MARINE PLASTIC LITTER – A MASSIVE WASTE PROBLEM
- Available online in Detritus - Volume 1 / March 2018
- Pages 128-133
Released under CC BY-NC-ND
Copyright: © Cisa Publisher
Abstract
The pollution of the oceans with anthropogenic and especially plastic litter is acknowledged as one of the major environmental stressors. Life cycle assessments of plastic products carried out to date have failed to take into account the fact that the oceans represent a final sink for plastics. At present, around 800 species have been shown to have negative interactions with marine litter, the majority relating to entanglement in and ingestion of plastic items. Additionally, marine litter causes socio-economic costs and may impact the wellbeing of society at large. The causes and sources are manifold and include insufficient producer responsibility, lack of awareness of the consequences of littering as well as poor sewage and waste management. Beside large items such as bags and bottles, the presence of microplastic particles sized 5 millimeter and smaller has also been verified in water bodies, sediments and marine organisms throughout the oceans of the world. Large garbage patches, where litter accumulates due to prevailing flow regimes have been verified in all large ocean currents. Plastics degrade very slowly in the marine environment due to physical, chemical and biological processes, and when they settle in sediments they may persist for centuries. The presence of marine litter is largely based on society´s prevailing production and consumption patterns. Meanwhile, this issue has gained increasing recognition in international and regional fora, as exemplified by the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, various resolutions by the United Nations and Action Plans adopted inter alia by Regional Seas Conventions and the G7/G20. The challenge remains to take advantage of the current political momentum to effectively implement these Action Plans and further develop tailor-made solutions. Change can only be triggered by compiling solutions together with experts of important sectors such as from waste prevention and management and by spreading the knowledge through education at all levels and age groups.Keywords
Editorial History
- Received: 15 Feb 2018
- Revised: 06 Mar 2018
- Accepted: 20 Mar 2018
- Available online: 31 Mar 2018
References
Barnes, D.K.A.; Galgani, F.; Thompson, R. C. & M. Barlaz (2009): Accumulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environment. In: Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B (biological sciences) 364: 1985-1998
CBD - Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2016). Marine Debris: Understanding, Preventing and Miti¬gating the Significant Adverse Impacts on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity, Montreal, Technical Series No. 83, 78 pages.
Collignon, A., Hecq, J., Galgani, F., Voisin, P., Collard, F., Goffart, A. (2012). Neustonic microplastic and zooplankton in the North Western Mediterranean Sea. Marine Pollution Bulletin 64, 861-864.
Dürselen et al. (in publication). Final report of UBA r&d-project: Kohärentes Monitoring der Belastungen deutscher Meeres- und Küstengewässer mit menschlichen Abfällen und der ökologischen Konsequenzen mit weiterem Fokus auf eingehende Identifizierung der Quellen.
Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L.C.M., Carson, H.S., Thiel, M., Moore, C.J., Borerro, J.C.,Galgani, F., Ryan, P. and Reisser, J. (2014). Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea. PLoS ONE 9(12): e111913. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
Jambeck, J.R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T.R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R. and Law, K.L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Marine Pollution Bulletin 347, pp. 768-771.
Law, K.L., Moret-Ferguson, S., Maximenko, N.A., Proskurowski, G., Peacock, E.E., Hafner, J., Reddy, C.M. (2010). Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. Science 329(5996): 1185-1188.
Lebreton, L.C.M., van der Zwet, J., Damsteeg, J.-W., Slat, B., Andrady, A., Reiser, J. (2017). River plastic emissions to the word oceans. Nature Communications 8: 15611 (2017) doi: 10.1038/ncomms15611.
NOAA (2017): nhttps://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/garbagepatch.html
OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter (2014): https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/eiha/marine-litter/regional-action-plan
Sutherland, W; Clout, M; Cote, I; Depledge, M; Fellman, L; Watkinson, A (2010): A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2010. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 25, 1–7.
Ten Brink, P.; Lutchman, I.; Bassi, S.; Speck, S.; Sheavly, S.; Register, K.; Woolaway, C. (2009): Guidelines on the use of market-based instruments to address the problem of marine litter. Institute for European Environmental Policy IEEP), Brussels, Belgium, and Sheavly Consultants, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, 1-60.
UNEP (2016). Marine plastic debris and microplastics – Global lessions and research to inspire action and guide policy change. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.
UNEP (2005). Marine Litter, An analytical overview. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, 47 p.
Van Franeker, J.A. (2011): «Plastic soep komt op ons bord», Milieu 2011 (6), S. 8-11
Verschoor, A., van Herwijnen, R., Posthuma, C., Crijns-Tan, L., Klesse, K., Werner, S. (2017). Assessment document of land-based inputs of microplastics in the marine environment. OSPAR Commission.
Votiera, S.C.; Archibalda, K.; Morganb, G.; Morganb, L. (2010): The use of plastic debris as nesting material by a colonial seabird and associated entanglement mortality. Marine Pollution Bulletin 62: 168-172
Werner, S., Dau, K., Neumann, J., Stoefen O´Brien, A. unter Mitwirkung der Beteiligten des Runden Tisches Meeresmüll. (2017). Ein Jahr Runder Tisch Meeresmüll. www.muell-im-meer.de
Werner, S., Budziak, A., van Franeker, J., Galgani, F., Hanke, G., Maes, T., Matiddi, M., Nilsson, P., Oosterbaan, L., Priestland, E., Thompson, R., Veiga, J., Vlachogianni, T. (2016). Harm caused by marine litter. MSFD GES TG Marine Litter – Thematic Report; JRC Technical report; EUR 28317 EN; doi: 10.2788/690366.
WWF Poland (2011). Ecological effects if ghost net retrieval in the Baltic Sea. Pilot Project: Collecting ghost nets. Final report. BalticSea2020.
Zalasiewicz, J. Waters, C.N., do Sul, I., Corcoran, P., Barnosky, A.D., Cearreta A., Edgeworth M., Galuszka, A., Jeandel, C., Leinfelder, R., McNeill, J.R., Steffen, W., Summerhayes, C., Wagreich, M., Williams, M., Wolfe, A.P., Yonan, Y. (2016). The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene. Science Direct, Volume 13, Pages 4-17.