{"id":9072,"date":"2019-05-16T16:34:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T15:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsforher.com\/?p=9072"},"modified":"2019-05-16T16:34:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T15:34:57","slug":"meet-the-tropical-islands-that-are-now-a-plastics-dumpster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/?p=9072","title":{"rendered":"Meet the tropical islands that are now a plastics dumpster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"c5b541d88d911dcbb84397def1a3492d\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- m -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3943282228430444\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"5751019935\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p> [ad_1]\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"id_text\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>Discarded cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, and useless plastic water bottles have piled up on the Cocos Islands&#8217; white sand beaches, a balmy tourist destination surrounded by aquamarine waters.<\/p>\n<p>Marine scientist Jennifer Lavers and her research team traveled to this tropical paradise, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, for a couple weeks in 2017. They knew many beaches were littered with plastic trash, but after giving the coast proper scientific scrutiny, discovered the human-debris problem to be substantially worse than anyone knew. Their research, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-019-43375-4\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">published Thursday<\/a> in the journal <i>Scientific Reports<\/i>, found an estimated 414 million pieces of trash \u2014 much of which were the broken apart scraps and shards of plastics, deteriorating as they drifted through the oceans, before finally coming to rest on the white Cocos&#8217; sand. <\/p>\n<p>Although the piles of worthless single-use bottles \u2014 which are manufactured with the intention of promptly becoming waste \u2014 are unsightly, it&#8217;s the smaller plastics that pose the greatest pollution problem. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t break down,&#8221; emphasized Lavers, a research scientist at the University of Tasmania&#8217;s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. &#8220;It breaks up into hundreds, or thousands, or millions of microplastic particles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Plastic microparticles.\" data-caption=\"Plastic microparticles.\" data-credit-name=\"Jennifer Lavers\" data-credit-provider=\"custom type\" src=\"http:\/\/newsforher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Meet-the-tropical-islands-that-are-now-a-plastics-dumpster.com.jpeg\" title=\"Plastic microparticles.\"><\/p><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">\nPlastic microparticles.<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><div class=\"image-credit\">\n<p>Image: Jennifer Lavers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>This plastic then becomes impossible to clean up. Sea creatures often eat it up, <a href=\"https:\/\/ocean.si.edu\/ocean-life\/seabirds\/laysan-albatrosses-plastic-problem\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">filling their stomachs<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Not all plastics, of course, are the problem. They&#8217;re necessary in hospitals, airplanes, and make our vehicles lighter and more efficient. It&#8217;s the worthless plastic \u2014 the single-use plastics \u2014 that compose this mounting mess and is piling up on beaches. Lavers wants us to see where much of it goes. &#8220;If we can&#8217;t see our responsibility in creating the problem, then we\u2019re unwilling to change,&#8221; she said. <\/p>\n<p>In some places \u2014 notably in front of resorts or coastal cities \u2014 plastics are regularly raked off the beach, often by large beach-combing tractors. But on many beaches the plastic isn&#8217;t ever cleaned up, and the true consequences of humanity&#8217;s single-use plastic addiction are made conspicuous.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There\u2019s this image of a desert island that&#8217;s pristine,&#8221; said Elizabeth Mendenhall, an assistant professor of international government ordinance and marine affairs at the University of Rhode Island. &#8220;To realize that there are not places left like that in the world is unfortunate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just a lot plastic,&#8221; Mendenhall, who had no role in the study, added after reading the study.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trash. Trash. Trash.\" data-caption=\"Trash. Trash. Trash.\" data-credit-name=\"Silke Stuckenbrock\" data-credit-provider=\"custom type\" src=\"http:\/\/newsforher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1558020896_299_Meet-the-tropical-islands-that-are-now-a-plastics-dumpster.com.jpeg\" title=\"Trash. Trash. Trash.\"><\/p><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">\nTrash. Trash. Trash.<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><div class=\"image-credit\">\n<p>Image: Silke Stuckenbrock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Cocos Islands, of course, aren&#8217;t an exception. Islands around the world are the graveyards of plastics. Previously, Lavers documented the uninhabited Henderson Island in the South Pacific Ocean. There, she found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imas.utas.edu.au\/news\/news-items\/no-escaping-ocean-plastic-37-million-bits-of-litter-on-one-of-worlds-remotest-islands\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">37.7 million pieces of plastic<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>But unlike Henderson, the Cocos are both inhabited and visited by people. The plastic isn&#8217;t some remote afterthought.<\/p>\n<div class=\"see-also\">\n<p class=\"see-also-link\">SEE ALSO: <a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/weather-forecasters-tv-climate-change?utm_cid=a-seealso\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Fearless TV weather forecasters air the planet&#8217;s soaring carbon levels<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In both the Henderson and the Cocos, Lavers and her team set out randomly placed transects, or research zones, on the islands from which to count plastics. &#8220;It was extremely time-consuming,&#8221; said Lavers. From these areas, Lavers and her team estimated the total number of plastic pollution on the islands.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They\u2019re inundated with the worst waste,&#8221; she said. This plastic waste might get smaller, but it won&#8217;t ever go away. <\/p>\n<h2>Ending the plastics scourge<\/h2>\n<p>Solving modern civilization&#8217;s plastic scourge will require <a href=\"http:\/\/me.mashable.com\/science\/4150\/heres-a-superb-reason-to-ditch-your-plastic-bag-addiction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;an unprecedented scale of effort.&#8221;<\/a> But there is a path forward, no matter the (tall) hurdles. <\/p>\n<h3>1. Clearly, society must slash demand for worthless, single-use plastics.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;There are so many things we can do,&#8221; said Richard Gross, a chemist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who researches innovative ways to make markedly more sustainable, recyclable plastics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why don\u2019t we carry around bags that we can use over and over again?&#8221; asked Gross, who had no role in the study. &#8220;Why don\u2019t we carry around some utensils that are reusable and washable? People need to understand how serious the current situation is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/plastic-pollution-ocean-solutions\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Shunning single-use plastics<\/a> doesn&#8217;t require being a &#8220;hippy&#8221; or left-leaning liberal, added Lavers. &#8220;I look like your average, everyday person&#8230;I don&#8217;t sacrifice major things, I just make different decisions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It just so achievable,&#8221; Lavers added.<\/p>\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"c5b541d88d911dcbb84397def1a3492d\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- 2 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3943282228430444\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"5511153269\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<h3>2. The necessity of plastic laws<\/h3>\n<p>While individual efforts to avoid single-use plastics are important, no one thinks such an ingrained, pervasive, and global scourge can be solved without committed international rules. For example, experts want rules requiring countries to ensure that plastics don&#8217;t travel from landfills and cities into the seas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that international action is necessary,&#8221; said Mendenhall.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to put together an international coalition,&#8221; agreed Gross. &#8220;If we don\u2019t do that we\u2019re going to be in bad shape. The plastics are fragmenting. They&#8217;re going to be the micro and nano particles that we\u2019re not going to retrieve.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Plastic debris trapped in vegetation on Home Island.\" data-caption=\"Plastic debris trapped in vegetation on Home Island.\" data-credit-name=\"Jennifer Lavers\" data-credit-provider=\"custom type\" src=\"http:\/\/newsforher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1558020896_498_Meet-the-tropical-islands-that-are-now-a-plastics-dumpster.com.jpeg\" title=\"Plastic debris trapped in vegetation on Home Island.\"><\/p><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">\nPlastic debris trapped in vegetation on Home Island.<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><div class=\"image-credit\">\n<p>Image: Jennifer Lavers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Already, <a href=\"https:\/\/treaties.un.org\/Pages\/ViewDetailsIII.aspx?src=TREATY&amp;mtdsg_no=XXI-6&amp;chapter=21&amp;Temp=mtdsg3&amp;clang=_en\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">157 nations<\/a> have signed onto the United Nations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/sections\/issues-depth\/oceans-and-law-sea\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Law of the Sea<\/a>. This requires coastal countries to prevent, reduce, and control land-based pollution, explained Mendenhall.<\/p>\n<p>But, like the international laws that <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/iceland-whaling-blue-fin-whales\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">outlaw killing whales<\/a>, the Law of the Sea has no teeth \u2014 there&#8217;s on enforcement of these rules. &#8220;Just putting words on a page is not nearly enough,&#8221; said Mendenhall.<\/p>\n<h2>The problem is worse than we think<\/h2>\n<p>We can expect more plastics to fill the seas. <\/p>\n<p>The UN \u2014 already grappling with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">accelerating climate change<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/sections\/issues-depth\/health\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">public health crises like AIDS<\/a> \u2014 certainly isn&#8217;t pushing for international action on plastic pollution. Because of that, industries will continue to produce <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2017\/jun\/28\/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">billions of plastic bottles each year<\/a>, many of which will find their way into the oceans. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s multinational corporations that are producing and disseminating the majority of these plastics,&#8221; said Mendenhall, noting that it&#8217;s cheap to pump out single-use plastics. They&#8217;re not built to last; they&#8217;re designed to be trash. <\/p>\n<p>Both corporations and nations simply don&#8217;t have an economic incentive to solve the problem. But they do have the power to make a massive dent in the plastics problem. &#8220;Amazon is so powerful,&#8221; said Mendenhall. &#8220;Getting a company like that to change its practices could have a big impact.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trash on South Island.\" data-caption=\"Trash on South Island.\" data-credit-name=\"Cara Ratajczak\" data-credit-provider=\"custom type\" src=\"http:\/\/newsforher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1558020897_367_Meet-the-tropical-islands-that-are-now-a-plastics-dumpster.com.jpeg\" title=\"Trash on South Island.\"><\/p><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">\nTrash on South Island.<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><div class=\"image-credit\">\n<p>Image: Cara Ratajczak<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Today, fish are eating a lot of the plastic that we put in the oceans, and we eat this fish. It&#8217;s still unknown how ingesting plastics affects human health, noted Mendenhall. But what is known is that plastic use has <a href=\"https:\/\/advances.sciencemag.org\/content\/3\/7\/e1700782.full\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">quadrupled in the last 40 years<\/a>, and if these trends continue, by 2050 the global plastics industry will emit <a href=\"http:\/\/me.mashable.com\/science\/4150\/heres-a-superb-reason-to-ditch-your-plastic-bag-addiction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prodigious amounts of carbon<\/a> into the <a href=\"http:\/\/me.mashable.com\/science\/4791\/fearless-tv-weather-forecasters-air-the-planets-soaring-carbon-levels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">already carbon-saturated skies<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Plastic bottles and plastic bags, then, are remarkably unsustainable from a number of perspectives. So far, recycling efforts haven&#8217;t made a big enough dent. In 2015, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org\/pft\/2018\/10\/4\/us-plastic-recycling-rate-projected-to-drop-to-44-in-2018\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">just 9 percent<\/a> of plastic waste in the U.S. was recycled. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s horrific. We\u2019re failing at every end here,&#8221; said Gross, who&#8217;s developing chemical technologies to make <a href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/297\/5582\/803\/tab-figures-data\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">plastics that can naturally biodegrade<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The reality is grim. But Lavers doesn&#8217;t want to promote hopelessness in the face of an industrial barrage of single-use plastics. &#8220;I want people to feel inspired,&#8221; she said. That means doing something, anything \u2014 like picking up trash from the beach before it enters the ocean and breaks up into thousands of microplastic bits.<\/p>\n<p>Take a hard look at that plastic fork, or plastic water bottle, before using it. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We lived happily without plastic literally for centuries,&#8221; said Lavers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bonus-video-card\">\n<h2 class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/video\/katie-mack-theoretical-astrophysicist-cosmology?utm_cid=a-bonusvideo\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">WATCH: Ever wonder how the universe might end?<\/a><\/h2>\n<div class=\"jw-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"vplayer\"><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/videos\/embed?video=MVlQJVEWoN&amp;player=default\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"c5b541d88d911dcbb84397def1a3492d\" data-index=\"5\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- 5 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3943282228430444\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"9258826580\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/me.mashable.com\/science\/4960\/meet-the-tropical-islands-that-are-now-a-plastics-dumpster\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"c5b541d88d911dcbb84397def1a3492d\" data-index=\"3\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- 3 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3943282228430444\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"2884989920\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Discarded cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, and useless plastic water bottles have piled up on the Cocos Islands&#8217; white sand beaches, a balmy tourist destination surrounded by aquamarine waters. Marine scientist Jennifer Lavers and her research team traveled to this tropical paradise, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, for a couple weeks in 2017. They &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsforher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}