Plastic bags in ocean waters is a significant and growing global pollution epidemic. For example, there is a lack of consensus on the physical and socio-economic drivers of plastic leakage and a lack of specific data to establish key parameters of leakage models. In line with IUCNs effort toclose the plastic tap,two new publications will be released next month. C Simmons, Its in the Bag: An Estimate of the Effect of CO2 Emissions of the Irish Plastic Bag Tax (www.bestfootforward.com, 29 June 2017). Economic losses are linked to lower tourism earnings, adverse effects on tourist activities, and harm to the marine environment. All Rights Reserved. The consequence of the tax on the use of plastic bags in retail outlets was intense. Prohibitions on the use of plastic bags and the development of alternatives are a most welcome step when compared to putting pressure on people's production and use of plastic bags. 1196 Gland, It is an increasing source of contaminant, either introduced during processing or absorbed from the atmosphere. Mathis illustrated the attitude of people towards plastic pollution in Asia and how to use the CAP framework to reduce pollution. There are two types of methodologies: the first comprises methodologies that identify plastic waste streams and recycling rates at the national or business level; the second comprises methodologies that focus on pathway modelling to measure plastic leakage into waterways and oceans, from either mismanaged waste or in the form of microplastics. In reaction, local governments have taken a number of steps designed to minimise the store-level use of single-use shopping bags in the following main categories: bans, fees and levying taxes; minimum product size of bags; public awareness requirements; and retailer take-back initiatives. Professor Krause develops models and global monitoring campaigns such as the 100Plastic Rivers program that investigate the environmental fate and transport of plastic in river networks and identifies hot spots and hot moments of plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems. In the United States, the single-use plastic bag is a significant worry for local governments. Plastic waste has only been an issue for the last several decades. Simons (2005) suggests that, owing to the unregulated accumulation of carcinogenic compounds, the use of plastic bags may allow inroads into cancerous diseases. Plastic bags should be prohibited globally and their biodegradable equivalents should be implemented to address these gross and harmful issues. I hope we do it right and that we all come together around harmonizing strategies that truly create a sustainable culture, reduce our waste, and clean up our environment, concluded Rochman.
With corporations taking increasing responsibility for waste and more continuous research in the field, he said the situation provides opportunities for future progress. Today the European Commission proposed a new nature restoration law with binding targets on, American Humane, the US' first national humane organization and the worlds largest certifier of, The BIODEV2030 project, launched in early 2020 supports the country's development ambition, while, Headquarters E Carpenter, K Smith, Plastics on the Sargasso Sea surface, 1972, Science 175: 12401241. The report underlines the critical need to adopt a holistic, all-encompassing approach to measuring the impact of plastic pollution, one that assesses the entire value chain of plastic products and their entire life cycle, saysIUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme Director, Minna Epps. Available for individuals, students, law firms, bar associations and corporations. Several European countries have adopted a fee for plastic bags, taking into account the negative effect of plastic bags on agricultural production. Plastic pollution is a complicated suite of products and solutions tailor your solutions to a specific product because thats what it will take along with materials innovation and recycling, Hoellein said.
According to Krause, only a minority of the mismanaged plastic waste that has been produced globally so far has ended up in the oceans, with the majority of plastic waste being stored for long durations ranging from decades to centuries in the sediments of river corridors. This makes it difficult to design effective models to assess macro and micro plastic leakages and to tackle plastic pollution at source. It also prevents us from understanding the impacts and opportunities related to plastic usage. Indeed, few serious scientific investigations have been made by international organisations and the international community to reduce the ever-increasing consumption of plastic bags. And we are still in the fairly early and really exciting stages of developing tools and methods to set baselines and answer key scientific questions that will inform solutions going forward, said panelist moderator Maddalene. Education is another critical tool for behavioural improvement by educating people about the environmental and health expense of using plastic bags. The public should be informed not to use plastic bags, but to use eco-friendly alternative bags made from fabric, natural fibres and paper to reduce the problems associated with plastic bag wastes. There are many root causes to attribute the problem of plastic bag waste in Nigeria and other countries. Plastic bags pose a threat not only to marine life, but also to agricultural land. It is necessary to think about how they can be reused before disposing of them . The panelists suggested that there are still gaps in the data that need to be filled with future research. This involves the mobilisation of a wide range of stakeholders including governments, industries and society. Panelists included Taylor Maddalene, director of the Sea to Source: Plastic initiative at the National Geographic Society (NGS); Tim Hoellein, associate professor of biology at Loyola University Chicago; Chelsea Rochman, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto; Stefan Krause, professor of ecohydrology and biogeochemistry at the University of Birmingham (UK), and Jennifer Mathis with the Jenna Jambeck research group at the University of Georgia. Nor do they allow us to compare the different types of impacts between plastic pollution and other potential environmental impacts. This now poses a major challenge to environmental and agricultural production.
Last year, National Geographic conducted its first Sea to Source expedition along the Ganges with the goals of setting a baseline on the amount of plastic waste in the environment, supporting the development of intervention action plans, creating a replicable methodology, and scaling local capacity for increased impact. Plastic bags remain a major source of land-based litter and marine debris, which obstruct stormwater management systems due to their tremendously low re-use and recycling rate. The CAP strives to help foster a more efficient cycle of waste management and reuse, rather than the common take-make-dispose models of linear economies. R Hasson, A Leiman, M Visser,The economics of plastic bag legislation in South Africa, 2007, South African Journal of Economics, 75: 6683. These include reports on private sector surveys on circular economy, estimates of plastic leakage into the Baltic Sea and impacts of plastic pollution on selected endangered species. During the question and answer portion of the event, panelists addressed some of the remaining unsolved problems in plastic waste including the lack of a uniform measuring system. The CAP can help to inform communities by giving them a baseline assessment to work from and direct potential actions, Mathis said. Additional investigation indicates that the legislations impact may rise over time (Hasson et al., 2007). (Photo by Sara Hylton, National Geographic NatGeo.org/Plastic ). They further elucidated that the single-use plastic shopping bag is one of the leading causes of environmental and socio-economic problems worldwide, which has led to universal calls for use reduction intervention strategies. Following fieldwork in 2018 and 2019, Mathis team is focusing on utilizing a circular economy and a circularity assessment protocol (CAP). T Hofer, (Ed. It also involves enhancing our understanding of the problem through research and the compilation of the latest science and data on the issue. Associate Professor Hoellein shared his research on how plastic and microplastic trash interacts with virtually every other ecosystem, impacting water resources all over the world. According to Rochman, manufacturers and companies can push the boundaries of existing operations and products to improve recycling and reuse and otherwise protect the environment.
Plastic bags are accountable for the dilapidation of the atmosphere and agricultural land, which has inadvertently used up precious earth resources, in particular oil (Sugii, 2008). A call for mobilisation to the entire Union. On 27 August 2019 at the World Water Week in Sweden, IUCN launched a report that identified numerous gaps and opportunities for developing a standard methodology to measure the extent of the plastic pollution crisis. The methodologies reviewed in the report identify the abundance and distribution, types and sources, as well as pathways and sinks of plastic pollution at different scales. As a result of these effects, the public at large, activists and legislatures have voiced outrage to the degree that some national governments have banned the use of plastic bags for shopping. degradation rate) is also absent. When we talk about plastic as a whole, we need a combination of solutions. View the new report, Review of plastic footprint methodologies: Laying the foundation for the development of a standardised plastic footprint measurement tool, here. He talked about efforts to enlist citizen scientists to measure plastic waste and rank river systems based on the amount of waste they contain, taking into account that visual tracking often underestimates waste, while the manual collection of waste offers more detail. (Nova Science Publishers, 2008), 277324. Lessons from the Irish plastic bags levy, 2007, Environmental and Resource Economics, 38: 111. Current methodologies do not allow us to better understand the impact of plastic leakage along the value chain, ultimately preventing us from measuring the extent of the plastic pollution problem. The consequence of this would be the environmental deterioration of the so-called developed global society. Photo: By Nguyen Quang Ngoc Tonkin/Shutterstock. Animals often confuse the bags for food and consume them, therefore blocking their digestive processes. As a consequence, marine plastic bag pollution has become noteworthy environmental concern for governments, scientists, non-governmental establishments, and the international community (Carpenter and Smith, 1972). Public and Professional Interest Division, Virtual Conference and Webinar Sponsorship, International Bar Association, 5 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LG. The infiltration of plastic waste into the environment constitutes a growing challenge for people and ecosystems across the globe, according to experts at a July virtual seminar hosted by the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN). Trapped shoreline plastic has a negative effect on shipping infrastructure, energy production, fishing, and aquaculture (Sivan, 2011).
Another publication,Plasticus Mare Balticum A synthesis of integrated research analysis and policy papers, compiles several reports from the IUCN Baltic Sea project.
Even though charging a levy on plastic bags has a positive effect on protecting and preserving the fertility of agricultural land, the resulting continued and dominant use of plastic bags itself would negate the benefits or advantages of the levy. Animals may also get tangled and drown in plastic bags. If plastic bags are not properly disposed of, they can impact the environment by causing littering and stormwater drain blockages. Compounds leaching from plastic bags has been found to be responsible for increasing levels of reported toxicity. This has resulted in many detrimental environmental effects including animal choking, pollution, blockage of channels, rivers and streams, and landscape disfigurement. People use plastic bags to carry items like food and clothes, which are bought from shops. For urban solid waste, plastic bags have become major items in the litter system. There is a need to minimise our plastic use to effectively minimise plastic waste. Expand your international network, gain new business and learn about the latest legal developments through IBA digital content and events, with IBA membership. Both publications stem from the IUCN Baltic Solutions to Plastic Pollution project funded by the Swedish Postcode Foundation. (Courtesy of National Geographic). F Convery, S McDonnell and S Ferreira, The most popular tax in Europe? She noted that more than 8 billion metric tons of plastic waste has been produced since the 1950s while 8 million metric tons enter the oceans every year.
The levys effectiveness has declined, despite its extensive application at checkout points, and customers have continued to steadily increase their consumption rates. Plastic: Sea to Source By mobilizing global communities and investing in science, exploration, innovation and education, the National Geographic Society is working to tackle the worlds plastic waste crisis. Plastic bags are dumped indiscriminately into landfills worldwide that occupy tons of hectares of land and emit dangerous methane and carbon dioxide gases as well as highly toxic leachates from these landfills during their decomposition stage. We know that more than 100 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste were produced in the year 2010, Krause said. Waste from plastic bags poses serious environmental danger to human and animal health. The urgently needed methodology will provide decision makers with improved data collection and analysis on plastic waste management at the global, regional and national levels. The major impact of plastic bags on the environment is that it takes many years to for them to decompose. Switzerland, Transboundary water governance and diplomacy, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, Review of plastic footprint methodologies.
IUCN tools, publications and other resources. The Japanese government has also levied a plastic bag fee to limit production and use (Md-Jalil et al., 2013). Panelists with expertise in biology, ecology, engineering, and Earth and environmental sciences discussed their research and opportunities with more than 120 scientists and industry experts during the webinar: How to Track, Measure, and Communicate the Flow of Plastic Waste in the Environment. The online event was part of a speaker series by the Program on Plastics, Ecosystems, and Public Health (PEPH) at ISEN. They need to include plastic waste reduction, waste management, and cleanup in order to truly mitigate this problem, said Rochman, who pointed out that data suggest that different communities have unique plastic pollution challenges due to the characteristics of the communities, and that solutions should be tailored accordingly. Xinyi Zhang is a student writer at the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) who pursued a Master's degree in journalism at Northwestern's Medill School, where she specialized in Health, Environment, and Science. In an effort to monitor the environmental issues posed by plastic shopping bags, the government of South Africa merged regulatory elements with a per-bag tax similar to that imposed by the Irish government. Based on the key findings of the report, we are currently working with UN Environment to develop a best-in-class plastic hotspot methodology that can provide key stakeholders with data and analysis needed to inform their decision-making on reducing plastic leakage.. Animals becoming entanglement in marine debris, including plastic bags, may cause starvation, choking, laceration, infection, reduced reproductive success, and mortality (Katsanevakis, 2008). Trapped plastic bags along coastlines produces an environmental challenge that has detrimental effects on tourism. By continuing to use our site, you are agreeing to the use of cookies. There was a greater percentage decrease in use, with a related benefit in the form of reduced littering with adverse effects on the environment. She is encouraged by simple, localized solutions such as rain gardens that have been shown to collect up to 90% of the microplastic particles in stormwater runoff, or consumer solutions such as lint filters in washing machines that can divert up to 89% of microfibers from washing machine effluent. Already an IBA member? It is very unfortunate that, although plastic bags have been seen to have reduced agricultural production worldwide, there has been little significant awareness-raising to undertake proper, effective and concrete proactive action. Leaching toxicity from plastic waste should also be weighed when determining the effects of plastic pollution in oceans. More important still is the development of measures needed to determine how plastic in the air and in drinking water affects public health. Convery et al., (2007) also explains that the Republic of Ireland introduced a levied tax on plastic shopping bags in 2002, which had hitherto been provided free at points of sale to customers. Knowledge about the fate of plastic in the environment (e.g.
She explained that NGS is tackling this issue through its Sea to Source: Plastic program, which supports field research around the world to better understand the pathways of plastic in large river systems and to identify the hot spots where immediate intervention could have the most significant impact. ), Marine Pollution. Current LCAs do not account for plastic as a pollutant - they assume that 100% collection of waste streams go to landfill, incineration or recycling. Apart from providing a comprehensive overview of all 19 existing and emerging plastic footprint methodologies for the first time ever, the publication, Review of plastic footprint methodologies: Laying the foundation for the development of a standardised plastic footprint measurement tool also includes a glossary of key terms related to plastics and environmental footprints.
IUCNs programme of work on plastics has focused principally on seeking solutions to close the plastic tap and tackle plastic pollution at its source. Regulation against the indiscriminate use and recycling of waste from plastic bags is strongly recommended, as well as restriction of the free sale of plastic bags by retailers.
Plastic bags are commonly used, even though we know they can damage the environment. It also provides an overview of policies on marine litter in riparian Baltic countries, and includes research results from studies carried out in Canada, Sweden and Norway, highlighting how plastic can interfere with ice formation and melting, and how itinfluences the earths ability to reflect suns raysinto space. Plastics are now omnipresent in the marine environment and this worsening trend needs urgent action. 3: 114. An analysis of the review concludes that plastic footprint methodologies are lacking in several ways. Plastic bag charging started with a fixed nominal price per bag across all retailers. The presence of plastics in the marine environment poses several challenges that hinder economic development. It highlights a clear plastic leakage model by having the first comprehensive set of equations and generic data to calculate leakage for plastic sources such as plastic wastes, textile fabrics, tyre dust, micro beads from cosmetics and fishing nets. There were instances where large endangered tortoises were found to have suffocated because of the mistaken swallowing of plastic bags combined with seaweed (Thiel et al, 2003). S Katsanevakis, Marine debris, a growing problem: sources, distribution, composition, and impacts. We need to raise awareness in communities about poor waste disposal activities. Join over 5,200 people who receive the latest sustainability and energy news each month. However, the paid levy only had short-run success, and as soon as the price was set to a lower rate, the demand picked up.
This means modifying our everyday habits, not using plastic when there is a good alternative and only using plastic when it is strictly necessary. The interconnectedness of plastic pollution across the boundaries of different cultures, social and political systems also highlights the complexity of the challenge for finding solutions to mitigate the plastic pollution problem across the globe, he said. It can also help provide an understanding of peoples actions and behaviors and inform policy change. Her scientific collaboration provided a sneak peek at insufficient waste management solutions that require more decisive international transformations in the future. Theres no one size fits all solution, and every country needs to act in a way that makes sense for their culture and their issues, she said. Even so, the combination of legislation and pricing has successfully curbed the short-term use of plastic bags. This enables the modelling, field and business communities to speak a common language. Discarded plastic bags that have already made their way into the field are not only particularly detrimental to farming but also severely harmful.
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