Plastics Marine Pollution

(The North Atlantic Garbage Patch)

The CDP

History & Theory

Panagiotis Konikkos

List of contents:

- Introduction to Plastics Marine Pollution

- The North Atlantic Gyre

- The North Atlantic Garbage Patch

- Plastic Marine Debris

- Introduction to Plastics

- Effects on Marine Life

- The Algalita Marine Research Foundation

- Can the problem be solved?

Plastics pollution is one of the most important causes of environment and water pollution recently because of the dramatic improvement in the production of the material with only an average of 10% to be recycled. The effects on the environment are massive with most of the waste ending up in landfills and oceans. Firstly, in the North Atlantic Ocean and especially in the North Atlantic gyre, plastic waste from landfills on the coasts of the surrounding continents as well of dumping and plastic waste from boats, driven by water currents end up in the middle of the ocean with devastating results for the environment and marine life. Scientists are worried, since they discovered a massive garbage patch in the gyre with most of the waste to be almost invisible because of the small size of the plastic pieces and that makes it impossible to clean up. Further ocean researches have recently discovered another mass of waste produced by people this time in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic Gyre drags the plastic from landfills on coasts from all the surrounding continents and stores it into the middle of it. They call it the North Atlantic Garbage Patch because of its gigantic mass of plastic floating around from Bermuda to the Portuguese islands Azores. “The patch is 1.000 miles east of Bermuda” Jeanette Leardi, science at sea, Benchmark Education, 2012, p.22. It is the biggest Garbage patch discovered to date after the North Pacific Garbage Patch. The mass of the patch is enormous and the problem is not only its size but the small pieces of plastic floating beyond the surface also and that make the patch invisible even from satellites. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Gyre is made up of four major water currents

which are the North Equatorial current, the Gulf Stream,

North Atlantic and the Canary current which are

responsible for the transportation of plastic debris from

the surrounding continents, which are America, Europe

and Africa to the center of the Gyre. “Rain and water flow

carry that trash out to the sea and into the ocean”.

Jeanette Leardi, Science at Sea, Benchmark Education, 2012, p.23.

In addition, the enormous mass of plastics debris that is floating around in the

Atlantic Ocean is growing every day from manmade plastic

waste. Plastics and other trash are collected from waves,

usually from coasts. Scientists say that approximately 80

percent comes from land and only 20 percent from boats.

It is difficult to imagine that tones of plastic waste are

dumped in the ocean from people directly as well. “People

often throw trash on ground, into rivers, on the beach, or

off boats”. Jeanette Leardi, Science at Sea, Benchmark Education, 2012, p.23.

Furthermore, oceanographers’ focal point about debris in the water, is not only

that gyres turned to be floating landfills but that it affects the food chain also by

ending up in fishes’ and seabirds’ bellies and by producing dangerous toxics in the

water too. “Plastic is strong and can last long time, but it is not easy to get rid of

plastic” Alexandra Fix, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Plastic, Heinemann Library, 2008,

p.4

Plastic Marine Debris or marine litter is waste created by humans that is accidentally or deliberately become afloat in waterways, seas or oceans. Debris in oceans or coastlines slowly ends up in the center of the gyres driven by water currents. In recent years however the use of plastic has increased dramatically and that become a big issue in terms of pollution, because many types of plastics are not biodegradable.

Moreover, plastic marine debris causes serious threat to seabirds, marine mammals, marine reptiles, fish and even organisms that grow on solid surfaces as well as to human inhabitation near coasts. Wind- blown plastic waste, litter washed into the sea, dumping and accidental container spillages have been some of the important factors of the increase of the size of the North Atlantic Garbage patch. Meanwhile, a wide variety of different kinds of plastic waste found in the ocean by scientists recently with most important being: buoys, balloons, plastic bags medical waste, plastic bottles, cigarette lighters, lost fishing nets and fishing nets. Every research has more devastating results than the previous one; with a recent study showing that 80 percent of all marine debris is plastic makes the

problem to seem one of the most important pollution problems on earth nowadays. Further, with some kinds of plastic being biodegradable and some not the problem grows more and more every year. Lost fishing nets for example trap fish, sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, dugongs, seabirds, craps and other creatures with the result to be loss of 100,000 turtles and 1,000,000 sea creatures every single year. The small pieces of plastic floating in the center of the North Atlantic gyre outnumber marine plankton and become part of the food chain with reaching all marine life. In addition, over 10,000 containers are dumped in oceans every year, usually during storms, with most of them containing plastic or other products that finally become water pollution. The problem is massive with plastic debris to be found in remote areas of the Antarctic also. Plastic has been one of the most helpful materials in recent years, due to the wide variety of options available in the manufacturing of the material and its different uses mostly in household and structures. Environmentalists though are not sure if it is worth the cost on the environment and especially on marine life. On the one hand, the possibility of turning plastics to almost everything makes it one of the best materials in the market. The possibilities of turning plastic soft of tough, solid or bending, transparent or colorful and also the fact that it is light makes it unable to be compared with any other material in some occasions. On the other hand, only an average of 10 percent can be recycled at present due to the lack of plastic recycling plants and also due to the economic difficulty that governments face, mostly because of the material’s light weight which is not worth the money of collecting it from collection points. The result is the toxic material to be one of the most important sources of pollution either by burning it in landfills or by dumping it in the oceans. Plastics are any material that is a moldable semi-synthetic or synthetic organic solid, and they are organic polymers with high molecular mass but some of them contain other substances too. Many of them are partially natural but most of them are usually synthetic which are made from petrochemicals.

The composition of plastics is based on organic polymers, which are carbon atom chains, alone, or with nitrogen sulfur or oxygen. Also, the structure of the polymers can be affected by the “side chains” which are part of the monomers in the polymer chain. Furthermore, most plastics contain inorganic or organic compounds blended in the mixture. The content of additives in average is 20 percent by weight of the polymer. Some polymers are rigid for some applications and plasticizers are added to the mixture to improve the rheology of the liquid. The side chains and the polymers backbone are responsible for the chemical structure of plastics.”Chemically it consists of two carbon atoms and four hydrogen atoms” Vanessa Goodship, Introduction to plastics recycling, second edition, Smithers Rapra, 2007. P11. Some important types that are defined by monomers are the polyurethanes, silicones, polyesters, acrylics and halogenated plastics. Further, polyaddition, condensation and cross-linking are stages of the chemical process used in the synthesis that could classify plastics too. Moreover, two of the most important plastics are thermosetting polymers and thermoplastics. Thermosetting polymers are plastics that are made of thousands of repeating units creating the chain and thermoplastics are the ones that chemical composition does not change during the process. “On subsequent reheating they melt and regain the ability to flow” Vanessa Goodship, Introduction to plastics recycling, second edition, Smithers Rapra, 2007, p.15. Furthermore, other classifications can be made according to their qualities, such as, structural, biodegradable, elastomer and electrically conductive. Meanwhile biodegradability is the major problem of plastic pollution in the oceans that cause thousands of deaths of marine life every year and the fact is that both biodegradable and non-biodegradable plastics can cause problems, either with their toxicity or how small the pieces of an item can become. The major factors why biodegradable plastics break down in the ocean are sunlight, salt in the water and bacteria. Some chemicals are added in the mixture of polymers to make them biodegrade easily on land but the result when dumped in the oceans is mostly caused by that. As a solution to the problem, natural plastics can be produced from plant materials like cellulose or starch but their cost is still high at present with synthetic plastics made from petrochemicals to be used in large quantities.

The properties of a plastic can be defined by the polymer’s organic chemistry, such as density, hardness, resistance to heat, organic solvents, iodizing radiation and oxidation. One of the big issues for the water pollution from polymers has been toxicity, and the fact that most of them are not natural and usually they include toxic additives in the mixture make them part of the food chain by passing into microorganisms or slowly change or affect the DNA of marine life. The most affected are those who live close to the Gyre and especially in the North Atlantic Patch where the quantities of plastic pieces are massive, with toxics from waste to be discarded in the water. Further, the most common types of plastics found are PET (polyvinyl tephthalatate), HOPE (high density polyethylene), PVC (polyvinyl chloride), LOPE (low density polyethylene), and PP (polypropylene and PS (polystyrene) Meanwhile, plastics have unimaginable effects on the environment after their

use, when become waste and mostly in the ocean. It is not only that fish, marine

mammals and sea birds eat plastic pieces, but also the problem passes to humans

through the food chain. In addition, 70 percent of earth is water, and a wide

variety of species live in oceans and seas, but it is a source of food, for a lot of

species that live on land and birds also. “Most of the garbage has turned into tiny

bits, by the force of winds and waves, and by hitting against other pieces of

trash”. Jeanette Leardi, Science at Sea, Benchmark Education, 2012, p.23.

Plastic waste in water can pass dangerous diseases like cholera and typhoid to the food chain. Debris also absorbs dissolved oxygen with the result to be the decrease of oxygen in water that a wide variety of marine life requires. Marine organisms are also affected by toxics released by plastics in the ocean and it can cause poisoning to marine organisms after the process of decomposition of the material. Also, marine organisms like oysters, mussels and clams that are consumed by other species, as food are concentrating pathogens from waste which can pass to the food chain also. In addition, oil is the most harmful type of pollution in the oceans and it can be released in water in different ways. One of them is through dumped plastic waste

in the oceans. Oil can cause a variety of problems to marine life and birds because it is permanent. Further, the density of water is higher than oil and this produces a black layer on the surface of the water and it prevents marine plants on the bottom of the sea to absorb sunlight and turn it into energy. Meanwhile, plastic waste from ships, landfills, industries or litter on beaches can stick to birds and mammals and affect their swimming or breathing. Some plastics end up on the sea floor and that affects marine organisms like corals that live on the sea bed or even those who feed from plats. Meanwhile, approximately 80 percent of waste in the oceans is plastic and the rest are mostly glass, steel and wood which contain no toxics and it is possible to collect at least some of them because they do not break down to small pieces. Moreover, the interest of scientists to research the recently discovered patch in the North Atlantic Gyre and its effects has been increased the last few years with environmentalists and oceanographers finding the problem really serious for marine life and humans also. Further, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) has been one of the most important sources of information, about the North Atlantic garbage patch in the last two decades with the founder of the foundation, Charles Moore, to be the leader of voyages to the Atlantic and the leader of Research about plastics pollution in the core and around the Gyre. The patch remained unknown until 1997, because sailors avoid the gyre due to the light winds in the area, and accidentally Charles Moore found an enormous plastic soup floating around the gyre and since, his interest has been plastic pollution in the North Atlantic Gyre along with other gyres which have exactly the same problem. Charles Moore and his Algalita group, organize voyages every year along with university students, scientists and volunteers. The purpose of the voyages is to test water and air quality and the size and impacts of floating plastic in the oceans. They keep records of the findings in different areas around the gyre and also, divers collect plastics, or affected plants and organisms from the sea bed for further research. In addition, the results and findings have always been worse than expected with the patch to grow rapidly every year, with the result to be more affected and

dead marine life and seabirds, more dead fish, decrease of water quality and toxicity in the water and also more and more affected organisms and species on the sea bed, as well as less oxygen in the water and less sunlight caused by cloudy water. Plenty of research has been made since the late 90’s with important findings and conclusions to be made. A good example is the ‘BPA’ bisphenol-A which is a chemical released from plastics in the oceans and by passing into the food chain, health problems like cancer, low sperm counts and obesity were increased dramatically and now plastics are labeled with a BPA free symbol. Further, the latest research in the North Atlantic gyre surprised researchers

with approximately 14.000 pieces of plastics per square kilometer to be found

near the Azores islands and in the core of the gyre the unbelievable amount of

250.000 pieces per square kilometer. “The bits of swirling plastic make it hard to

tell exactly where the borders of the ocean are”. Jeanette Leardi, Science at Sea,

Benchmark Education, 2012, p.24.

Finally, after fifteen years of research on the North Atlantic Garbage patch and

thousands of people taking part at the voyages, the conclusion is that it is almost

impossible to get rid of the problem of plastic debris in the ocean and what makes

it worse is the increase of the production and use of plastics worldwide and also,

where plastics end after their use. The difficulties on the collection, sorting and

recycling of plastics make the problem of plastic pollution

devastating for the environment and mostly for a wide

variety of marine life and humans through the food chain.

Most people are not aware of the problem and its consequences and this is where the starting point should be. People must learn about the problem and the possible solutions because everyone must take part at the effort. In addition, more plastic recycling plants should be built to avoid plastic waste

to end up in landfills or beaches and mostly in the water. “The best way to reduce

plastic waste is to use less plastic” Alexandra Fix, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Plastic,

Heinemann Library, 2008, p.14

Also, landfills on coats should be cleaned and plastic collection projects should

be designed in the oceans to collect as much plastic as possible before they break

up to small pieces and make it impossible to be collected.

Source of images:

Google.com

Bibliography:

Vanessa Goodship, Introduction to plastics recycling second edition, Smithers

Rapra, 2007.

Alexandra Fix, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Plastic, Heinemann Library, 2008.

Jeanette Leardi, Science at Sea, Benchmark Education, 2012.

Edited by Gerald D. Andrews and Pallatheri M. Subramanian, Emerging

Technologies in Plastics Recycling, American Chemical Society, 1992.

Edited by R.J. Ehrig, Plastics Recycling, Products and Processes, Hanser publishers,

1992.