Even if you don’t see discarded plastic in your community, tiny pieces of plastic have been found everywhere around the world, from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest ocean trenches.
Plastic is found in the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the soil below us, and even inside of our bodies.
Plastic pollution is a human health, social justice, environmental, climate, and wildlife issue. People and communities across the world are finally waking up to the fact that plastic pollution impacts everything.
We invite you to learn the facts about plastic pollution and to join us in changing the system away from single-use plastics and toward just, equitable solutions that benefit the health of humans, animals, waterways, oceans, and our environment.
Quick Facts about plalstics
- 99-percent of plastic is made from fossil fuels
- plastic inflicts major injustices on bipoc ,rural, and lo-income communities
- plastic contaminates our earth with waste and toxine
- evry 30 secondes one person dies from plastic and waste
- plastic items injure and kill millions of wild animals evry year
Plastic Pollution & Its Impacts
Plastic & Human Health
Studies of the plastics’ endless existence paint a toxic picture: At every stage, from extraction to production to transportation to use to disposal, plastic pollution threatens human health on a global scale. Communities on the fenceline of petrochemical and plastics infrastructure face chemical pollution of air, land, and water, in addition to pollution of dangerous plastic particles, noise, and risk of deadly industrial accidents like fires and explosions. Serious human health problems associated with fossil fuel extraction, plastics production, use, and disposal are numerous, and include cancer, diabetes, obesity, respiratory issues, reproductive and hormone problems, asthma, and more.
Plastic & Climate
Ninety-nine percent of all plastics are made from petrochemicals derived from fossil fuels—gas, oil, and coal—and drive the climate crisis. Despite the urgent need to cut our reliance on fossil fuels, the plastics and petrochemical industries plan to quadruple plastics production by 2050—threatening our chances of keeping global temperature rise below the critical 1.5-degree Celsius threshold. By 2050, plastic production and disposal could generate greenhouse-gas emissions equivalent to 615 coal plants annually and use up to 13% of Earth’s remaining carbon budget. Microplastics and nanoplastics may be interfering with the ocean’s ability to absorb and sequester carbon, our biggest natural carbon sink. Learn more about the connections between plastics and the climate crisis from this webinar.
Plastic & the Environment
Plastic can be found all throughout
nature, from the oceans to fresh waterways, to soils, air, and outer space. Plastic contains harmful chemicals and never benignly degrades; instead, plastic breaks up into small toxic pieces. Scientists call these plastic pieces “microplastics” and “nanoplastics.” Plastic items and particles easily travel across the planet, threatening the health of wild animals, plants, humans, and the interconnected ecosystems we rely on to survive. Instead of being recycled, most plastics are sent to landfills, illegal dumps, or escape into the natural environment; are incinerated; or are shipped to developing nations unequipped to handle this waste.
Plastic & Wildlife
Many wild animals mistake plastic for food, and in nature they must navigate a dangerous plastic obstacle course. In the oceans, fatal entanglement in and ingestion of plastic by marine mammals is increasing along with the amount of plastic in the ocean. Once ingested, plastic items and particles can inflict deadly physical injuries on animals’ digestive tracts, including perforation of stomach and intestinal walls. Even small quantities of plastic can shorten animals’ lifespans, as has been observed in sea turtles. The dangerous chemicals in plastics build up in animals’ bodies over time. Plastic is a threat to all animals, of all sizes, everywhere.
here some new research about plastics
Plastics Affecting Global Food Safety, Says Australian National Science Agency
Microplastics and nanoplastics are pervasive in the food supply and may be affecting food safety and security on a global scale, according to a new study led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency.
The study is one of the first to analyze the academic literature on microplastics from a food safety and food security risk perspective, building on past studies that primarily tracked plastics in fish. Findings show that plastics and plastic additives are present at a range of concentrations in fish, as well as in meat, chicken, rice, water, takeout foods and drinks, and fresh produce.
Microplastics and nanoplastics enter the human supply through numerous pathways, such as ingestion, as demonstrated in the fish studies. However, one of the key routes is through food processing and packaging. Although fresh food can be plastic-free when it is picked or caught, a commodity can contain plastics by the time it has been handled, packaged, and reaches consumers, deposited by machinery, cutting boards, plastic wrapping, and other food-contact materials. The study highlights the need to understand the extent to which plastic is ending up in human food to manage food safety and security.
Another important route for plastic contaminants to enter the agrifood system is through biosolids sourced from wastewater treatment. Biosolids are a rich fertilizer for agricultural land, but they can contain plastic particles from many sources, such as from the washing of synthetic clothing. Such particles can build up in soil and change soil structure over time, which may affect crop production, food security, and ecosystem resilience.
The study also discussed how additives in plastics can leach into the environment, potentially contaminating the food supply. Additives that make plastic flexible or resistant to UV radiation, for example, can include flame retardants, heavy metals, phthalates, hardeners or other chemical compounds.
Research is still required to demonstrate the harm to humans caused by micro- and nanoplastics environmental contamination. More research is also needed to better understand the effects of plastics and their additives on food safety and security, as well as to develop better analytical techniques to monitor, assess, and establish safe levels in food, drinking water, and agroecosystems.
so we need a solution to save our planet and us from disaster of plastic
microbes that can digest plastics at 15 degrees Celsius.
Microbes are tiny living things that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. They can be found in water, soil, and in the air.
In the research findings published in Frontiers in Microbiology , the scientists said microbes can survive in colder environments such as the Arctic and the Alps.
To arrive at the findings, the scientists sampled 19 strains of bacteria and 15 fungi growing on free-lying or intentionally buried plastic kept in the ground for one year in Greenland, Svalbard and Switzerland.
The process of breaking down plastics using microbial enzymes is said to be a “promising approach” that would help with recycling.
Joel Rüthi, a WSL scientist, said the discovery could help to reduce the burden of recycling.
“Here we show that novel microbial taxa obtained from the ‘plastisphere’ of alpine and arctic soils were able to break down biodegradable plastics at 15C. These organisms could help to reduce the costs and environmental burden of an enzymatic recycling process for plastic,” Rüthi said.
Beat Frey, one of the study authors, said: “Microbes have been shown to produce a wide variety of polymer-degrading enzymes involved in the breakdown of plant cell walls. In particular, plant-pathogenic fungi are often reported to biodegrade polyesters, because of their ability to produce cutinases, which target plastic polymers due to their resemblance to the plant polymer cutin.
“The next big challenge will be to identify the plastic-degrading enzymes produced by the microbial strains and to optimise the process to obtain large amounts of proteins. In addition, further modification of the enzymes might be needed to optimise properties such as protein stability.”
Annually, over 400 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced globally but only a tiny percentage is recycled.
While some scientists believe that microbial degradation could be a remedy, another school of thought fears that releasing large quantities of microorganisms into the environment could cause more issues than it solves.
In summary, plastic pollution is a global crisis that impacts the environment, human health, wildlife, and the climate. It is found everywhere, and its harmful effects are widespread. Efforts to find solutions, such as using microbes to degrade plastics, are promising but require further research. Addressing plastic pollution requires reducing single-use plastics, improving recycling and waste management, and transitioning to sustainable alternatives. Everyone has a role in combating plastic pollution and protecting our planet.
