest threat to marine's ecology. Marine animals could potentially swallow them, and instead of instantly killing these animals, the plastic waste gives an artificial sense of being full, leading these animals to starvation and death. These swallowed plastics could also potentially suffocate them and cause an instant death. Consumption of plastic waste by marine creature will cause digestive problem. Their throat pipe will start to be blocked, stopping food to pass through the gullet. Not to mention the hazardous toxic material in plastic for example Bisphenol-A, DDT and PCB are also lethal once for marine organisms, and due to absorption these materials enter the food chain that includes us, humans.

Earlier this year, the world was shocked by the death of Cuvier's Baked whale with more than 30 plastic bags in its stomach, though the experts say: "it's not a surprise". The whale which had been put down by wardens off the coast of Western Norway clearly consumed a lethal amount of non-biodegradable plastic bags as were found within its stomach. Researchers from The University of Bergen examined the condition and figured out that the stomach was full of plastic wastes. Dr. Tirje Lislevand, a zoologist with whale expertise said that the mammal's intestine was blocked, causing severe pain and got it stranded in shallow water off Island of Sotra. The found whale was also emaciated with very little amount of blubber, suggesting it was malnourished. The Cuvier's Baked whale could grow up to 22 feet long and usually feed on squid in deep water ocean and not normally found in Norwegian Waters.

Stranded Cuvier's Baked Whale in Norway Coast Due to the Huge Amount of Plastic Waste Within The Intestine (University of Bergen)

The Dead Whale Suffered From a Blocked Intestine, Causing Severe Pain (The University of Bergen)

Another heart-shattering event comes from The Taronga Wildlife Hospital, Sydney as reported by ABC News Australia, where young green turtle, Cliff (named after the harbour he was found in) was rescued by snorkelers. The Green Turtle was found unable to eat and swim due to ingested plastic, and covered with barnacles all over his shell and eyes. Libby Hall, the hospital manager stated that Clifton is lucky to be rescued although he was found in poor condition, because many of the green turtles which suffer from the similar case were died after eating hidden plastic pollution in Sydney Harbour. Ms Hill added that only one out of 1,000 green turtle managed to survive the adulthood. Cliff was around 18 years old when rescued and the average Green Turtle would take 30 years before they could reproduce, and about 18% of Green Turtles which had been brought to the hospital are harmed by marine debris. "Sea turtles mostly feed on jellyfish, and jellyfish and floating plastics are so much look alike." She then emptied a jar filled with plastic matters and balloon, and claimed that of the 45 turtles they get in the hospital each year, most of them were affected by marine plastic debris.

Clifton, the Green Turtle Brought to the Wildlife Hospital in Sydney for Ingesting Plastic Debris (ABC News Australia)

Action Speaks Louder Than Words

Conservationists are shouting to ban single-used plastic in New South Wales. David Thomas, the founder of Eco Divers Community Group says 75% of debris that comes into the waters will remain in the water. He went for a dive and after half an hour of SCUBA Diving, he filled a mesh bag with rubbish, including balloons that had a bite mark from marine life that tried to eat it. He also says that nylon balloon string is impossible to break apart. It ends up as entanglement to the digestive system and the marine creature will basically die or if they are lucky, get rescued which very rarely. So far, South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania and the ACT have banned single-used plastic and Queensland will join them next year, in attempt of seriously reduce the amount of plastic bag thrown away to the ocean. 

Shouting out for the government to regulate a law framework for plastic management is one way to solve the problem, but there are actually simpler ways to help the environment. Self-management of plastic could actually be pivotal in slowing down the relentless run of plastic debris into the ocean.

Simple Actions to be Taken to Revive the Ocean From Plastic Waste (Oceanconservancy.org)

Oceanic Society, Brian Hutchinson explains that there are 7 simple ways to Reduce Ocean Plastic Pollution Today. Reducing the single-used plastic is the easiest part. Without even realising it, every time we visit the supermarket or any other market, it is almost inevitable to use plastic bags to carry the goods. How often are we visiting the markets? Do the math. Recycling the plastic, or simply use shopping bags instead of single-used plastic will do a significant impacts. Other single-used products such as water bottles, straws, cups, laundry bags, are also littering the environment. So, start minding to reduce these materials and bear in mind that every plastic you use will end up somewhere, and in most of the case, it's in the ocean. 

Boyan Slat, 1994-born Dutch inventor came up with big invention in 2016 which named The Ocean Cleanup. The TU Delft, Aerospace Engineering dropped-out invented one of the biggest ocean clean up technology for marine debris which expected to clean up a whooping 50% of marine debris in the world's biggest marine debris miscellany, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In his inspiring Tedx Talk Delft, he opposed the majority thinking of environment researchers that suggest the main concern to counteract the current marine debris problem is by doing prevention acts, such as education rather than clean up operation due to the large area to cover, each of them moving around with dynamic motions. But his invention of ocean cleanup that utilise the existing force of ocean current rather than manually sweep the marine debris sparks the hope of ocean's revival, while at the same time the amount of cost, and time that is required to clean up the ocean could be significantly minimised. His invention used the ocean current as solution rather than as obstacle, and let the current drives the debris to the device. "Why move through the ocean, when the ocean can move through you?" He added that "By fixing the ships to the seabeds and let the rotating currents do their work, vast amount of funds, man power and emissions will be saved." The foremost, because there is no mesh size is used, all organisms will be able to move under the screen, and the bycatch will be reduced to 99.98%. This major invention is a boost to our hope to actually see the light at the end of the tunnel, and to actually believe that there are ways to stop the catastrophic event of "sea full of plastics".

The Ocean Cleanup Cleaning Device (The Ocean Cleanup)

Large Device Utilising Solar and Sea Current Power (The Ocean Cleanup)

Of course the invention like Boyan did is something extraordinary, and people in general would probably be in short of resources or fund to participate in or to replicate the similar act. But like I said there are many ways in participating to the campaign. Prevention is still quite effective to do, though. It merely costs you nothing, and all it takes is only embedding in mind that the use of plastic actually needs to be suppressed as low as possible. In the end, we might sometimes underestimate the power of words. Spread the world. Let them know that the harmful behaviours will go on and on unnoticed if the people remain unaware of these issues. Support any programme that bans single-plastic use and stand for the organisation addressing plastic pollution, and take your self action. Make a stand. When all the citizens of the planet are aware of the catastrophic possibility that's coming due to these plastic waste, then we have a glimmer of hope to revive the world's ocean from the strangling marine debris.

"Lad with handful of dreams & wishful thinking.. "