By Maduka Nweke
PlasticS have long had the planet in its grip. All too often, they are found piled up on beaches and sea shores floating as “plastic islands” in the ocean. They also clogs the stomach of fishes, birds and other animals and have even made it into the human bloodstream. To date, just nine per cent of the world’s plastics have been recycled, while some 12 per cent have been burned and the rest have ended up on landfills.
Cheap, light, moldable and durable, plastics have been the source of significant industrial, trade, sanitation and health progress since they started being manufactured at a large scale in the 1950s. The flip side is the exponential growth of plastics production and use, along with their devastating impacts on the environment, wildlife and people. The yearly production of plastics has grown from two million tonnes in 1950 to approximately 380 million tonnes and is projected to quadruple by 2050. International trade in plastics is booming and they worth over USD1 trillion in 2018 (UNCTAD).
Every piece of plastic we have ever touched is still on earth. It may be intact or disintegrating, but it is still here. Pieces of plastics lie everywhere, from the depths of the ocean to the peak of the highest mountain and more plastic enters the system every second. This is the situation that has driven the plastic pollution crisis so high on the global agenda. Once again, something with the power to do good has spun into a seemingly uncontrollable threat.
Plastics is an essential commodity with multiple uses based on its key qualities of malleability, flexibility, and durability. Derived from the process of refining oil and gas, plastic has been indispensable in making our lives easier. Think of the diapers that make it that much easier for parents to care for their babies. Or ‘IV’ drip bags and other crucial medical equipment used to treat the sick, not to mention the personal protective equipment that has saved lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Think of the insulation for electric wires that power our lives, or the multipack of pens you purchase at the beginning of the school year. Plastics are present in agriculture, fisheries, renewable energy, transport, technology, retail, textiles, personal care products and all the other sectors and industries that directly or indirectly affect our daily life. But also think of the plastic bags, bottles, cigarette filters, cups, wrapping, straws, stirrers, flip-flops, bits of packaging, and microplastics that merge with our beaches and marine ecosystems. Plastics have made our lives more convenient, but it has come at a higher price than we imagined.
According to Paulo Mandiro, in charge of plastic plates in a plastic manufacturing company, the pollution from plastics is overflowing our landfills, clogging waterways, and infiltrating the ocean is primarily made of discarded items and packaging. He said, plastic lasts for hundreds of years, slowly disintegrating into smaller pieces, but never fully degrading. “Indeed, one of the key perks of plastic is its longevity, yet, the plastic packaging of nearly every product we purchase and many plastic products themselves are intended to be discarded after a single use. Throwaway plastic is an oxymoron, but it has become our sad, increasingly dangerous reality.
“With only nine per cent of plastics being recycled, most of the plastics produced remain in the environment for centuries. At best plastics are disposed of in landfills, leaching toxic chemicals in the soil and ground water and at worse, mismanaged plastics are polluting land, waterways and ultimately the oceans. No place on the planet is shielded from plastic pollution. “Microplastics are found everywhere from the deepest ocean trenches to the Arctic Circle. They contaminate food and water and are ingested by fish, birds and at the end of the food chain, by people. A study by the University of Newcastle estimates that an average person consumes 5mg of plastics per week, the equivalent of a credit card. Microplastics also enter the body through skin contact and inhalation. The health impact of exposure to microplastics is of great concern because as well as attracting pathogens, they carry and release toxic chemicals that act as endocrine disruptors interfering with the immune system and other bodily functions, including brain development.
“This makes the recent finding of presence of microplastics in human placentas particularly worrying. On our current course, however, plastic use will triple by 2060 and because the material is not biodegradable, so will the resulting trash. Microplastic pollution will increase significantly in every country too. Seas and rivers such as the Atlantic Oce, River Niger, River Benue, River Nun in Bayelsa, the Lagoon in Lagos and very other tributaries of seas and rivers are most mostly the last bus stops for these plastics. What of the Ganges in India and Ciliwung in Indonesia which are already brimming with plastic trash? Unless there is great change in our habits, the amount of plastics that ends up in nature will double and cause even greater harm to plants, animals and ecosystems, according to the report published today,” he said.
A former legislator in Anambra State, Anthony Okafor, said with about 99 per cent of plastics made from fossil fuels, the already considerable emissions created during the lifecycle of plastics will also more than doubled by 2060. Okafor noted that the impact of plastics on human health, the environment and food security all infringe on fundamental human rights protected under international human rights law. “With most of the plastics ever produced lingering in the oceans and the environment for hundreds of years, affecting marine and terrestrial ecosystems as well as reducing the carbon sink capacity of the oceans essential in mitigating climate change, plastics constitute a serious threat to both current and future generations.
“The Pacific Islands and other large ocean small Island developing states (LOSIDS) are disproportionally exposed to plastic pollution and vulnerable to its impacts. This is due to several factors including their large coastal areas exposing them to the tides of plastics carried by oceanic currents; the reliance on plastic-packaged imported goods; the absence of recycling facilities and limited waste management capacity, and the central role of the ocean in the islands’ national economy (fisheries, trade) and the islands communities’ food security, livelihood, cultural practices and identity. These issues were among those raised in the first UN Pacific Forum on Business and Human Rights recently held in Suva and virtually last December.
“We can also see that the impact of plastics is reducing the amount of fishes our fishermen catch on daily basis because and fish that swallows plastic will not have it digested or excreted because of its nature. For this, a lot of marine lives are lost to plastics,”he noted.
He further said, “While the impacts of marine pollution on human rights are the most obvious, plastics infringe on human rights at each stage of their life cycle: from the extraction of plastics raw materials – oil and gas -, through to the production of plastic pellets and manufacturing of plastics products; their trade and use; to disposal and afterlife. Poor and vulnerable populations bear an unfair share of the detrimental impacts of plastics and LOSIDS bear a disproportionate share of the impacts marine plastic pollution. Furthermore, the production of plastics by large international corporations means that the countries and populations most affected by their impacts throughout the life cycle do not have a say in any of the decisions relating to its production. The majority of Pacific LOSIDS has legislated to reduce or prohibit the import, sale and use of single use plastics, and has worked with civil society organisations, the business sector and other stakeholders to reduce plastic pollution and raise awareness including through regular beach cleanup campaigns. These are undoubtedly very important actions since 80 per cent of marine plastic pollution is land-based. However, their effectiveness in resolving the global and transboundary plastics crisis is limited.”
Environmental policy expert, Peter Börkey, told DW, “It’s clear that ‘business as usual’ in the way we use, produce and manage plastic is not possible anymore. Plastic use could fall a fifth by 2060 if the OECD’s 38 member states, particularly those with high per-capita incomes like Germany, the USA and Japan, implemented far-reaching reforms. Such a move would also significantly reduce waste.”
OECD member states are the biggest global plastic consumers today. But by 2060, around half of plastic consumption will be in countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. These countries already see a high incidence of plastic ending up in nature. “The most effective way to reduce plastic in the environment is, first and foremost, helping developing countries to improve their waste management systems,” Börkey said.