https://www.ehn.org/freshwater-is-getting-neglected-when-it-comes-to-plastic-pollution-research-2639610931.html
[images and links in online article]
Aug 02, 2019
Freshwater is getting neglected when it comes to plastic pollution research
"The oceans are the heart of the planetary ecosystem. But the arteries
are all the freshwater."
Andrew Blok
Plastic pollution in lakes and rivers is on the research back
burner—that's a problem.
That's according to a new study in the journal Water, Air, and Soil
Pollution that tallies research on plastics in the oceans and in
freshwater. Such studies overwhelmingly look at marine plastic
pollution. When studies do look at freshwater plastic pollution, they
report on microplastics rather than the larger macroplastics—anything
from bottle caps to plastic bags, as long as it's larger than 2.5
centimeters—that clog lakes, streams and rivers, especially in the
developing world.
"Considering the amount of plastics found all over the planet, the lack
of decent studies on plastic pollution in freshwater habitats is
surprising," the study's authors, Karl Matthias Wantzen, UNESCO chair of
river culture and a professor at University of Tours in France, and
Martin Blettler, a researcher at the National Institute of Limnology,
told EHN in an email.
Blettler and Wantzen reviewed 171 studies published on plastic pollution
in water. More than 98 percent of articles that reported on animals
getting tangled in plastics focused on ocean environments, while less
than 2 percent dealt with freshwater species, despite the fact that
entanglement is difficult to detect in the oceans but "frequent in the
freshwater system nearby large cities," the study says.
Likewise, no studies covered the use of plastics in nests of freshwater
birds, although "the amount of plastic trash ending up in the birds'
nests appears to be increasing in freshwater systems, with dangerous and
deadly results," the study reports.
Perhaps most importantly, not enough is known about uncontrolled dumping
of plastics into rivers in cities in the developing world. The authors
write that waste management in developing countries is "strongly based
on uncontrolled dumping."
Studying plastic waste in freshwater is important because, with few
exceptions like wind and direct dumping into the ocean, all plastics in
the ocean get there by streams and rivers, the researchers said.
The reasons why freshwater plastic pollution research lags behind
ocean pollution research isn't clear, though it did get a later start as
a field.
"Me and like two or three other people in the world kind of all had the
epiphany at the same time that as much as we've studied plastic in the
world's oceans there was just nothing out there on plastic in
freshwater," Sherri Mason, a professor of chemistry and the
sustainability coordinator at Penn State Behrend, told EHN, referring to
2012 and 2013.
Marine plastic pollution research got a much earlier start in the 1970s,
Mason said. Since academic research builds on previous work, the
disparity in focus could be a result of how long the fields have been
around.
Though Mason had been teaching about marine plastic pollution, she
hadn't considered plastics in freshwater until sailing on the Great
Lakes. After finding no research on freshwater plastics in the Great
Lakes to use in a class, she decided to do the research herself.
Marine plastic pollution research has also benefited from publicity
campaigns. Charles Moore, the ship's captain who first studied the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch, brought the issue to the fore by appearing on
talk shows and speaking directly to the public.
"He did some crazy thing that most scientists don't do," Mason said of
Moore's publicity campaign. "A lot of scientists, and I include myself
in this, we're kind of socially awkward."
Non-research groups have taken up the issue as well. Notably, in 2018
National Geographic launched a multi-year campaign to address plastic
pollution in the oceans called Plastic of Planet.
"The oceans are the heart of the planetary ecosystem," Mason said. "But
the arteries are all the freshwater."
Science to spur change
Plastic pollution research, policy and awareness are trending in a
beneficial direction in some places.
"Several African countries, for instance have banned plastic bags long
before the Europeans did," Blettler and Wantzen said. They pointed to an
agreement to reduce the international trade of plastic waste, initiated
by China's refusal of much of the waste it used to import. While other
countries like Bangladesh, Laos, Ethiopia and Senegal have begun to
accept more, a much-needed conversation has begun and less plastic waste
will move around the world as a result. All of that will help clean up
the oceans and freshwater.
Plastic pollution must be addressed on a global level, the authors said,
and research is needed to drive the conversation, as it can lead
directly to changes in policy around plastics.
"There are some fantastic researchers who are really digging into this
issue and publishing like crazy and really helping us understand the
impact of plastic in the Great Lakes," Jennifer Caddick, Vice President
for Communications and Engagement with Alliance for the Great Lakes,
told EHN. It's led to positive trends in action and awareness around the
Great Lakes, the world's largest freshwater system.
Caddick points to "the snowball effect" on plastic microbeads in
personal care products, sparked by Sherri Mason's research that showed
they made their way into all five Great Lakes. After Mason's research,
states and cities started passing bans on plastic microbeads, eventually
prompting industry to ask Congress to even out the patchwork of
regulations popping up. Congress passed a ban on plastic microbeads in
personal care products effective in 2017.
"That was a great example of how research and really clear data could
galvanize public opinion and lead to some specific change," Caddick said.
It helped that the Great Lakes provide drinking water for 40 million
Americans and Canadians. Research has shown plastic in tap water,
bottled water and beer bottled in the area.
Ultimately, it will take more than research.
Wealthy countries that produce most of the research haven't solved the
problem, the authors of the new study said. They also produce most of
the plastic and plastic waste. Their solution of shipping plastic waste
to poorer countries masks the problem, but makes it worse by moving
plastics to places with fewer environmental regulations.
"In the end, we must abolish the concept of waste. All products must be
able to be recycled, otherwise they must be forbidden," Wantzen and
Blettler said.
And, the stakes are high, Mason said.
"This isn't about saving the planet, it's about saving ourselves."
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