The figures of pollution caused by plastic they are difficult to understand. Recent studies suggest that each year, globally, between 9 and 14 million tons of waste from food containers and packaging are thrown into landfills, rivers and seas. The number is so large that there are only two ways to understand it: one is to analyze the photos that illustrate this article. And the other is a disturbing number: we eat up to 5 grams of plastic per week.
How do we eat it? It is that the plastic does not degrade, but rather breaks and shrinks, and there are countless micro-pieces of plastic taking up space in the environment, floating in the water or serving as indigestible food for fish. In other words, much of the plastic that we throw away ends up coming back to us either in a meal or in a drink: thus, an investigation carried out by experts from the University of Newcastle on microplastics and the environment, determined that an average person could be consuming up to 5 grams, the equivalent of the weight of a credit card, every 7 days.
Those microscopic sized bits already circulate in our blood, as published in the scientific journal Environment International just two weeks ago. The investigation details the finding of PET, polystyrene and polyethylene particles in blood samples taken at random from Dutch citizens. And there is for everyone. Plastics, apart from being ubiquitous, practically do not biodegrade, so most of the material produced since it was “invented” still persists in the environment. It is estimated that so far, 7.8 billion tons of plastic have been produced, which means one ton per person in the world.
How do we get to this number? From the middle of the last century, plastic began to gain markets and due to its practicality, durability and convenience it was replacing other materials: steel in cars, paper and glass in packaging, wool and cotton in textiles and wood in furniture, among other uses.
“The plastic pollutes throughout its life cycle: from the extraction of the raw material, to the manufacturing process, its use and -above all- its final disposal. And its ingestion and accumulation in our metabolism or breathing the vapors of “burnt” plastic exposes us to various concentrations of carcinogenic and neurotoxic substances, “he summarized to NEWS María Verónica Torres Cerino, head of Toxicology at the Southern Hospital and professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of the Austral University. “Those compounds accumulate and can affect everything from our fertility to the growth of the fetus. Its known effects range from deteriorating kidney function to damaging the endocrine and immune systems, among other things.” Obviously, causal relationships have also been detected between plastics and certain molecules that characterize them and the appearance of various cancers.
The problem of plastic pollution is global and that explains why at the beginning of March the United Nations Environment Assembly delegates from the 175 member countries unanimously agreed to negotiate a treaty to deal with plastic pollution. The resolution mandated develop an agreement that is legally binding by 2024, and that this agreement addresses the life cycle of plastic products, including their production, design and disposal.
Debt
Of course, Argentina is not exempt from this pollution and health problem. In fact, as in other environmental areas, it is even further behind than other countries in both preventive actions and legislation. And it is not only behind European nations but also in the region, compared to regulations in Chile or Uruguay.
“We lack data on use and also on plastic waste. And, of course, we do not have adequate legislation,” he summarized to NEWS Consuelo Bilbao, Political Director of the Circle of Environmental Policies (CPA), an NGO specializing in these issues. According to the CPA team, the official Argentine statistics on plastic recycling are from 2013. Then there is only loose data, from a municipality or cooperative. Even the CEAMSE stopped publishing data for years, “which means that we really know how much is recycled and how much plastic ends up in an open dump, sanitary landfill or body of water.”
Aside from not knowing the real magnitude of the problem, something basic to face effective public policies, we also do not have adequate legislation. Bilbao explained that “in our country we do not even have a comprehensive roadmap that proposes how we would replace the plastic elements, in how much time and with what materials.” Rather there are efforts that sometimes seem spasmodic. An example of this lack of central coordination is demonstrated by the famous “bags” for supermarket purchases, prohibited -but allowed- respectively on both sides of General Paz Avenue.
It is not possible overnight to ban all plastic items without having alternatives in terms of packaging, whether glass or otherwise. Prohibiting everything from one day to the next would not only affect industries and compromise jobs, but would even affect food safety.
To do
The solutions go through rethinking its use and production, turning to materials that have multiple uses such as containers of glass, ceramic or stainless steel to reduce plastic production. And in the meantime, to minimize any health risk if the use of plastic is essential, Torres Cerino recommends “only use the best quality plastics, which do not contain phthalates or bisphenols and never use plastic containers to heat food in a microwave. or in the dishwasher, because the heat, over time, can break them down and allow some toxic molecules to seep into the food.Also discard any plastic container that shows deterioration on its surfaces with the naked eye, the styrofoam trays and reject the bags single-use plastic.
One of the grassroots solutions proposed by environmentalists is to involve suitable stimuli for improvement throughout the cycle of use. “We have to incorporate the responsibility of the producer of plastic elements in the complete life cycle of their products, including final disposal. This way of internalizing the cost is the only one that generates real incentives for companies to reduce their use or change the material and develop more sustainable solutions,” explained Bilbao.
Wildlife / Collateral Damage
On our coasts in Buenos Aires, and according to the results of the Coastal-Marine Garbage Census organized by the Foundation Wildlife since 2016 in a team with twenty NGOs from the Province of Buenos Aires, it was found that 80% of the waste on the beaches of Buenos Aires is plastic. The data corresponds to United Nations reports that reveal that Every year 13 million tons of plastics are dumped into the oceans. The largest percentage of this garbage comes from the continent due to the poor disposal of urban waste or untreated rainwater, and part is contributed by commercial and fishing boats. These plastics create numerous hazards to marine life. Its ingestion, for example, can lead to nutritional deficiencies or starvation due to stomach obstructions. But plastic waste can also entangle, choke, and drown animals like fish, turtles, whales, sea lions, and seabirds and dolphins.
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