Plastic Footprint ~ Carbon Footprint

The carbon footprint, a concept widely used to assess climate change impact, has inspired an analogous plastic footprint. This UK infographic helps plastic consumers to visualize what needs to change:

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Amado S. Tolentino Jr. in The Manila Times proposed that a plastic footprint, similar to a carbon footprint, could encourage self-regulation and measurable action by cities/local governments, companies and even individuals, providing benchmarks for corporate social responsibility.

Tolentino describes a little-known initiative in the Philippines that involves multiple partners, from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to Coca-Cola and the UN’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) in a multi-year effort to prevent plastic waste from entering the seas: recycling and collection of higher value plastics such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and resin-based bottles, of which 90 percent are recycled, and also entails finding ways to increase the value of low-value plastics, supported by vigorous law enforcement to address plastic waste taking advantage of new technology and broadening partnerships.

Plastic Lite Singapore has launched a personal plastic footprint calculator. More robust plastic footprint calculators are needed.

On March 28, 2018 John Vidal wrote in the National Guardian: “The plastics crisis is more urgent than you know. Recycling bottles won’t fix it. . .This stuff is in our food, our clothes – and in us. . . . Plastic is now ubiquitous, insidious and impossible to avoid. It makes up our clothes, containers, bottles, electronics, food trays, cups and paints. Our cars depend on it, so do our computers, roofs and drain pipes. It’s the global packaging material of choice. We sleep on it, wear it, watch it, and are in direct bodily contact with it in one form or other all day and night.”

Shocking facts from recent medical tests:

Minute microplastics and fibres, measuring the width of a human hair or far less, have been found in an extraordinary range of products, such as honey and sugar, shellfish, bottled and tap water, beer, processed foods, table salt and soft drinks.
93% of all adults tested in the US had known carcinogenic chemical bisphenol A in their urine.
83% of samples of tap water tested in seven countries were found to contain plastic microfibres.
A study published in March 2018 revealed plastics contamination in more than 90% of bottled-water samples from 11 different brands.
The River Tame in Manchester was tested in early 2018 and found to have 517,000 particles of plastic per cubic metre of sediment – nearly double the highest concentration ever measured anywhere else in the world.

And so, Vidal asks, “how do you safely dispose of an old mattress made of billions of tiny plastic particles leaking formaldehyde and other potentially dangerous chemicals? Do you burn it? Bury it? Do you expect the company who made it to come to collect it?” The UK is more aware of the hazard than many other countries. UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove today pledged to stem the tide of plastic debris by announcing a consultation on a plastic-bottle return scheme for England, which aims to get people to recycle more.”

In mid-March the sixth annual conference on plastic pollution was sponsored by the United Nations and NOAA in San Diego, with more than 700 participants from Japan, Kuwait, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Thailand, Italy, The Netherlands, India, Turkey, Nigeria, China, Australia, Jamaica, Russia, Chile, Indonesia, South Africa, Taiwan, and points in between.

Caitlin Wessel of Dauphin Island Sea Lab, reporting on samples taken in the northern Gulf of Mexico, found that “Microplastics were found in every tow and out of 244 whole water samples collected 99 percent contained microplastics with an average of seven microplastics per liter.” A “tow” involves the taking of a water sample off the back of a boat, kayak or off the shoreline or a dock.

Another presentation by Mine B. Tekman of Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany reported on the establishment of LITTERBASE, an online resource for plastic pollution data. “Currently, 1,441 species (status Sept. 10, 2017) have been found to interact with marine litter resulting in mortality in almost 20 percent of the cases.” More on the conference>

Though Vidal argues that banning single use plastic bags, many countries, cities, and states have banned, or initiated such bans, a sign of awareness of this crisis. Examples:

AUSTRALIA. Many states in Australia have banned lightweight, single use plastic bags, with some adverse consequences as some stores switch to the heavier, reusable bags. The Queensland state government published a factsheet.

Several African countries have banned plastic bags entirely, or almost entirely.

BANGLADESH instituted a ban in 2002 after it was found that major floods were caused by plastic bag litter caught in waterways and the sewerage system. More>

BELIZE: On March 20th, 2018 the Government of Belize (GOB) approved a proposal to ban single-use plastic bags, Styrofoam products, and plastic food utensils in the country by April 22, 2019. The bill was proposed by the Ministry of Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment and Sustainable Development; Ministry of Investment, Trade and Commerce; and the Ministry of Tourism, who led a collaborative taskforce comprising of the Department of the Environment, Customs Department, Beltraide, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, and Solid Waste Management. Many conservationists across the country welcomed this great news as garbage pollution continues to be a main concern in Belize’s terrestrial and marine environment.

CHINA is moving into pyrolysis. Converting waste tires and plastic back into oil. Environmental assessment?

INDIA. Maharashtra, India became the eighteenth state in India to ban single use plastic bags. The state had banned bags thinner than 50 microns in 2006, without effect. But now Maharashtra has a new clause that penalizes consumers for using single use plastic packaging.

INDONESIA. In 2017 Bali declared a “garbage emergency”; the clean-up of beaches yielded 100 tonnes of rubbish on some days.

ISRAEL. The start-up disruptor UBQ has a new patented system to convert trash from landfills into reusable material. The Bank of Israel is advocating the extension of the NIS 0.10 fee for plastic bags to neighborhood grocery stores, small supermarket chains, and Super-Pharm, in view of its success in reducing the use of plastic bags by 80% at the large supermarket chains. In its current form, the fee does not apply to grocery stores and small supermarkets, which still distribute an estimated 860 million plastic bags a year.

MALAYSIA is the eighth worst offender (for more detail see this article). In early March, about 500 people cleaned up 15 Malaysian beaches, led by Reef Check Malaysia. On Pulau Tioman, this extended to all villages. Volunteers collected nearly 14,000 plastic bottles, 6,200 plastic bags and 1,700 straws from the effort. More>

MAURITANIA banned plastic bags because cattle were getting sick from eating them.

UK governments need to implement concrete policies such as a “latte levy” – a charge on disposable drinks cups – and a deposit return scheme for plastic drinks bottles to combat this rising tide of plastic waste. In the UK, the Daily Mail and Sun claim that a deposit scheme for plastic bottles will be unveiled by the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove.

US: ALASKA. According to Business Green, plastic waste is set to soar 20 per cent by 2030. In Alaska, Bethel and Hooper Bay have bans on single-use plastic bags. Wasilla enacted a law banning plastic bags at the beginning of the year, with an effective date of July 1, 2018. Soldatna is considering also instituting a ban.

US: MASSACHUSETTS Lowell, Massachusetts near Boston, has passed a ban on single use plastic bags.

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Saving Our Oceans from Plastic: articles by Zann Gill

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