It's 'just' a plastic bag: the dirty truth behind plastic use

By: Daniel Olajuyigbe

Ever wondered where the plastic bag you use daily for shopping goes to? Yeah, we know you throw it into the trash can or recycle bin and then the garbage truck carries it off to the dump or recycling center. But after that do you really know what happens next?

Despite persistent efforts over the years by the governments of different nations, the United Nations Organisation, and non-profit initiatives dealing with waste management in advocating for the general populace to engage in recycling of plastic products, only 9% of plastic produced has ever been recycled.

And what does this mean? It means the larger percentage is still in use today, has been buried in landfills or incinerated along with other waste products. Sadly enough, whenever plastic is buried in a landfill it contaminates the soil and groundwater by releasing toxic chemicals to pollute it and even worse is the case whereby plastic is being burned in the incinerator because it causes air pollution and respiratory ailments due to the dangerous chemicals emitted.

Despite these methods of eliminating plastics, they still end up finding their way into the ocean as studies show 8 million metric tons of plastic make way into the ocean annually. That should sink in for a moment.

With the phenomenal rise in the production of plastic, its non-biodegradable feature, low recycling rates and the poor waste management, the effects of plastic on the ocean cannot be overemphasized. Large plastics and microplastics influence marine life negatively in diverse ways.

The plastic waste in the ocean contaminates the water and makes it toxic as deadly chemicals like Bisphenol A and Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) are emitted. Bisphenol A which does not dissolve in water and DEHP which is a toxic carcinogen are major threats as they cause great harm to ocean life.

The large plastic materials tend to reduce the surface area of the ocean and cause a reduction in the rate of photosynthesis by the marine photosynthetic organisms and also reduce the oxygen available for respiration of the marine organisms due to their gradual degradation that requires much oxygen. This makes life really unfit for the marine organisms and inadvertently leads to a shorter life span.

Ever heard of garbage patches? Well they are accumulations of plastic in high concentrations in the ocean by oceanic currents, gyres in particular. They are 5 in number with the largest one being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which is also referred to as the Pacific Trash Vortex or gyre. It is located in the North Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California and larger than the size of Texas. These garbage patches are formed as a result of the transportation and convergence of plastic in the ocean when their currents meet. So technically, the plastic bag you used today could end up contributing its own little part to the size of these garbage patches and possibly even help create a new one.

Plastic pollution in the oceans also affects the economy of a nation, particularly in the sectors of tourism, fisheries and aquaculture. The ruination of the ocean due to the negative impact of plastic is not just limited to the high seas, it also includes shores and beaches.

Generally the greater the presence of plastic waste in beaches, the less attractive tourism becomes in such areas. Visitors become irritated and stay away from the affected places which once used to be very beautiful but are now suffering from mass contamination by plastic.

Plastic in the ocean also makes fishing harder as fishing professionals now face much difficulty in catching fishes due to the presence of the terrible marine debris. The large plastics cover various parts of the surface of the ocean and this has made some oceanic regions practically impossible to fish in. Garbage patches are a perfect illustration. A professional fisher could end up casting his net and catching more plastic than fish in today’s oceans.

Ghost fishing which means the entanglement of marine life in stray plastic nets that have been discarded or lost in the ocean is another threat to marine life. The most common victims of ghost nets in the ocean are sea turtles as they suffer from choking in them. Whales and seals are also victims as they get caught in the nets and drown when diving for food.

So let’s say your trashed out plastic bag, many years after it has caused this much menace as one of the large plastic materials in the ocean now begins to go through natural weathering processes so that it is degraded into fragmented plastic particles. It is broken down into microplastics. What happens then? Plastic is non-biodegradable, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) even reports ‘Every bit of plastic ever made still exists’. So technically, this means your plastic bag will never disappear. That should also sink in a bit.

And what are the effects of these microplastics on the oceanic domain? They are certainly similar to those caused by microbeads from our cosmetic and cleansing products such as face scrub, shower gel and toothpaste. Absorption of toxins and hydrophobic pollutants present in water and eating of the microplastics and microbeads by marine organisms which leads to contamination of food when consumed by humans and other organisms in the food chain. Microfibres shed from your synthetic clothing also get eaten up by marine organisms and move up the food chain into our dinner plates.

Now how exactly is plastic waste ruining the ocean in the worst way possible for marine life?

Other than plastic waste displacing marine organisms, plastic pollution wrecks even much more havoc on marine life. It weighs a huge toll on oceanic wildlife. And rather surprisingly, regardless of the size of the ocean it is really inevitable for marine organisms to avoid encounters with plastic waste or be affected by its ill effects. Generally, the greater the plastic we consume, the more danger there is to marine organisms.

Ingestion of plastic debris and the entanglement of marine life in plastic waste are the major causes of destruction of wildlife in the ocean. When marine organisms ingest plastic, they face terrible consequences such as intestinal injury, the inability to digest food due to the presence of plastic in their stomachs, loss of appetite and inability to sense hunger resulting from their false reasoning that the plastic they have eaten and has not yet been digested is in the real sense, actual food. This eventually leads to death from starvation. And when they get tangled up in plastic, the plastic waste injures and kills marine organisms.

Declining ability to have regular body metabolic activities, reproduce, escape from predators and travel long distances is another set of effects of ingestion of and entanglement of marine life in plastic as well as infection, suffocation, exhaustion and drowning.

Studies show that fish in the North Pacific ingest 12,000 – 24,000 tons of plastic annually and research has proven the fact that half of sea turtles in the world have ingested plastic. A floating plastic bag in the eyes of a sea turtle is a jellyfish and this has caused it to eat so much of plastic waste thinking it is food.

Furthermore, a total of 60 percent of seabirds have been estimated to have already eaten plastic and that percentage is expected to increase to one percent off of an hundred in the year 2050. The seabirds are tricked by the brighter colors of plastic waste to think they are food and mistake pellets for fish eggs and other prey. Dead seabirds, whales and many other marine organisms are often found with stomachs full of plastic.

According to the National Geographic, about 700 species of marine animals have been found to eat or become ensnared by plastic. The plastic bag you use today could end up in the belly of an innocent sperm whale in a couple of days. That’s worth reflecting upon for a moment. Do you think using that plastic bag is really worth the risk of killing more and more of marine life?

Besides the terrible impact made on marine life by plastic pollution, there are also many threats on human health, particularly through the infected marine organisms. Ingestion of plastic debris and intoxication of marine organisms are the major reasons.

When the marine organisms ingest plastic, it causes an introduction of plastic into the food chain. According to the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), 15 to 20 percent of marine species that end up on our tables contain microplastics. Most marine organisms cannot differentiate plastic items from food and as soon as the plastic waste enter the ocean, they are eaten by marine organisms most particularly, plankton, fish, sea turtles, whales, seals and seabirds. Therefore, plastic is transferred and keeps going higher and higher the food chain right from the plankton to the fish and other organisms and finally to seafood eating humans. The presence of resin pellets in fish guts represents a major health hazard.

In addition, aside from the plastic itself, the fish get contaminated by the toxins shed by plastic products in the ocean and this gives room for plastic toxins to enter the food chain. When these toxic chemicals get ingested by marine organisms, they get transferred to their tissues and the organisms become infected, having their own health damaged through poisoning. In so doing, these marine organisms upon being fished and eaten by humans, pose a huge risk to human health. Toxins in plastic could lead to several health issues such as cancer and immune system abnormalities.

Finally, it is very expensive to clean affected areas of plastic waste. It costs millions of dollars worldwide, each year by various ocean cleanup initiatives and the governments of different nations.

Therefore, what seems as just a plastic bag is something that could cause more harm than you ever imagined. We cannot keep taking things for granted, everyone has their role to play in ocean conservation, and the change must begin with you regardless of wherever you may be.