China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (referred to as China Green Development Association), as an observer of the three international conventions on chemicals and a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), continues to pay attention to the global pollution and treatment of chemicals and plastics, as well as the latest developments in global nature conservation. Recently, the plastic-picking and plastic-reducing working group of China Green Hair Association learned from IUCN that at present, human beings are facing a global plastic pollution crisis, among which the pollution in the Mediterranean region is the most serious. The working group of the Green Club will sort out and publish the contents of the article as follows for readers’ reference and understanding.
(Source: IUCN)
After World War II, plastics began to be mass-produced. At present, plastic pollution has become one of the biggest threats facing mankind. In 2015, 60% of all plastics produced have become plastic waste. Plastic wastes are everywhere-they exist in air, soil, fresh water and ocean.
Many plastic wastes in the world, from large items to almost invisible microplastics particles, will eventually enter the ocean and remain for hundreds of years. Plastic waste has a negative impact on all kinds of marine life, and will eventually cause harm to human beings through the food chain. As many as 12 million tons of plastic debris enter the global ocean every year, which is called "planetary crisis" by the United Nations. The densely populated and semi-closed Mediterranean basin is one of the hot spots of marine plastic pollution in the world. There is an urgent need for all-round actions in the local area to fundamentally reduce the amount of plastics entering the ocean and understand the actual situation as comprehensively as possible.
Where does marine plastics come from?
(Source: IUCN)
Generally speaking, 80% of marine plastic debris comes from land, and 20% comes from fishing, shipping and aquaculture. Most of them come from industrial and domestic wastes in metropolitan and urban areas. Due to poor management of the collection and disposal system, garbage will be directly discharged into rivers and other waterways, or through rainwater ditches and sewage outlets, and finally discharged into the sea. It is estimated that 94% of the plastic pollution entering the Mediterranean is in the form of macro plastic, but at the same time, the pollution in microplastics is also very serious. Land sources in microplastics include agricultural polyethylene boards broken by weathering, biosolids and sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants, and reclaimed water generated from washing clothes made of synthetic fibers. At the same time, these waters also contain a lot of microfibers from textiles, microplastics from personal care products and degraded consumer goods.
80% to 90% of microplastics entering the treatment system will remain in the remaining sewage sludge. These sludges are usually used as agricultural fertilizers. This will cause plastics to deposit in farmland and stay there for a long time. They will also be washed into the river and then discharged into the sea. According to a recent study, microplastics can exist in soil for more than 100 years due to low light and oxygen conditions.
Life cycle of plastics
(Source: IUCN)
Plastic pollution is a challenge that integrates design, production, consumption and disposal, and these problems must be solved in the whole life cycle of plastics. There are many factors that cause these problems, among which the most critical ones are unsustainable consumption patterns, nonexistent or ineffective legislation, inefficient waste management system and lack of coordination among different departments.
Effects of plastic pollution on biodiversity and human health
(Source: IUCN)
Plastic pollution has adverse effects on marine ecosystem, the integrity of food supply and people’s livelihood.
Entanglement and ingestion of plastic waste are the most common hazards to marine species. Almost all species, from micro zooplankton to the largest marine mammal, will be exposed to plastic waste in their lifetime. All kinds of marine animals will be entangled in plastic ropes, lines and abandoned fishing gear and be injured; Intake at every stage of the food chain may lead to death or have a significant impact on physiological functions including nutrition, growth, behavior and reproduction. Once marine animals ingest microplastics and nano-plastics, they will become part of the food chain and eventually enter the human body.
Facing the problem: coordinated approach and global agreement
Plastic leakage is a complex problem involving multiple sources and actors. To solve this problem, stakeholders need to unite and intervene at all levels. However, before that, countries and cities are facing a basic knowledge gap: the United Nations needs countries to understand the scale of the challenges they face and the processes involved. Therefore, the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) in 2019 adopted resolution 6 on marine plastic waste and microplastics. The resolution emphasizes the importance of adopting a unified method to measure plastic flow and leakage along the value chain and generate operational data.
Once these data are determined, countries need practical legislative tools to solve the root of the problem. In view of this, the Fifth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) established an expert group on marine litter and microplastics. The team is reviewing the current situation and analyzing the effectiveness of existing and potential solutions related to marine plastic waste and microplastics. Finally, they will formulate and sign a new global agreement to provide a legal framework for global response and promote national response, especially those countries with limited resources and capabilities, which may contain legally binding and/or non-binding content.
The Programme for the Assessment and Control of Marine Pollution in the Mediterranean under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will be responsible for the cluster comprehensive monitoring of pollution, garbage and noise. The programme supports Parties in formulating and implementing pollution control and prevention policies and regulatory measures. At the same time, they also carry out regular activities to promote capacity building and provide technical assistance in monitoring and evaluation, implementation and enforcement. Its purpose is to assist Mediterranean countries to implement the three main protocols of the Barcelona Convention:
The Protocol for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution from Land-based Sources.
The Protocol for the Prevention of Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea by Dumping from Ships and Aircraft.
The Protocol on the Prevention of Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.
Mediterranean Sea: Hot Spot of Plastic Pollution
The Mediterranean Sea is a global hot spot of plastic pollution, and the concentration of marine garbage in its semi-closed basin is equivalent to that of five subtropical circulations, among which the most notorious is the "big garbage area" in the North Pacific Ocean.
Related research: Mediterranean plastic management project
In order to better understand the source, distribution and leakage of plastic waste in the Mediterranean, the impact of microplastics on the Mediterranean ecosystem was quantitatively studied. This study is based on the samples collected during two major expeditions, namely ExpeditionMED and Tara Mé di Terrané e 2014. The latter collected and analyzed 75,000 microplastics particles, making it the largest study of its kind in the Mediterranean region to date. After the investigation, they built a database of plastic polymer types in the Mediterranean, including their geographical distribution, and developed a simulation study of plastic debris circulation in the Mediterranean.
(Source: IUCN)
The recent report of IUCN, Mare Plasticum: The Mediterranean, provides information about the amount of plastic leaking into the Mediterranean every year, and also focuses on the countries and cities with the highest plastic leakage rate. This picture is a combination of two studies, combining the information collected through field investigation and desk analysis.
See original: https://www.iucn.org/story/202207/plastic-pollution-crisis.
Compile: Zeng Chuchao
Audit: Daisy
Editor: Zoe