ideas
Plastics production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. The International Energy Agency estimates that on current trends, by 2050 one in every five barrels of crude oil will go to making plastics.
The link between plastics and climate change
Imagine the globe wrapped in plastic. While many people find easier to grasp the problem of plastics waste than they do climate change, the two threats are closely interlinked, as this article from ‘The Conversation explains:
https://theconversation.com/fossil-fuel-industry-sees-the-future-in-hard-to-recycle-plastic-123631
See also the International Energy Agency’s trend prediction for the production of petrochemicals from oil, for which demand is greatest for plastics, and increasing faster than for any other use:
https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-petrochemicals
The trend is similarly alarming for plastic leakage into the ocean. The table below shows - in dark blue - the growing accumulation of additional plastic leakage into the ocean to the middle of this century if we do nothing (the Reference Technology Scenario, RTS). This produces the light green trend line - around five times current levels by 2050. By adopting available methods and technology this growth could be flattened to the darker green line - which the International Energy Agency calls the Cleaner Technology Scenario, or CTS. The 2050 result would still be around two-thirds greater than current levels, with the consequent growth in plastics pollution in the ocean - and the increased climate change effects from the production of that extra plastic.
The light green line is anything but: it forecasts a five-fold increase in marine plastics pollution if we do nothing. Source: International Energy Agency, 2018.
wellington design team’s infinitely recyclable cycle
“Are we there yet?” Wishbone Design Studio’s Jen McIver and Richard Latham with a bike and trike they say are the most-sustainable cycles yet made. Photo: Stuff News
A Wellington-based innovator that puts kids on wheels has designed what it claims is a fully recyclable children’s cycle. Made from two-thirds recycled polypropylene or PP plastic, and one-third recycled nylon carpets, Wishbone’s RE2 Raw model has no additives like pigments, glass fibre, fillers or talc. This is what allows it to be recycled again and again. "We believe this is the greenest bike ever made," Wishbone’s executive director, Jen McIver, told Stuff News. Because the bike is fully recyclable, Wishbone will offer a take-back scheme to recycle it on behalf of customers. See more on Wishbone: www.wishbonedesign.com
A screenshot of the map of Cook Strait. To see the dynamic version click on the link below.
Where does our plastic go when it reaches the sea? A new ‘virtual tracker’ developed in New Zealand provides some clues:
https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2807-tracking-plastics-in-our-oceans
canadian ‘ghost gear-busters’ out to save scarce whales
How do you free a whale from entanglement by fishing gear? Carefully! See video:
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-49199147/how-to-untangle-a-70-tonne-whale
Read of a similar team operating out of Massachusetts, USA:
https://mentalfloss.com/article/503007/meet-biologists-who-rescue-whales-trapped-fishing-gear
how serious is the threat of lost fishing gear? See video:
Open landfills of imported plastic waste blight the landscape of Jenjarom, near Malaysia’s biggest port, Port Klang. Imports by Malaysia, mainly from Western countries, have tripled since 2015, and Jenjarom’s residents have had a gutsful. Photo and story: BBC News
Photo copyright: www.mauisark.org
Marine plastic pollution costed
Scientists estimate the world is at least US$2500 billion worse off each year as a result of marine environmental degradation caused by waste plastics, a significant UK study shows. And one of its authors, Dr Nicola Beaumont, of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, says ‘pricing’ plastics like we do carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. See Guardian newspaper article, and full report:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X19302061
Earth, wind and fire give birth to beach pebbles
Nature may be finding ways to ‘digest and condense’ marine plastic waste, if these beach pebbles found in southern England are a guide:
Photo: National Geographic
Small AIN’T NECESSARILY BEAUTIFUL
These remarkable pictures show one form of plankton tangled in microfibers and another choked from ingested microplastic:
squaring up to the circular economy
Chris Grantham from IDEO explains the power of human-centered design and purpose-driven decisions when it comes to designing for the circular economy.
What goes around comes around - read this BBC article about the origins and economics of recycling:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48214033
Is plastic waste just a distraction from bigger marine health issues? This article, in the journal Marine Science, argues so:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X1830681X
Another of the Monterey Bay Aquarium displays depicts a giant blue whale - also made of waste plastics.
innovation at the sucking edge - the US ‘beach hoover’
America’s Great Lakes and Florida beaches have become test beds for a range of plastics-filtering devices.
Self-powering gadets such as the BeBot (pictured) tirelessly filter the water or comb the beaches for litter, most of which is plastics, but also cigarette butts and cotton swabs. The high-tech, others with names like PixieDrone, LittaTrap and Seabin, can command a high price - US$55,000 for a BeBot - but they also generate public curiosity and possibly improved habits.
Read more: Beach cleanup goes high-tech (axios.com)
BeBot combing the sand
New Zealand’s Great Whale Trail heading south - research
Marine effects of climate change may force sperm and blue whales into New Zealand’s cooler southern waters, research shows.
The researchers, from Canterbury, Massey and Australia’s Flinders Universities, used mathematical modelling to extrapolate from the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The results provide a strong sign that as sea temperatures in the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean rise, these two species of giant whales will head south.
Sperm whale picture: DBL Wildlife
The effect is more than just their disappearance from waters they currently frequent, such as Kaikoura - where sperm whales are often seen by tourists - Northland and south of Taranaki. The migration could also have significant ecological knock-on effects: their resurfacing often stirs and carries up nutrients from their deep hunting waters. These nourish the phytoplankton, which contribute about half of all oxygen to the atmosphere while also soaking up roughly two-fifths of all released carbon dioxide.
See full article in The Conversation:
Could the sea be our ‘greener pastures’? - marine farming offers an alternative to meat and wool
In New Zealand’s deep south, marine farming may be rising from the relics of a meat processing plant. See article from Stuff:
The dizzying delusion about ‘recycling’
Even in richer countries with advanced infrastructure, only a minority of plastics are recycled. elsewhere, the situation is getting worse, as this BBC item explains:
How much of our plastic 'recycling' is actually recycled? - BBC News
recycled myths: how the plastics industry captured our consciences and our wallets
An investigation in the United States from National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service found oil and gas companies had serious doubts that plastic recycling was viable, but promoted it to keep profits high and plastic bans at bay. View the full, 54-minute, Frontline programme here:
Bales of PET bottles at the Visy recycling plant in west Sydney. Photo: Stephen Harris
Discover the island-hopping shruder
A device the size of a wheelie bin may help small, island communities to reduce piles of plastic litter and turn it into useful materials for building. Australian Louise Hardman developed the ‘shruder’ (shredder/extruder) after first becoming concerned 20 years ago at the harm plastic pollution caused marine life. Hear her tell her story on Radio New Zealand:
Louise Hardman and the ‘shruder’, with various plastics type reduced to pellets.
Green gold at the end of Sweden’s rubbish rainbow
A Swedish city is now recyling half its rubbish due to a system of colour-coded rubbish bags that allow machines to sort household waste by type of material. See on this BBC video how Eskilstuna does it: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-47880558/would-you-sort-your-rubbish-into-seven-different-bags
The seven colours of Eskilstuna. The white bag is for rubbish left over once the rest has been sorted into six recyclable types.
national action plan needed to reduce plastics waste says major new report
New Zealand’s most extensive-yet study on the causes and consequences of plastics pollution in New Zealand includes possible solutions to mitigate their harm and achieve greater stewardship. These include a national action plan and phasing food packing made from problematic plastics, such as polystyrene foam and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In launching Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said “this is a personal priority, partly because it’s a priority for New Zealanders.” The full report can be accessed from the ‘News’ page. Below is a selection of the extensive media coverage of the report and some reaction to it.
Prime Minister Ardern speaking at the launch of the report, Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand, at the Sustainable Coastlines education centre in Auckland on 7 December. Photo: Stephen Harris
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12291906
See the beauty in plastic, as artist George Nuku does
In opening his exhibition at the Gisborne War Memorial Theatre on 7 October, the internationally renowned New Zealand artist Nuku declared his “love affair with plastic: I wish I could speak Maori better, but I’m fluent in plastic; I can make it sing and dance.” Nuku’s exhibition is part of the Tuia Encounters 250 Tairawhiti Arts Festival.
A speaker blesses George Nuku’s installation, made from recycled plastic, at Gisborne’s War Memorial theatre.
New ‘Plastic Bible’ Tells of Synthetic Hell
A ‘plastic Bible’ that proves that all you were afraid of was true has been produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand. It contains a description of where plastic came from, how much of it the world is now choking on, how we use and abuse it and what we can do to reduce the harm it causes. Read the full report here:
The lake lab used to test harm from microplastics
Imagine an experimental fish tank the size of a lake. Canada has several - the so-called experimental lakes area (ELA) in remote, northwestern Ontario. Scientists are taking advantage of this pristine environment to test the impact of microplastics on life in these isolated lakes, where few people other than scientists ever visit. Read more:
https://www.wired.com/story/remote-lakes-microplastic/
Malaysian town smothered in imported plastic rubbish forces closure of 33 illegal factories
A small, Malaysian town struggling with 17,000 tonnes of imported plastic waste (see picture above left) has mounted a protest campaign that has so far forced 33 illegal processing factories to close and leave the area. See how they did it:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46518747
‘Return to sender’ for all that plastic junk?
If developing countries said ‘enough’ to plastic waste shipments from the West, what might happen? Read this article by two leaders of global efforts to force waste accountability:
If it’s true that revolutions ‘eat their own children’, cellophane was among the first to fall victim to the plastics revolution, as this BBC article explains:
Cellophane let customers see and feel perishable foods without any loss of quality or hygiene -but it, too, was eaten by replacement, oil-based films.
This plastic spiral, made from discarded items, portrays the North Pacific Gyre, one of five major circulating ‘soups’ of plastic in the world’s oceans - two in the Pacific. It is photographed on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the California coast.
Plastic waste on the Pacific island of Tuvalu
Closed loop fund gets wet
Closed Loop Ocean - and initiative of the US-based Closed Loop Fund - would target plastic reduction in two or three markets in the Indian and/or the Southeast Asian region. Closed Loop Oceans launched at the Our Ocean conference in Malta last year, with a focus on preventing plastic waste from flowing into the ocean. Read more:
https://www.wastedive.com/news/closed-loop-partners-southeast-asia-ocean-plastics-initiative/518489/
How Boyan Slat got started...
The plastic scourge the seafood industry needs to help fix
Cooler bags from recycled plastic bottles, on sale at Sanford's Auckland market. Photo: Stephen Harris
Plastic pollution can now be found on every beach in the world, including New Zealand’s coastal waters.
There are stark facts on the global problem – every day about eight million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into the world’s oceans and the amount is expected to treble within a decade.
Scientists estimate there are over 150 million tonnes of plastics in the ocean, and if no action is taken, they will weigh more than the fish by 2050.
It’s an issue that has been pushed aside in New Zealand for a long time, says Volker Kuntzsch, chief executive of Sanford, which is the country’s largest fishery and aquaculture business by revenue and quota holding.
“In India, a truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean every second and down here we feel that is not quite our problem,” he says. “But things have changed dramatically lately – the seafood industry, especially from the beginning of this year, has embarked on finding out its own impact on the oceans much better.”
The connection of the seafood industry is an obvious one – not only do they derive everything they create value out of from the oceans but they’re also behind much of the plastic waste found on beaches.
Mr Kuntzsch says the catalyst for change has been understanding that they are a food industry and are jeopardised by the fact fish are ingesting plastic on a daily basis.
“The effects are not quite known on human health yet. We understand they may not be that great but the mere thought is alarming enough for us to do something about it,” he says.
In a submission to a government environment parliamentary committee on plastic pollution this year, Greenpeace NZ cited Auckland University research that seven out of eight commercial fish species commonly consumed in New Zealand have ingested plastic and another study of 24 fish species caught in the remote South Pacific found a quarter had eaten plastics.
“Both of these studies raised serious concerns of the transferral of these pollutants from fish to human in our food supply,” the submission said.
Ambitious goals
Seafood New Zealand, the lobby group representing the $1.79 billion export industry, told the same parliamentary committee that seafood companies want to be “part of the solution and not a part of the problem.”
Fine words but what are they actually doing?
Sanford is leading the industry charge on marine plastic reduction as part of an overall sustainability programme. Its goal is to reduce plastic use by 70% by 2025 and to re-use and recycle the remaining plastic needed for its operation.
One big step it hopes to complete by year’s end is replacing 100% of its polystyrene boxes used for fresh seafood for both domestic and export sales with a recyclable cardboard alternative. So far it has converted 22,000 of them on distances short enough to cope with the increased temperatures in new cardboard packaging but exports remain an issue.
Each year Sanford uses 100,000 of the styrofoam boxes, which provide an insulating property that allows the fresh fish to travel long distances to the end consumer. Recyclable “chilltainers” are being trialled for the remaining boxes not already converted to cardboard.
At retail level, it has replaced plastic bags by wrapping fish in paper the old-fashioned way and is selling reusable cooler bags made in China from recycled PET bottles that have the slogan “Don’t bag the ocean, say no to single-use plastic.” (see photo above)
On its mussel farms it has replaced plastic lashings with plant-based eco-ties that break down naturally over time and are compostable. During the trials a lot of mussels were lost because the ties degraded too quickly.
But there is no viable replacement yet for polypropylene mussel farm floats. Sanford is acting as a repair and recycling hub in the Marlborough region, collecting and recycling around 4,500 of the floats a year rather than just dumping them as it used to and is replacing 4% of its damaged and end-of-life floats with 100% recycled ones annually.
Staff are also encouraged to take part in local beach clean-ups, with Marlborough staff having done more than 100 in the past year.
“Once you start looking at what you’re dealing with, you realise that plastic is just everywhere and the challenge is to eliminate that utilisation one step at a time,” Mr Kuntzsch says.
Sanford's mussel farmers have replaced plastic lashings with compostable ones.
The other
New Zealand King Salmon is one of a number of Kiwi and international businesses that committed in June to using 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging in their New Zealand operations by 2025.
At the time, Greenpeace warned commitments on making plastic packaging recyclable and compostable sounded good “but in reality allow the rise of plastic packaging production in our lives and our oceans, all while companies pose as green leaders”. Instead, it wants to see companies reduce and eliminate single-use plastics production.
But NZ King Salmon chief executive Grant Rosewarne says the listed company is among 10 Kiwi companies backing a diagnostic study by the Sustainable Business Network’s Circular Economy Accelerator to develop long-term viable solutions and alternatives to plastic packaging. The results will be made public next month.
The company is using a recyclable firm base tray for its wood-roasted salmon products while its cold-smoked products are contained in a recyclable soft plastic vacuum pouch. It’s working with REDcycle to introduce collection bins for these throughout the country, and the material collected will be recycled into things like park benches and kids’ playgrounds.
Mr Rosewarne says it is also trialling a plant-based packing material, Plantic, which if successful would allow the company to reduce plastic use for all its packaging while still maintaining the necessary food safety.
Other environmental activities include introducing waste-capture technology on its farms, reducing its energy footprint and water usage and using factory by-products to minimise waste.
Iwi-owned commercial fishing company Moana New Zealand has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund as part of steps to minimise its impact on marine ecosystems. On-site waste audits are conducted regularly to find areas of improvement while recycling schemes have already diverted 22 million tonnes of waste (not all plastic). Single-use plastic products are being reduced in the packaging and supply chains and polybins used for transporting seafood are being replaced with cardboard and other materials. The remaining polybins are being recycled into photo frames.
Another fishing company with significant iwi involvement is Sealord, which says it is fully compliant with maritime rules for not discarding any waste at sea while its processing and its consumer products business has a range of initiatives under way to reduce plastics use.
These include introducing a pouch recycling programme launched two years ago where consumers can send tuna pouches free of charge to recycling specialist TerraCycle where they are turned into park benches, watering cans, and waste bins. An incentive of two cents per pouch is offered to collectors with the money donated to charities or schools.
Another step forward
It’s all a good start but in submissions to the parliamentary committee, Te Ohu Kaimoana (the Maori Fisheries Trust) and Seafood New Zealand both said the problem of plastic pollution and its effects on the marine environment is one that still requires collaboration and innovation solutions from all parties.
At this stage the committee has just received evidence and not yet produced its own report.
The government’s biggest step in this area has been to phase in a ban on single-use plastic bags over the next year. It is also providing $2.7 million in funding for local charity Sustainable Coastlines to develop an education programme and a national litter database that will help show just where the rubbish is coming from. And the Ministry for Primary Industries is due to shortly release a risk profile on microplastics in the diet.
It’s all not enough for Greenpeace which wants a more “ambitious and comprehensive set of policies in a plastic solution strategy, to truly tackle the scale of the problem,” given the plastics industry is predicted to grow by 40% over the next decade.
Sanford’s Kuntzsch says he’s also getting a push forward on sustainability rather than a push-back from the seafood company’s shareholders.
“I had one investor come in about a year ago when we announced our Maui dolphin protection plan actually stating they don’t think we go far enough with what we do out there. So there is a strong focus these days on sustainability, on ethics, and on doing the right thing,” he says.
“It might cost a little more right now but it creates more value by attracting better employees, for example. When you talk to young people these days on who they want to work for, it’s usually a company that acts in a way that aligns with their values.” - from National Business Review, 6 September 2018