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Plastic Waste - Referat
Plastic waste
“From the waves to the deep sea – our oceans are threatening to choke on plastic waste”
Or as one other person said:
“Pictures of idyllic beaches belong to the past in many places. Today banks often look like dumps. Plastics are carelessly thrown away and washed away by the surf.”
Plastic waste is one of the world‘s issues. Every year about 9 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans and now there are already 150 million tonnes. 20 % of those 9 million tons, comes from ships, mostly merchant ships. Either they throw it away to the ocean or they lose it on their way to the next harbor.
The other 80 % comes from the land because of the sewer and the incorrect waste disposal. The people throw their waste into a river and the river flows into the ocean. The only actions which are known to clean the oceans of the plastic are harmful too. Explorer found out that in 2050 there could be more plastic than fishes. In the oceans.
The cosmetics industry is the main culprit of the plastic waste issue because of the micro plastic. The peeling for the skin or the toothpaste contain tiny plastic articles which get after use through the sewer into the oceans. When you clean your clothes in the washing machine, the micro plastic from the fiber of your clothes is too small to get filtered, so that it also gets into the ocean. So the micro plastic, the tiny plastic articles are a very big issue of the plastic waste.. A very big problem on plastic is that it can take until 500 years until it will rot.
The developing countries are more affected than the developed countries because of the waste disposal.
The countries which are known as the biggest polluter are China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. These countries are responsible for over the half of the plastic waste. The reason for this is that those countries don’t have a working waste disposal system. But even the German are responsible for this issue. One quarter of the European plastic consumption is caused by the German.
As it seems now the production of plastic will increase from 250 million tonnes to 380 million tonnes until 2025 and that is the next big problem, they definitely have to search for a better alternative.
To solve the issue of the big plastic there are many campaigns and collaborations but it isn’t that easy. One of the big campaigns is the Oceancare, which is an information campaign. Oceancare wants to show all people how to deal better with plastic. They want to convince the people to stop the use of disposable plastic and they are in favor of banning harmful plastics and microplastics in cosmetics. They are working towards to a complete ban on the trade of cosmetics with microplastics.
In 2005 they produced an advertising video about the consequence of plastic and with tips how you can deal better with it. They produced it in many different languages so that many people can understand it. They even go for example to schools and universities to give a speech about this issue. In 2017 Oceancare started a cooperation with the retail company Heinemann which is the owner of many Duty Free shops at airports. The objective of this cooperation is to reduce the consume of plastic bags. When you want to have a plastic bag you have to pay for it and a measurable reduction of hundreds of thousands of plastic bags per year is sought. Among other things the company Heinemann supports the projects of Oceancare for the reduction of the Plastic in the ocean and animal rescues.
The most popular ocean clean-up project is “the Ocean Cleanup”. It is known as the largest cleanup in history. The Dutch founder Boyan Slat wants to clean the oceans of the plastic waste at least the plastic which is floating on the surface of the water. First he tried it in the North Sea but now their have also installed their system in the Pacific Ocean. At the beginning of October the system in the Pacific Ocean started to work. They wanted to test it in this big ocean due to the weather and the waves and after two weeks of testing they brought this system into the heart of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That’s the place with the most plastic. The device with which they want to catch the plastic looks like a big big arm in an U-shape which consists of pipes. The pipes work like a sieve and catches the plastic on the surface. The plastic should stay at those arms but sometimes it doesn’t work and it goes back into the ocean. They are about to solve this problem now. The objective of The Ocean Cleanup is to catch the half of the plastic in the ocean in about five years. There aren’t any updates yet how it is working.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an organization with the topic of environment. Peace activists founded this organization in 1971 in Canada and it criticizes every global issue. This organization started many campaigns to solve the environment.
Greenpeace has an idea how every single, private person can change a little bit of this issue.
Firstly they want us to become a marine protector. We have to reduce the use of plastic, like plastic bags, plastic crockery and so on. We use those plastic things only a couple of minutes and then we throw it away. These things are also existing in form of other materials which we can use. Thirdly to start garbage cleansing-campaigns at the beach or even in the city close to rivers. Even if you start to pay attention what you do with plastic after you use it is a big step forward to save the world of plastic. As I told at the beginning the micro plastic is the biggest cause of the plastic waste and it is mostly in cosmetics. So if you look to the constituents of the cosmetics when you buy something like tooth paste or shower gel and you only buy the products without micro plastics you do something really good for our environment. Instead of usual cosmetics you can buy natural cosmetics which doesn’t include micro plastics. Everyone knows the most package consists of plastic what means if the consumers don’t buy products with a plastic package anymore, the producer will stop producing it. In some cities there are already some shops which sell products without any packaging. When you think about this facts and tips you will realize that the consumers and every single person can help to change something on this problem. The problem is most people don’t care about their rubbish about the plastic. They just throw it away and don’t think where it will go. Some people don’t know anything about it but if they know it they wouldn’t change anything. There are also some people who complain about this problem but they don’t change anything by themselves. If every single person pay attention to this issue and help to change it, the issue could become smaller and smaller.
Consequences
Many fishes confound plastic with their food. For example some plastic bags look like a jelly. The fishes like turtles who eat jellies, eat the plastic bags which destroy their body. Many fishes also die because of starvation, they have plastic in their stomach so they feel like full but they can’t digest it and their body doesn’t get what it need. The people who are responsible for the plastic waste don’t know that they are destroying their own body and health with this. Those fishes which eat the plastic because they confound it, they will be caught by fishermen and then they are sold in our supermarkets. All in all we eat the plastic in the fishes which we produce and which we throw into the ocean. So many fishes die because of plastic and the people endanger their health.
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