Plastic on the radar

Imagine a satellite photo showing how the weather will develop over the next days in lets say, Europe. Warm weather in the South, rain over England and mixed weather over Central Europe. Intuitively we see how rain and temperature move in different colours. Easy to understand. Japanese researchers have made a similar map on plastics that run into the ocean.

Probably a good idea. On the one hand, we know that 8 million tons, most likely much more, enter the oceans every year. Several initiatives do what they can to collect it, but unfortunately, this is only a drop, well, in the ocean.

Then, on the other hand, there is all the plastics on land. Recycling in factories and at home, reduction of single-use wrapping and ban on single use plastic. We continue to dump plastic into the oceans as we look for these solutions. Some countries and regions are singled out as worse than others.

Where does it come from?

Previous attempts to find out how much plastic that run into the oceans have been based on a lack of garbage and plastic management. Based on this calculations have been made of how much run into the oceans. However, these methods have not been able to document where the plastic actually comes from.

At the University of Tokyo researchers have developed a “radar” and a map.

Professor Yasuo Nihei and his team published their findings in an article in Water in March 2020.

One of the main goals was to find out the amount of micro plastics (units less than 5 millimeters). A complex and time consuming process, but in brief it has three stages. First, the researchers calculated the amount of micro plastic currently in 70 rivers, 90 lakes and wet lands in Japan. They distinguished between micro and macro (bigger than 5 millimeters). Then they calculated the amount of water on its way to the ocean.

With figures on the amount of plastic and the amount of water running into the ocean, they could calculate how much of it is brought by the rivers.

Then they made a map of plastic emissions across Japan. No surprise that the hot spots with highest concentrations were from rivers close to the biggest cities, like Tokyo and Osaka.

More than bad waste management

Previous studies assume that plastic emission is proportional with lack of waste management. This study looks directly at where it actually goes. This makes it easier to act.

Based on the mal-management assumption, this report finds that half of all ocean plastic originate from Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. One of the challenges the report points out is the lack of infrastructure for waste management, recycling and recollection. But, as the researchers in Tokyo underlines, this is not enough to understand and solve the problem.

It is not uplifting to know that the world’s plastic production is expected to quadruple by 2050: 20 per cent of the world’s fossil fuel production will be used to produce plastic with today’s pace. We produce more than 20 times today than in 1964. In 2016, we produced 335 million tons, which means 1.200 tons in 2050.

Recycling and chemicals

The solutions for a post-plastic society is still years into the future, according to the authors of this article. There are important economic and environmental incentives for plastics recycling. However, end-of-life treatment options for plastic solid waste are in practice quite limited.

Presorting before recycling is costly and time-intensive. Recycling requires large amounts of energy. It often leads to low-quality polymers, and current technologies cannot be applied to many polymeric materials. Recent research suggests chemical recycling methods with lower energy requirements. Methods to to avoid the need for sorting, and expanding recycling technologies to traditionally non-recyclable polymers are also needed.

Use of legal instruments

Single-use plastic ban on Q-tips, straws, cutlery, take-away-wrapping and bags are examples were legislation can be used. In addition, we need incentives for better waste management, development of new technology and new materials. Today, only 9 per cent of plastic is recycled globally. Some 40 per cent ends up in land fills and 30 per cent to ecosystems. The rest is burned.