http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/02/11/seas-have-become-plastic-graveyard-can-technology-turn-tide/
[images, links and video clips in on-line article]
Our seas have become a plastic graveyard - but can technology turn the
tide?
By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
11 February 2017 • 6:00am
When strong winds prevented filmmaker Jo Ruxton from sending a submarine
to her chosen recording location off the coast of Marseille, she was
naturally nervous.
The crew had just one chance to document evidence of the build-up of
rubbish on the seabed for her award-winning film A Plastic Ocean, but
were forced to divert miles from where divers had reported a growing dump.
She needn’t have worried. As the submersible reached a deep trench one
mile from the surface, the team were confronted by a junk yard of human
debris. Tyres, plastic water bottles, synthetic netting, unexploded
bombs and even an old parachute emerged from the gloom.
The world’s oceans are drowning in human rubbish. Each year more than
300 million tons of plastic are produced globally, and 10 per cent will
end up in the sea. It is estimated that there is now a 1:2 ratio of
plastic to plankton and, left unchecked, plastic will outweigh fish by 2050.
Not only is the floating haze of scum unsightly, it is also swallowed by
marine animals that cannot digest it. Chemicals leach into the water,
and it has been shown that even humans who eat seafood ingest 11,000
pieces of microplastic each year.
Ruxton, who has previously worked as a producer on the BBC’s Blue
Planet, said: “People watch wildlife documentaries and think the oceans
are still pristine but they aren’t. I’ve known film crews spend two
hours clearing up beaches before they can take shots of turtles.”
Yet there are signs that the tide may be starting to turn, and Britain
could be leading the way.
In 2010, Warwick University announced it had developed a process of
recycling all plastic waste. The technique, called pyrolysis, "cracks"
plastic into more basic molecules to form an oil called Plaxx, which can
then be used as a fuel, or to make new plastic.
Warwick University spin-off company Recycling Technologies has just
opened its first large plant in Swindon, Wiltshire, which operators say
will process the plastic of the entire town.
The goal is to roll out similar plants across the world and even install
small versions on board dredgers, which can trawl the water, sucking up
plastic waste and turning it into fuel to power the ships.
Plastic is notoriously difficult to recycle - and only 12 per cent of
household waste is reprocessed. The rest is either burnt or goes to
landfill. The new system aims to turn dumped plastic into a valuable
commodity.
“This could really be a game-changing technology,” said Adrian Haworth,
of Recycling Technologies.
“There is a worldwide need for it. Only a small amount of plastic is
recycled - most ends up in landfill or in the ocean. We need to stop
this happening in the first place.
“Eventually we hope to be able to mine landfill sites for plastic, and
we’ve had a discussion with a dredging company, with the idea that they
would collect the plastic in ports and turn it into fuel on board.”
The US Navy and even some cruise ships already operate recycling
systems, which take the waste of crew and passengers and heat it to
temperatures of more than 5,000C to turn it back into a reusable form.
The plasma torch technology is powerful enough to convert plastics,
metals and glass into granules or gas.
The Canadian company behind the system, called PyroGenesis, is planning
plasma plants across the world, which could process up to 100 tonnes at
a time.
A Dutch entrepreneur is also planning to deploy a pilot device off
southern Japan that will, if all goes according to plan, gather and
capture some of the millions of tons of plastic that is clogging up the
world's oceans.
Some countries, such as Germany, have legislation over plastic. Since
1991, companies that produce it have been responsible for dealing with
their waste, and most supermarkets contain state-of-the art bottle banks
that scan bar codes so packaging can be returned to manufacturers.
In 2013, David Katz, a social entrepreneur, founded The Plastic Bank in
Lima, Peru, an organisation that pays locals in coastal communities for
their plastic bottles, then recycles them, calling the result "social
plastic". Further banks have since been established in Haiti and are due
to roll out globally. The company has released the blueprints for its
plastic recycling device so that others can follow suit.
Yet many experts believe that cultural change will have the biggest
impact. Since the 1950s, marketeers have been persuading consumers that
plastic is a throwaway product. One trillion plastic bags are produced
globally every year, yet their average working lifespan is just 12 minutes.
“We are in a growing culture of throwaway living,” said Professor
Richard Thompson, a global expert on ocean plastics from the University
of Plymouth.
“There is an urgent need to recognise that there is no such place as
away. Marine debris is damaging to the economy, to wildlife to the
environment. It is wasteful and unnecessary, and we all agree that it
needs to stop.”
Ruxton, the producer of A Plastic Ocean, which has been described by Sir
David Attenborough as "one of the most important films of our time",
said: “It’s crazy how we believe that plastic just disintegrates, and it
was because we were told in 1955 that we wouldn’t have to wash up any more.
“But we’re at a tipping point now, and if we don’t act, we won’t be able
to go back. In the 1960s we were producing eight million tons of plastic
a year. Now it 300 million, and where will we be in another 50 years?
“You go out now and look in the ocean and it is just so prolific. People
need to realise that plastic is not disposable. We don’t need all this
packaging.”
A recent study estimated that nine in 10 of the world’s seabirds have
pieces of plastic in their guts.
The southern hemisphere, around New Zealand and Australia, is
particularly badly affected because of major polluters such as Indonesia
and Thailand.
Some albatross and shearwater have been found to have nearly 3,000
pieces of plastic - up to 8 kg - in their stomachs, the equivalent of a
human eating 12 pizzas worth of food. It can’t be digested, so the birds
eventually die through lack of nutrition.
In countries such as Tuvalu, where plastic waste washes up by the ton
onto shores, locals suspect links with fertility problems.
Professor Susan Jobling of Brunel University discovered that most
plastics contain hormone-disrupting chemicals. Some 92 per cent of
adults in Western countries have plastic and chemicals from plastic
production in their systems, and their children have twice as much.
"I hope it will make people really think about how they use plastics and
make them wonder, for example, if they really need a plastic drinking
straw or a single-use plastic bottle,” said Prof Jobling.
There are even worries that what is visible could be just the tip of the
iceberg. About 70 per cent of all ocean debris sinks down from the
surface, leading experts to fear that huge rubbish dumps are
accumulating unseen at the bottom of the ocean.
Plastic becomes brittle in seawater because it’s subjected to sunlight,
waves and salt. It breaks up into minute pieces and mixes with plankton,
so tiny particles of the plastic are sucked up by marine life.
Craig Leeson, director of A Plastic Ocean, said: “Plastic is the most
durable material man has ever made, and every piece ever produced is
still on the planet in some shape or form.
“If you take plastic water bottles as an obvious example, one of the
major problems is that people are using plastic water bottles thinking
they are doing themselves a favour, when they are actually damaging
their own health.
“The irony of this is that the water in most of these bottles sold to
people is not as good as their own tap water.”
David Jones, executive adviser on the film, added: “Technology can only
do so much. We need to shift people’s perspectives.
“We need to make plastic valuable again. At the moment, the plastic
around a water bottle is far more valuable than the water inside it, but
people don’t see it like that.
“It’s bizarre that we have to pay someone to take away what is
essentially a valuable commodity. Plastic is worth about £400 a ton, but
we just throw it away.
“With global warming, we probably have to accept we’re in a predicament
and try and mitigate it, but I think with plastic we are still clinging
on to the cliff by our fingertips and we still have the chance to pull
ourselves back. We have the capacity to do it.”
A Plastic Ocean can be downloaded from iTunes and screenings are taking
place throughout the country.