Plastic is an amazing material. It’s relatively cheap to produce, lightweight, flexible, yet strong and durable. Additives can give colour, enhance its resistance to heat or UV light, make it flame-retardant, and more. Today, plastics are everywhere – in healthcare, construction, and consumer goods, to name a few.
However, plastics have also become an ecological and social problem – and not just because (with a few exceptions) plastics are produced from fossil fuels.
Plastics are a major pollution issue. The same durable properties that make plastics so useful also mean they linger in the environment for decades, if not centuries. Researchers estimate that just 9% of plastic waste has been recycled. The rest is burned, dumped in landfills and ends up in the environment, including the ocean. The vast majority of plastic in the ocean made its way there through rivers, wastewater, and coastlines.
Whether on land or in the ocean, plastics can pose a hazard to people and wildlife alike. Microplastics—tiny particles of plastics that come from the breakdown of larger pieces of plastic, for example, have been found inside animals’ and people’s stomachs, muscles, and even brains, raising concerns about potential health impacts.
With more and more plastics being produced every year, urgent and global action is needed to stem the plastic crisis. That action could come from the United Nation’s Global Plastics Treaty- an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment…
Read the full article at EU4OceanObs https://www.eu4oceanobs.eu/moving-forward-with-a-global-plastics-treaty/