No ocean can swallow that anymore: Our oceans are sinking in plastic waste

About 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water. But today, hundreds of thousands of pieces of plastic waste float in every square kilometer of the oceans. Seabirds die in agony from cell phone parts in their stomachs, turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, and fish mistake tiny plastic particles for plankton.

Plastic does not belong in the environment

Three-quarters of the trash in the ocean is plastic, specifically 4.8 - 12.7 million tons of plastic enters the oceans each year. This plastic is a constantly growing problem and costs tens of thousands of animals their lives every year. This is because it can take several hundred to thousands of years for plastic to completely decompose. Until then, it merely breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. These small, solid and water-insoluble plastic particles under 5 mm in size are called microplastics. When we walk barefoot along a beach today, we usually have many fine microplastic particles under our feet in addition to the grains of sand. In the sea, it is precisely these small particles that are a big problem, as marine animals mistake them for food, for example plankton.

Microplastic particles easily enter the bodies of marine animals and can also be absorbed into the human organism through their consumption. What effects this can have has not yet been researched. But one thing is certain: plastic often contains additives such as plasticizers and flame retardants that can harm marine life and reach humans through the food chain.

Microplastics enter the environment and waterways from a variety of sources. For example, the small plastic particles are sometimes added to cosmetic products, such as exfoliants. However, microplastics can also be produced by abrasion of plastic materials, such as tire wear, or by washing synthetic textiles, such as polyester. In this way, microplastics can enter rivers and oceans or even the soil via wastewater. The abrasion of car tires is currently assessed as the largest source of microplastic input into the environment in Germany. However, the decay of larger pieces of plastic floating in the sea is also an important source of input into the oceans. If the input of plastic waste continues at the current rate, it is feared that the amount of microplastic in the ocean will increase 50-fold by the next century.

The trash in our oceans consists of plastic bags, PET bottles, lighters, cigarette butts, disposable razors, and more. Unfortunately, the colorful plastic pieces are far too often mistaken for food. It has been discovered that plastic parts in the sea take on an odor that birds perceive as the smell of food. Thus, carcasses of seabirds with plastic parts in their stomachs are found more and more frequently.

The animals suffocate, suffer fatal constipation or starve to death with their stomachs full. The stomach contents of dead fulmars are now recognized as evidence of the pollution of our oceans. That's because fulmars are seabirds - what they eat comes from the sea. In one study, scientists found plastic debris in the stomachs of 93 percent of fulmars. It is estimated that by 2050, almost every seabird will have plastic parts in its stomach if the trend continues.

However, not only seabirds are affected, but also marine mammals and fish. The leatherback turtle, for example, mainly eats jellyfish. Time and again, it mistakes plastic bags floating in the water for its favorite meal. And whales are often found with their stomachs filled with plastic. Another problem is that animals often get caught in garbage and die in agony this way.

Also, abandoned fishing nets, so-called ghost nets, are increasingly becoming a deadly trap for many sea creatures. Ghost nets can continue to fish indefinitely, so to speak. They also frequently become entangled in coral reefs, where they not only pose a danger to fish and marine mammals, but also damage the reef structure.

Tourism and shipping also affected

In addition to environmental damage, certain sectors of the economy also suffer from plastic waste. For many beach resorts, clearing away plastic waste every morning has become an established ritual. For the Asia-Pacific region alone, the tourism industry incurs annual costs of $622 million. The shipping industry is also affected when nets get caught in propellers or plastic waste gets caught in suction nozzles. Governments and society must pay at least ten times as much for every dollar manufacturers invest in plastic production to address the negative impacts. The lifetime cost of plastic produced in 2019 is estimated by a WWF report at $3.7 trillion. The very largest part of the cost is caused by damage to marine ecosystems from plastic waste remaining in the environment for a very long time. Economic costs, however, are not borne by the polluters.

Causes and solutions

In addition to plastic from shipping or fishing, plastic is mainly discharged into the oceans from land via rivers. This happens mainly in countries where waste collection does not function properly. According to an OECD study, inadequate waste management is 82 percent responsible for plastic waste entering the environment. Even though it is good when fishermen return co-caught plastic waste to shore or garbage is collected at the beach: The most important thing is to avoid plastic packaging and prevent it from entering the environment in the first place. To achieve this, however, plastic waste must be avoided and waste management in many developing and emerging countries must function much better.

Often, however, there is not enough money to collect the waste, sort it and treat it further, for example by recycling. In Germany and many European countries, companies that sell packaged goods pay a license fee on packaging. This finances the collection and recycling systems. In most other countries, this is not yet the case. That is why it is now important that legal frameworks are also created in other countries so that companies in the sectors concerned, such as the consumer goods industry, assume the costs of collecting, sorting and recycling their packaging.

As of May 9, 2019, WWF is a member of the PREVENT Waste Alliance. The alliance is a partnership that brings together stakeholders from business, science, civil society and public institutions such as the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation. The main aim is to coordinate projects that work on solutions to the plastic waste problem internationally.

Plastic waste on German coasts

German islands also suffer from the garbage problem. On Mellum near Wilhelmshaven, there is a lot of washed-up trash on the beach. The North Sea island is not inhabited and there is no tourism. On Mellum neither garbage is caused nor disposed of. Therefore, the island and its beach are a clear indicator of the pollution of the North Sea - an indicator that sometimes shows more than 700 pieces of garbage on 100 meters of beach.

The flotsam on Mellumer Strand consists of about 80 percent plastic. There are plastic cups, bottles, Styrofoam and, for example, balloon strings in which seabirds can get tangled. As small as the island of Mellum is, it shows the extent of the garbage problem in our oceans.

Even if large quantities of plastic waste do not end up in the sea via rivers in Germany, we should do our own part to combat the flood of packaging. According to figures from the Federal Environment Agency, the amount of packaging in Germany has continued to increase. The reasons for this include disposable packaging for immediately consumed foodstuffs such as coffee-to-go cups, the switch to smaller packaging units and increasing online trade. Even though most waste in Germany is collected and processed by a functioning system, the production of packaging consumes energy and raw materials. Of the plastic packaging waste collected separately via yellow bags or yellow garbage cans, over 50 percent is still incinerated and not recycled. An overview of the situation in Germany and how the situation can be improved is provided by the WWF's study "Verpackungswende jetzt.