THERE’S so much plastic in our oceans – is there even any point in trying to do something about it? Trump’s continued insistence on pouring petrol on to the ecological bin fire demonstrates that there isn’t a great appetite for reducing how much plastic humans are making – nor for paper straws, it would seem.
Is there any point in beach cleans? I live on a small Hebridean island, a little piece of paradise, yet we are awash with the world’s trash. It’s further proof that Scotland would be naive to think it can ride out Trump’s presidency with no ill-effects if it just keeps its head down.
Walking my dog at low tide, I stumbled upon a salmon farm feeding tube. I duly reported it to Salmon Scotland whose Marine Debris initiative will supposedly come and clear it up. This makes me feel nice but it’s not doing anything about the rest of the litter that washes up on Hebridean shores.
Looking a little closer at my corner of the world, I spy mussel floats, oyster culture, lobster tags, fish boxes, ropes of all flavours, net clippings, large (car-sized) floats and a multitude of other plastic degraded beyond the point of recognition.
It’s not sitting meekly on the surface either – it’s worked into the beach by the relentless power of the sea. When I try to pull an embedded rope out of the topsoil, it fractures, sending out more microplastics – and this is me trying to help. I’ll tell you who isn’t trying to help – Trump.
As if it’s not embarrassing enough that his mother was from Lewis (guilt by association), he really loves plastic and recently signed an executive order to bring back plastic straws, asserting: “I don’t think that plastic is going to affect the shark very much as they’re ... munching their way through the ocean.”
It’s a line echoed by the Plastics Industry Association, naturally.
In the West of Scotland, we are literally downstream of North America – the world’s second-largest plastic producer. Despite Canadians being nice and polite, our Western Isles are still host to plenty of their shotgun cartridges.
Litter’s itinerancy tells a story about the inescapable nature of the problem. Canada’s litter is washing up on Skye, Skye’s will be washing up somewhere else.
We’ve even found plastic in our brains. It’s everywhere – in essential medical equipment, in the keys I’m typing this piece on, in the acrylic jumper I’m wearing. It’s a long way beyond ubiquitous and all plastic created still exists. Waste plastic is everywhere, including in our food and the intestinal tracts of endangered seabirds, yet it still, dominates the human, material and natural world.
Some plastics are worse than others. Some take thousands of years to degrade, some tens of thousands. Large plastic is an issue but small pieces or microplastic are ironically, a much bigger problem.
Cars aren’t content with being a carbon-heavy means of personal transport – their tyres and brake pads generate an awful lot of microplastics, as does washing our clothes. Not to spook you but microplastics are basically bad news for all of the body’s systems, from our reproductive organs to our lungs.
Microplastics are anything less than 5mm in length but some of them are too small to see with the naked eye and small enough to enter our bloodstreams, our breastmilk and even our brains.
Different places have different problems. In the Hebrides, it’s largely fishing gear that’s visible. In the waters of Mumbai, it’s single-use plastics (SUP) floating about.
Both are extremely harmful and require different strategies to tackle them. Thus far my Make Jute Great Again campaign to ban plastic lines, ropes and nets has gathered zero momentum but there are some squeaks of promise from the scientists that biodegradable fishing gear is, at least theoretically, possible.
According to a 2016 UN report, fishing vessels lose 1% of their gear annually and this may well be an overly conservative estimate. It’s not just washing up on shore lines, it’s embedded in our coastal edges, breaking down into the dreaded wee bits you can’t even see, much less avoid. So, what’s to be done about this scary and seemingly insurmountable problem?
Lots as it happens. Call me toxically positive but we all need to do every single thing we can to stop more plastic entering our waters, our wildlife and even our babies. A study found that infant’s faeces contain 10 times more polyester than an adult’s.
Thankfully, there is some good news. There are lots of national and local initiatives to help clear up the places where the litter lands.
There is heart-warming evidence that beach cleans aren’t only good for the quantity of plastic waste on our beaches – the Scottish Government’s Volunteering Action Plan states that “volunteering brings enormous benefits and enjoyment, increases social and civil participation, empowers communities, and reduces loneliness and isolation. It can also improve mental and physical health.”
What really needs to happen, though is stopping it at source. We need better alternatives – annual plastic production volumes are expected to rise to 590 million metric tons by 2050.
Nonetheless, we have to be hopeful and we have to be helpful. We need more people to feel they should be contributing and participating. Plastic is a problem for all of us and requires we all muck in to clean up this mess.
