Taking a Deeper Dive

World unlikely to see a reduction in plastic use and waste

According to findings released on June 3, 2022, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the world is unlikely to see a significant reduction in plastic use and waste. In fact, Global plastic use and waste are on track to triple by 2060. Annual production of fossil-fuel-based plastics is set to top 1.2 billion tonnes by 2060 and waste to exceed one billion tonnes. Some additional highlights as reported by PHYS.ORG:

 

• Global plastics production was estimated to be 367 million metric tons in 2020. Production was down roughly 0.3 percent compared with the previous year due to COVID-19's impacts on the industry.
• Even with aggressive action to cut demand and improve efficiencies, plastic production would almost double in less than 40 years.
• Since the 1950s, roughly 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced with more than 60 percent of that tossed into landfills, burned, or dumped directly into rivers and oceans.
• Some 460 million tonnes of plastics were used in 2019, twice as much as 20 years earlier.
• The amount of plastic waste has also nearly doubled, exceeding 350 million tonnes, with less than 10 percent of it recycled.

Image credit: PHYS.ORG

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Does plastic recycling work? Will it ever work?

If you ask Judith Enck, journalist, former EPA administrator and president of Beyond Plastics the simple answer is "no." An in-depth article in The Atlantic’s May issue was headlined “Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work.” The story said that “if the plastics industry is following the tobacco industry’s playbook, it may never admit to the failure of plastics recycling.” Authors Enck and Jan Dell cite successful recycling of paper (68%) as an example that “recycling, in general, can be an effective way to reclaim natural material resources.” However, they write that “the problem with recycling plastic lies not with the concept or process but with the material itself.” These are the challenges they say plastic recyclers face:

• There are thousands of different plastics, each with its own composition and characteristics. They all include different chemical additives and colorants that cannot be recycled together, making it impossible, even for developed waste management systems, to sort the trillions of pieces of plastics into separate types for processing.
• Recycled plastic costs more than new plastic because collecting, sorting, transporting, and reprocessing plastic waste is exorbitantly expensive. The petrochemical industry is rapidly expanding, which will further lower the cost of new (virgin) plastic.
• Plastic reprocessing is wasteful and the risk of fires at plastic-recycling facilities affect neighboring communities. In 2020, there were 158 such fires and over 500 incidents in the U.S. and Canada alone.
• Plastic products can include toxic additives and absorb chemicals and are generally collected in curbside bins filled with possibly dangerous materials such as plastic pesticide containers.

Image credit: The Guardian via Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Bits and PIeces

• Pre-Negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty Take Place in Dakar, Senegal
• The Ocean Foundation Launches Community Global Engagement Initiative
• Kenya and Portugal to Co-Host 2022 UN Ocean Conference, June 27 to July 1, 2022, Lisbon
• International Conference on Plastic Recycling and Waste Management, July 21-22, 2022, Rome

Mapping Plastic-Fouled Coastlines

See more beaches fouled by plastic on our ocean plastic trash map.

This Month’s Coastal Hotspot: Kuta Beach, Bali, Indonesia

Another beach decimated by Indonesia's waste problems, Bali's Kuta Beach, struggles with ongoing deposits of ocean trash, much of which makes its way from nearby Java. Because the island sits in the middle of a very strong current, waste travels quickly through ocean waters and washes up on the coastlines. In 2017, Bali's government declared a “garbage emergency,” sending out cleaners and trucks in a concentrated effort to clean up the beaches. Other plans to reduce waste include bans on single-use plastic and improvements in waste-management facilities. More information can be found on Stacker and in The Guardian. Image credit: Stacker // Maxim Blinkov // Shutterstock

New additions to the ocean plastic trash map include:

• Santa Teresa Beach, Costa Rica
• Botafogo Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Duong Dong, Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam
• Tarutao National Park, Thailand
• Cape Town, South Africa
• Juhu Beach, Mumbai, India
• Isola delle Femmine, Sicily, Italy

… and many more

Solutions

See more solutions on our ocean plastic solutions page. Submit a solution we should know about here.

This Month’s Featured Solution: A Documentary - Pulau Plastik (Plastic Island)

Category: Public Education
 Subcategory: Documentary
This film does an incredible job covering all aspects of the ocean plastic crisis. From plastic trash imported from the U.S. to microplastic in humans, the documentary respectfully and accurately covers the breadth of the issue from an Indonesian point of view not commonly understood in more developed countries. Every day, 93 million single-use straws are used in Indonesia. Together with other plastic waste, they end up in the ocean, break down into microplastics, are eaten by marine life, and end up in the food humans eat. The documentary is adapted from a series of videos the filmmakers took around the country to show Indonesians the magnitude of the problem. Balinese musician Gede Robi has made the issue of plastic pollution his personal crusade. In the documentary, he joins forces with Prigi Arisandi, a biologist and East Java river guard who advocates against plastic trash imports into Indonesia. Together they collect evidence about the extent of plastic pollution. They meet with scientists, experts, and activists, and conduct research - including on their own waste - to understand what the impact of plastic is on our environment and human health. Later, they join forces with Tiza Mafira, a lawyer who has dedicated her career to lobbying public officials and the private sector to develop policies to address single-use plastic pollution. The documentary is currently on Netflix. Find more information on IMDB.com. See the trailer on YouTube. Image credit: Pulau Plastik

Meet the Experts and Leaders

OpenOceans Global is identifying ocean plastic experts from around the world. Here are two experts leading efforts to reduce plastic pollution that you should know about.

Gede Robi, Rock Band Navicula

It's not every day that a rock star is identified as an ocean-plastic leader. However, Gede Robi is one. We learned about Robi while watching Pulau Plastik (Plastic Island), an outstanding documentary on Netflix about the extent of the plastic pollution crisis in Indonesia. Robi is the founder of the rock band Navicula, which combines activism and music as tools for social change. Formed in 1996 in Bali, Navicula has released 7 full-length studio albums and often collaborates with organizations such as Greenpeace, ICW, LIPI, Walhi, and SPI. Robi founded Navicula with the sole purpose of using music as a medium to advance the activist causes he felt deeply about. He was inspired by the Brazilian rock group Sepultura whose Roots album highlighted the plight of the Amazon tribes. This taught him about the power of music in awakening interest in social-environmental causes. He is also a member of ForBali, an alliance of the people of Bali, made up of both organizations and individuals concerned with conserving Bali’s environment. Robi says that “as a musician, you can say things that public figures are not allowed to say. You have the artistic freedom to speak up. Government, NGOs, and the public must get involved and work together to think and act about our precious environmental heritage.” According to a 2015 article in the Bali Advertiser, “thanks to efforts by rock groups like Navicula, Bali’s youth is becoming increasingly aware of the local environmental issues.” Image credit: Honeycombers Bali

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Tiza Mafira, Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Movement

Tiza Mafira is an Indonesian law and public policy expert specializing in environmental law, waste management, and climate change policy. She holds a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Laws from Universitas Indonesia. Since 2013, she is co-founder and Executive Director of the Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Movement (Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik), which pushes to reduce the use of plastic bags in Indonesia through regulation and awareness. In 2018, she received mention as an Ocean Hero by the United Nations Environment Programme for her work in successfully advocating for plastic bag bans in a number of cities across Indonesia. In 2019, the organization received the Mental Revolution award from the Government of Indonesia. She is one of the activists featured in the global documentary released in 2019, The Story of Plastic, and in the 2021 Pulau Plastik (Plastic Island), featured above, and in OpenOceans Global solutions. Mafira also leads the Climate Policy Initiative Indonesia, a non-profit think tank and advisory organization focused on public policy related to land use and energy transitions. Prior to this she worked for six years as a corporate attorney in a Jakarta-based law firm, Makarim & Taira S., where she specialized in natural resources and forestry law. Mafira has also worked at McKinsey & Co., the Boston-based environmental group CERES, and the Office of the Special Staff of the President for International Affairs during President Yudhoyono’s first term. Image Credit: The Wilson Center