2023-11-14 02:20:00
Although it may seem incredible, toothbrushes, toys, fishing nets and food containers accumulate on the surface of the largest ocean on the planet, fused into a thick soup of waste. This is the so-called “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
At least 14 million tons of plastic are deposited in the oceans every year, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and are ingested by animals, entering the food chain and damaging ecosystems.
Despite its phenomenal size, The Ocean Cleanup organization believes it can clean up most of the garbage accumulated in that region by dragging huge U-shaped nets and using floating barriers to intercept the garbage.
Since the beginning of this decade, The Ocean Cleanup says it has removed 7.5 million tons of plastic, and if funded, it believes it could eliminate 90 percent of the plastic floating on the ocean surface. But the organization, which has received funding from groups linked to plastic production, has received criticism for whitewashing the image of polluting companies.
It’s worth it?
Non-profit organizations Oceancare (Switzerland) and Environmental Investigation Agency (UK) see these ocean-cleaning technologies as a distraction in the fight to stop the flow of waste.
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg,” said Christina Dixon, head of the Environmental Investigation Agency’s ocean campaign. “It sounds good, but it doesn’t really address the pollution problem,” she says. For her, focusing on costly clean-up operations diverts resources to the wrong side of the problem, and maintains that the technologies used generate many emissions and could harm marine life.
Dixon spoke to DW from Nairobi, Kenya, where international delegates are trying to craft an ambitious global treaty to end plastic pollution. According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), by 2060 plastic waste will triple globally, and if no action is taken, it is possible that by 2050 there will be, by weight, more plastic in the sea than fish.
“If your bathroom is flooding, you can pump the water out or go to the fountain and turn off the tap,” says Marcus Gover, director of the plastics initiative at the Australian NGO Minderoo Foundation.
Gover says negotiators meeting in Nairobi have before them a variety of options to tackle plastic pollution, and if a good deal is reached, there is the potential for mismanaged plastic waste to be reduced by up to 95 percent by 2040. This approach, however, would require globally binding standards to reduce plastic production, eliminate avoidable plastics, improve recycling and disposal systems.
Vested interests at play
But it is a complex issue, given the influence of plastic producers in the talks, says a group of scientists advising delegates in Nairobi.
Bethanie Carney Almroth, professor of Ecotoxicology at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), points out that pro-plastic lobbyists work to hinder any progress, sowing doubt with techniques similar to those used by big tobacco companies to block the regulation of cigarette consumption.
Almroth maintains that all scientific evidence shows that limiting plastic production is essential to ending pollution, but lobbyists are using technologies such as ocean cleanup to divert attention. The people who work at Ocean Cleanup, however, don’t see it that way.
“We need to do something about production, we need to change our behavior when it comes to the use of plastic, but we also need to eliminate what already exists,” defends the communications director of the firm that cleans the ocean, Joost Dubois. “Cleaning is just one element on the path to ending plastic pollution. We mop the floor, but someone will also have to turn off the tap.”
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