Nairobi, Kenya:
More than a decade ago, fishermen in the Netherlands went fishing for litter, quite literally. Along with their catch of the day, they were encouraged to bring back trash they found while at sea. Here's why these efforts are crucial. A new report released at the inaugural session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi has put a price on plastic marine pollution at $13 billion every year, and that's an under estimation. Annually, an estimated 10 to 20 million tonnes of plastics end up in the world's oceans and 80 per cent of the marine litter comes from land-based sources.
Tennyson Williams, Regional Director for Africa from the World Society for the Protection of Animals puts the problem in perspective. "Plastic as we know will remain in those waters without decomposing for 8 years. Millions of creatures die as a result, so many get injured," he explains.
What also makes this a serious problem is that plastics travel great distances and there is evidence of plastics from ship cargo resurfacing over 10,000 kilometres from the spot where it was lost even a decade later. Countries are already spending lots of dollars annually to clean up it beaches and shores. Netherlands, Belgium spend approximately $13.65 million per year on cleaning its beaches of waste.
Worse, heavy metals like mercury, extremely harmful to humans, tend to stick to plastic. A high-level study found that sample of sand collected from the tiny island of Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean had high levels of mercury even though there seemed to be no immediate reason for that except plastic residue found on the island. And when microplastics (particles up to 5mm) enter oceans, and marine organisms like fish ingest these, it's enters our food chain.
Chief scientist of UNEP Jacqueline McGlade says, "Something we consider part of our everyday life is costing us. It's rare that we identify a problem and put a price tag to it. We are talking about billions of dollars in costs and who actually bears the burden of those costs. Well, it's actually the citizens of every country. So it isn't really about the numbers in so far as how many tons of plastic but if you are spending billions of dollars in clean-up of plastics or the health costs then those are the true costs that we face. And for every country plastics are costing in the millions every year."
The only way to combat such a large scale problem is to start, no matter how small, because in this ocean, every drop counts.
Tennyson Williams, Regional Director for Africa from the World Society for the Protection of Animals puts the problem in perspective. "Plastic as we know will remain in those waters without decomposing for 8 years. Millions of creatures die as a result, so many get injured," he explains.
What also makes this a serious problem is that plastics travel great distances and there is evidence of plastics from ship cargo resurfacing over 10,000 kilometres from the spot where it was lost even a decade later. Countries are already spending lots of dollars annually to clean up it beaches and shores. Netherlands, Belgium spend approximately $13.65 million per year on cleaning its beaches of waste.
Worse, heavy metals like mercury, extremely harmful to humans, tend to stick to plastic. A high-level study found that sample of sand collected from the tiny island of Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean had high levels of mercury even though there seemed to be no immediate reason for that except plastic residue found on the island. And when microplastics (particles up to 5mm) enter oceans, and marine organisms like fish ingest these, it's enters our food chain.
Chief scientist of UNEP Jacqueline McGlade says, "Something we consider part of our everyday life is costing us. It's rare that we identify a problem and put a price tag to it. We are talking about billions of dollars in costs and who actually bears the burden of those costs. Well, it's actually the citizens of every country. So it isn't really about the numbers in so far as how many tons of plastic but if you are spending billions of dollars in clean-up of plastics or the health costs then those are the true costs that we face. And for every country plastics are costing in the millions every year."
The only way to combat such a large scale problem is to start, no matter how small, because in this ocean, every drop counts.
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