Addressing the Plastic Pollution Crisis
The issue of plastic pollution has exacerbated climate change - but is it too late to fix it?
It's no secret that plastic pollution has become one of the biggest issues in the 21st century. If you visit anywhere in the world, you will find areas littered with plastic waste - it's a disheartening and dystopian sight.
It's even more dismal when you consider that plastic bottles take around 450years to decompose in a landfill and even something smaller like plastic straws, for instance, take around 200 years to decompose. These statistics are likely ones that you have seen before; especially with the regulations on plastic taking over many Western countries.
Many are also familiar with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - the large collection of marine (mainly plastic) debris in the North Pacific Ocean - covering an area that is twice the size of Texas. This has proven to be a dire threat to marine life and a devastating reminder of humans impact on our precious oceans.
When we are not on beaches, these collections of plastic waste might be out of our direct sight, but they are still impacting us in calamitous ways. BPAs are interfering with our hormones and human organs have even been found with microplastics in them. Every part of the food chain is being affected by this.
Why is plastic pollution such a big threat?
The sad truth is, individualistic changes like recycling our plastic bottles are often done in vain. Many so-called "recycled" plastic ends up in landfills anyway. Why? Plastic is often cheaper to create new than recycle as they have little to no value. While global legislations are regulations will be necessary to ensure that recycled plastics is required, there are companies that are leading the way to a more eco-friendly future.
The Ocean Cleanup
One of the key players in this fight is The Ocean Cleanup. This is a non-profit organisation, which is developing advanced technologies to clean up the world's oceans of plastics. Traditional methods such as nets and vessels, unfortunately, would take thousands of years to remove the plastics - hence, why The Ocean Cleanup is an integral part of the battle against climate change.
These new technologies are estimated to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just five years. Their personal project is only complete when they remove 90% of floating ocean plastic.
The Ocean Cleanup relies on its sponsors, it is this that keeps the project running and the innovative technologies developing.
If you want to donate to The Ocean Cleanup, you can do so by clicking here.