World Environment Day: Plastic is a threat to humanity

“Beat Plastic Pollution”, the theme for World Environment 2018, urges governments, industry, communities and individuals to come together and urgently reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastic polluting our oceans, damaging marine life and threatening human health. India is the global host of 2018 World Environment Day which will take place on June 5, 2018.

India generates 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste a day (t/day), said the union environment ministry, on 30 December 2017. Answering a question raised on plastic waste in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State Mahesh Sharma quoted a study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that surveyed 60 major cities. These cities together produced 4059 T/day. In 2017, Ockhi cyclone alone dumped roughly 80 tonnes of plastic on shores of various coastal states.

The central government had no emergency plan since, “Clearance of such accumulated plastic debris is being managed by the respective State Governments/Union Territories”.

Some 322 million tons of plastic, which amounted to more than 900 Empire State Buildings in mass, was produced in 2015, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Last year, a study published in scientific journal Science Advances estimated that the modern world had produced around 8.3 billion metric tons of virgin — newly manufactured — plastic. By 2015, 6.3 billion metric tons of that had become plastic waste, but just 9 percent had been recycled, the researchers found. Plenty of plastic also ends up in the ocean, where it harms marine biodiversity and can fragment into minuscule particles, or microplastic, that is ingested by animals and, indirectly, humans — although evidence is inconclusive about how harmful that is for us.

It's both an environmental and an economic problem: The United Nations Environment Programme found that marine litter costs a minimum of $8 billion annually in damage to marine ecosystems. A crisis of plastic waste in Indonesia has become so acute that the army has been called in to help. Plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds could soon be banned in England as part of a push to slash plastic waste, and Australia is being urged to take action too.

Microplastics have been found in almost all bottled water analysed from around the world as part of a major new study, say researchers. The microscopic plastic particles come from sources including cosmetics, clothing and industrial processes. They were detected in 93 per cent of the bottles of water tested by researchers. Thought to be the largest study of its kind, scientists examined more than 250 bottles of water from 11 different brands from nine countries around the world and found almost all were contaminated to some degree. Nestle Pure Life, Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, San Pellegrino and Gerolsteiner were among the international brands tested in the study led by journalism organisation Orb Media. Of the 259 bottles tested, only 17 were found to contain no particles at all, and many had hundreds or even thousands, the study found. The particles found included polypropylene, polystyrene, nylon and polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Microplastic contamination has been found in tap water in countries around the world, leading to calls from scientists for urgent research on the implications for health. Scores of tap water samples from more than a dozen nations, including India, were analysed by scientists for an investigation by Orb Media. Overall, 83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibres. The US had the highest contamination rate, at 94%, with plastic fibres found in tap water sampled at sites including Congress buildings, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters, and Trump Tower in New York. Lebanon (93.8%) and India (82.4%) had the next highest rates. European nations including the UK, Germany and France had the lowest contamination rate, but this was still 72%. The average number of fibres found in each 500ml sample ranged from 4.8 in the US to 1.9 in Europe.

Amidst all sorts of frightening news about plastic waste, scientists have created a substance capable of “eating” plastic that could help tackle the world’s pollution problem. The substance is based on an enzyme – a “biological catalyst” – first produced by bacteria living in a Japanese recycling centre that researchers suggested had evolved it in order to eat plastic. Dubbed as PETase for its ability to break down the PET plastic used to make drinks bottles, the enzyme accelerated a degradation process that would normally take hundreds of years. Fine-tuning this naturally produced enzyme allowed a research team to produce something capable of digesting plastic more effectively than anything found in nature.

By breaking down plastic into manageable chunks, the scientists suggest their new substances could help recycle millions of tonnes of plastic bottles. Plastic is notoriously resistant to natural degradation, and the discovery of the Japanese plastic-eating bacteria in 2016 was heralded by experts and commentators alike as a potential natural solution to plastic pollution. While attempting to verify these claims, University of Portsmouth biologist Professor John McGeehan and his colleagues accidentally created a super-powered version of the plastic-eating enzyme.

Here are ways through which you can leave an impact:

• Wean yourself off disposable plastics, like carrying cloth bags for shopping, steel wares or glass wares to office and travel mugs to coffee shop
• Stop buying water – carry a reusable water with you
• Boycott microbeads – avoid using little plastic scrubbers those come with many beauty products
• Cook more to avoid ordered food with plastic packaging and plastic cutlery;
• Avoid products with extra packaging
• Help in recycling
• Support uses of cloth bags
• Buy in bulk, if possible
• Carry own garment bags to dry cleaner
• Put pressure on manufacturer