Airborne plastic pollution ‘spiralling around the globe’, study finds

via The Guardian

Microplastic pollution is now “spiralling around the globe”, according to a study of airborne plastic particles.

The researchers said human pollution has led to a global plastic cycle, akin to natural processes such as the carbon cycle, with plastic moving through the atmosphere, oceans and land. The result is the “plastification” of the planet, said one scientist.

Read the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/12/airborne-plastic-pollution-spiralling-around-the-globe-study-finds

It’s not just oceans: scientists find plastic is also polluting the air

via The Guardian

plastic pollution
Photo by Vitaly Vlasov on Pexels.com

For several years scientists were puzzled why Delhi was more susceptible to thick smogs than other polluted cities such as Beijing. New research links this to tiny chloride particles in the air that help water droplets to form. Globally, chloride particles are mainly found close to coasts, due to sea spray, but the air in Delhi and over inland India contains much more than expected.

At first, the sources were thought to be illegal factory units around Delhi that recycle electronics and those that use strong hydrochloric acid to clean and process metals. These are certainly part of the problem, but new measurements have revealed another source.

Read the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/26/not-just-oceans-plastic-polluting-air-delhi-smog

Seagrass ‘Neptune balls’ bundle plastic waste

via Phys.Org

Underwater seagrass in coastal areas appear to trap bits of plastic in natural bundles of fibre known as “Neptune balls,” researchers said Thursday.

With no help from humans, the swaying plants—anchored to shallow seabeds—may collect nearly 900 million plastic items in the Mediterranean alone every year, they reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

read the full story here: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-seagrass-meadows-marine-plastic-sea.html

Is laundry fuelling the marine plastics crisis?

via BusinessGreen.com

Clothing and textiles are a major and underacknowledged source of microplastics pollutions in the world’s oceans, a new study analysing seawater samples from across the Arctic Ocean has found.

The study revealed that synthetic fibres make up more than 90 per cent of microplastic pollution found in near-surface seawater samples from across the Arctic. Nearly three-quarters of those fibres are polyester and resemble fibres widely used in clothing and textiles, with the bulk of this pollution thought to released during domestic laundry, the research states.

Read the full story here: https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4025745/laundry-fuelling-marine-plastics-crisis

Plastic Fuels: Do They Fix Waste Or Greenwash It?

via Forbes

Marketed as a solution to the environmental and waste problems the plastic industry is currently facing, recycled carbon fuels are problematic. And they will be at odds with Wednesday’s vote from the EU Parliament backing a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

briefing published by Zero Waste Europe shows that these fuels are produced by converting plastics back to their original fossil form. As they are burnt and carbon is released to the atmosphere, they are ultimately exacerbating climate change.

Read the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emanuelabarbiroglio/2020/10/08/the-pros-and-cons-of-plastic-to-fuels/#4508a3ce48cb

Oceans’ plastic tide may be far larger than thought

Artificial fibres now go everywhere. The oceans’ plastic tide may reach their whole depth, entering marine life and people.

via Eco-Business

The world’s seas could be home to a vast reservoir of hitherto unidentified pollution, the growing burden of the oceans’ plastic tide.

Up to 21 million tonnes of tiny and invisible plastic fibres could be floating in the first 200 metres of the Atlantic Ocean alone. And as British research exposed the scale of the problem, American chemists revealed that for the first time they had found microplastic fibres incorporated within human organ tissues.

Read the full story here: https://www.eco-business.com/news/oceans-plastic-tide-may-be-far-larger-than-thought/

Kauai Artists Collaborate With Nature For Marine Debris Projects

via Honolulu Civil Beat

Ghost nets and plastic fragments are becoming collectibles as artists turn the trash into works of art.

Plastic bags and straws cause countless marine fatalities as their small size, shine and color are an irresistible lure to birds, fish, and turtles. But the most lethal plastic products in the North Pacific are the fishing nets and gear purpose-built to catch and kill marine wildlife. These nets, which can stretch 6 miles in length, comprise about half of the plastic garbage in the Patch. But on Kauai, fishing nets account for almost 90% of marine debris that washes in with the tides.

Artists sensitive to this disaster have started to look at ghost nets and fragments of plastic as raw material for their creativity. Only 10% of plastic on average is recycled. This leaves a tsunami of synthetic waste to pollute our most precious natural places and resources. They hope their work can bring focus to the problem.

Read the full story here: https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/08/kauai-artists-collaborate-with-nature-for-marine-debris-projects/

Washing laundry on a delicate cycle releases more plastic microfibres into the ocean

via ScienceFocus.com

Researchers have found it is the volume of water used which is the key factor in plucking the tiny plastic particles from man-made material. Read the full story here: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/washing-laundry-on-a-delicate-cycle-releases-more-plastic-microfibres-into-the-ocean/

Marine Plastic Pollution

Naturalist Attenborough makes dire warning of plastic pollution in world’s oceans

via CNBC

U.K. naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough has warned of the dangers of plastic in the oceans after witnessing the damage it causes while filming a new wildlife series.

Attenborough said that during the recording of the BBC’s TV series “Blue Planet II” he saw countless examples of the negative effect of plastics, according to comments in the Guardian newspaper on Sunday.

Read the story here: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/16/attenborough-makes-plastic-pollution-warning-for-worlds-oceans.html

domino-plastics-oceans-recycling copy

A Message from Domino Plastics' CEO Michael Domino

By 2050 there will be more plastic garbage floating in the world’s ocean than fish swimming in them.

This shocking conclusion was recently published by The World Economic Forum.

I have learned during my thirty years in the plastics recycling business that the best solution is usually the simplest.

On land we burn trash to make electricity. My solution to the marine plastic pollution problem is the same, and not to reinvent the wheel just because the problem exists at sea as opposed to on land.

The ocean’s plastic pollution remediation process I propose consists of the following:

  1. Modify trawlers and factory fish ships to scoop plastic out of the ocean.
  2. Build a series of off shore, oil-rig style power plants, where feasible, to burn it and create electricity. Ships can be modified to be power plants and follow thefuel source too.
  3. Send the electricity to the mainland through trans-oceanic cables.
  4. Neutralize the ash making it suitable forany variety of products such as concrete, road surface material or use it as landfill to build up islands losing ground torising ocean levels – or create a new island somewhere all together like was done with Lower Manhattan, La Guardia Airport or Dubai. (New York’s LaGuardia is built on coal ash from power plants).

As seaweed and barnacles attach to the plastic it is beginning to sink and it also degrades and falls apart.  Much of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not visible and is floating 3-5 feet under the water’s surface. These polymer pollutants can be scooped up out of the water the way netters round up and catch large schools of eatable fish with mile long nets.

The urgent problem is that the sun and salt is rapidly breaking down floating plastic into small particles and it’s starting to float around the world. As this continues and increases it then is impossible to collect. The small particles are then ingested by birds, fish and mammals and many seabirds and turtles have plastic in their stomachs now.

Most plastics are not compatible with one another and there is more than enough mixed plastics on land now to make recycled plastic products such as lumber, pipes and nursery products. There is a glut of mixed plastic material resources already around the globe. It is entirely unrealistic to project that the difficult to sort and reprocess commingled plastic harvested from the Pacific is going to be sold and used, therefore it must be used to fuel power generating turbines.  Another viable option for marine plastic debris is converting it into fuel with plastic to fuel (PTF) technologies, which has been accomplished on land for many years. Thetechnology for both processes is readily available and currently commercially utilized and once again large factory ships could be retrofitted as on-site ocean going recycling plants. The ships could be powered by the fuel they recycle and sell off the surplus at profit to perpetually fund the operation.

It is time that “We the People” of the planet champion this cause that is literally threatening our very survival on Earth. Plastics for packaging and consumer products are two of the fastest growing industries in the world. Take a look in any store – just about everything is now individually packaged and wrapped for single use. It’s hard to find a product that does not contain plastics or is all plastic. Much of it is ending up in our oceans and only after we use it one time! Plastics make our life better but, at the same time, we must take responsibility for its environmentally safe disposal and recycling, post use.

As producers and consumers of disposable plastics products that are now choking our life-giving seas to death, we must act fast as a civilization to solve this problem. Every day we delay it gets horribly worse and harder to solve.  No person or plastics company can pass the buck any longer.

Sincerely,

Michael Domino

CEO Domino Plastics Company Inc.

www.Domplas.com

domino-plastics-oceans-recycling