The microbeads in your body wash are slowly filling the Great Lakes with plastic Sigh. You think the world would have caught on by now that plastic is one of the most incidentally destructive inventions the human race has ever come up with. Sure, L.A. just banned plastic bags, which is great. But meanwhile those tiny microbeads — the little bits of plastics in body wash that cosmetics companies invented for no real reason except to have a new thing to sell their customers — are slowly accumulating in the Great Lakes, where fish eat them. Scientific American reports: They are too tiny for water treatment plants to filter, so they wash down the drain and into the Great Lakes. I know, I know.
More plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050 — and other fun garbage facts! If there’s one thing Americans enjoy more than buying stuff, it’s not recycling that stuff when we’re done with it. We’ve put together a by-the-numbers look at this country’s expanding waste line. 4.4: Percent of the world’s population living in the U.S.18: Percent of the world’s municipal solid waste (aka trash) generated in the U.S.7: Seconds you might want to take to reread those two stats 4.4: Pounds of trash the average American produces each day3.7: Pounds of trash the average American produced each day in 19802.7: Pounds of trash the average American produced each day in 19602.9: Average pounds of trash generated per person per day in Europe today2.4: Average pounds generated per person per day in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia1.4: Average pounds generated per person per day in sub-Saharan Africa Sources: EPA, Planet Aid, The Economist, Next City, Zero Waste Europe, European Environment Agency, World Bank
Plastic Breaks Down in Ocean, After All -- And Fast August 20, 2009 Though ocean-borne plastic trash has a reputation as an indestructible, immortal environmental villain, scientists announced yesterday that some plastics actually decompose rapidly in the ocean. And, the researchers say, that's not a good thing. The team's new study is the first to show that degrading plastics are leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A into the seas, possibly threatening ocean animals, and us. Scientists had previously thought plastics broke down only at very high temperatures and over hundreds of years. The researchers behind a new study, however, found that plastic breaks down at cooler temperatures than expected, and within a year of the trash hitting the water. The Japan-based team collected samples in waters from the U.S., Europe, India, Japan, and elsewhere, lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido, a chemist with the College of Pharmacy at Nihon University in Japan, said via email. Cooking Up Plastic Soup in the Seas Plastic Breaks Down Fast
Pollution des océans : les déchets envahissent les fonds marins Avez-vous déjà partagé cet article? Partager sur Facebook Partager sur Twitter Des chercheurs de l'Institut de Recherches de l'Aquarium de la Baie de Monterey (MBARI) tirent la sonnette d’alarme sur la situation des profondeurs océaniques de plus en plus envahies de déchets. Lorsqu’on évoque la pollution des océans, les images qui viennent à l’esprit sont souvent celles déchirantes de tortues marines et oiseaux étouffés par des débris flottant à la surface des eaux. Or, dans cet environnement sombre, pauvre en oxygène et aux basses températures, les détritus peinent à se dégrader. Au cours des 22 dernières années, les océanographes ont exploré à l’aide de caméras télécommandées le plancher océanique au large de la Californie jusqu’au Canada. Plastique et métal en tête des polluants Sans grande surprise, le plastique arrive en tête des débris répertoriés. Si certains organismes ne survivent pas à ces environnements pollués, d’autres en tirent parti et colonisent les détritus.
Barnacles are accidentally eating our plastic trash Barnacles in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are attaching themselves to trash and eating little plastic particles. Researchers don’t yet know the implications of these findings, but it’s a safe bet that they’re not good. American scientists inspected the gastrointestinal tracts of 385 gooseneck barnacles collected from the garbage patch, aka the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, and found microplastic in a third of them. Some specimens had a single piece of plastic in their stomach, while others had gobbled down as many as 30. Results of this research were published Tuesday in the journal PeerJ. Miriam Goldstein of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography described her research in the blog Deep Sea News: Gooseneck barnacles look kind of freaky. The barnacles are eaten by crabs, nudibranchs, and other marine creatures that are hunted, in turn, by birds, fish, and dolphins. As Goldstein says, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to learn that barnacles are eating the ubiquitous plastic waste.
Are You Polluting Our Waterways with Plastic Microbeads? « Annmarie Gianni Skin CareAnnmarie Gianni Skin Care Have you used those body washes that have little exfoliating beads in them? Did you ever check to see what those beads are made of? If you did, were you able to figure it out from the label? Turns out that in many products, those little natural-looking beads are anything but natural—and thousands of them are now polluting our lakes and streams. Those little exfoliating microbeads in your body wash could be tiny pieces of plastic that will wash down the drain to pollute our waterways. Microbeads in Personal Care Products a Concern According to recent news reports, tiny bits of plastic from body washes and other products are polluting the great lakes. The problem is that these little balls of plastic are less than a millimeter across in size, so they’re too small be be caught by water treatment plants. “We’re plasticizing our water,” said Sherri Mason, principal investigator for the study. Plastics May be Contaminated with Other Toxins Johnson & JohnsonUnileverThe Body Shop
Les tortues de mer avalent de plus en plus de déchets Les tortues vertes, une espèce en danger, sont de plus en plus nombreuses à ingérer en mer des déchets rejetés par l'homme, voire des sacs plastiques avec lesquels elles peuvent s'étouffer, indique une étude australienne. Selon cette étude, publiée dans la revue scientifique Conservation Biology, six des sept espèces de tortues marines ingèrent des débris rejetés par l'homme et toutes les six sont classées comme vulnérables ou en danger. «Pour la tortue verte, la probabilité qu'elle ingère des déchets a quasiment doublé en 25 ans», a déclaré Qamar Schuyler, qui a piloté la recherche à l'université du Queensland. «Les tortues vertes en particulier en ingèrent beaucoup plus qu'auparavant», puisque la probabilité est passée de 30% en 1985 à près de 50% en 2012. Les tortues prennent ces sacs pour des méduses Avec AFP Plus d'informations sur ce sujet en vidéo
Sea Turtle Recovers After Swallowing 4 Feet Of Fishing Line An endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle was extremely fortunate to be at the right place at the right time early in June. She was pulled from a shipping channel near Charleston, S.C., by a South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) crew that was there doing a random sampling of marine life. Monofilament fishing line was wrapped around the turtle’s head and mouth, and embedded in one of her flippers. But that wasn’t even the worst of it. After the turtle was transported to the South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Care Center (STCC), an endoscopy showed she had swallowed four feet of fishing line, the end of which was stuck in her intestine. The turtle, who the STCC staff named “Peach,” was dying. “She’s the luckiest unlucky turtle we’ve ever treated.” Love This? Thanks for subscribing! The state-of-the-art STCC opened at the South Carolina Aquarium just one month before Peach was rescued. Boylan cut through a knot and successfully pulled out foot after foot of monofilament. T.
Pétition 1 MILLION DE CLICS POUR SAUVER LA MÉDITERRANÉE L'Expédition MED 2010 / 2013 est une grande campagne scientifique et environnementale en Méditerranée, qui mobilise une équipe de chercheurs issus d'une dizaine de laboratoires universitaires européens. Inédit en France et en Europe, ce programme de recherche met en lumière un phénomène alarmant, la présence d'une pollution quasi invisible, susceptible de rentrer dans notre chaine alimentaire : les microfragments de plastiques. La première série d'analyses des échantillons réalisée par l'IFREMER et l'université de Liège, estiment qu'environ 250 MILLIARDS de microfragments de plastiques contaminent la Méditerranée en surface. Commission des pétitions du Parlement Européen, Monsieur le président de l'Union Européenne, Madame la commissaire en charge des affaires maritime et de la pêche Aucun micro-organisme n'est capable de dégrader complètement le plastique et on ne peut pas agir sur les microplastiques présents. Pour tous les signataires de cette pétition, L'Expédition M.E.D.
Don’t look now but you’re shedding plastic Fleece-wearers beware. Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara found that a single fleece jacket can lose as many as 250,000 synthetic fibers, or 1.7 grams of plastic, in the laundry — which adds up. All those fibers travel from your washing machine into your local wastewater treatment plant, where 40 percent end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans. The study, which was funded by Patagonia, estimates that the amount of fibers that are released into waterways each year could be equivalent of nearly 12,000 plastic grocery bags. Even Patagonia and other clothing manufacturers that use recycled microplastics in their garments don’t avoid shedding little bits of it into the ocean. For more on the big impact our synthetic clothing addiction has on the planet, watch our video on below.
Disturbing Video of a Seagull Eating a Plastic Bag Written by Jaymi Heimbuch If you wonder why plastic bag bans are important, here’s your demonstration. This is just one bird out of millions that consume our used plastic — just one species out of thousands of species that are killed daily by eating what they think is food. I have to admit, I really don’t get how the videographer couldn’t stop the seagull from eating the bag. So, there you have it. Le déversement des plastiques dans les océans pourrait décupler d’ici à dix ans LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Stéphane Foucart A défaut de profonds changements dans la gestion des déchets, la quantité de matières plastiques déversées dans les océans pourrait décupler dans la prochaine décennie. Et plus la densité de ces particules dans l’environnement marin augmente, plus la probabilité est grande qu’elles finissent par s’accumuler dans la chaîne alimentaire – c’est-à-dire, finalement, dans nos estomacs. Ce mouvement de retour à l’envoyeur a d’ailleurs déjà commencé. C’est, en substance, ce qu’assurent plusieurs travaux récents, dont les derniers, publiés vendredi 13 février dans la revue Science, sont les premiers à déterminer, pays par pays, les principaux contributeurs à la pollution des mers par le plastique. Selon le modèle développé par les chercheurs, le premier contributeur mondial serait la Chine, qui aurait déversé à elle seule, en 2010, près de 2,8 millions de tonnes de matières plastiques dans les océans.
Your plastic garbage is killing whales Whales are eating plastic trash, dying, and washing ashore. It happened this summer in the Netherlands (technically the whale got stranded and THEN died); it happened this spring in Spain. Here are the guilt-inducing, gory details of the latter: Most of this plastic consisted of transparent sheeting used to build greenhouses in Almeria and Grenada for the purpose of tomatoes for the European market. The rest was plastic bags, nine meters of rope, two stretches of hosepipe, two small flowerpots, and a plastic spray canister. Cause of death was intestinal blockage. A WORLD OF UGH. This also happened closer to home — as in, close to Grist’s home in Seattle — three years ago: In April 2010, a gray whale that died after stranding itself on a west Seattle beach was found to have more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, duct tape, a pair of sweat pants, and a golf ball, not to mention other garbage contained in its stomach. Clearly it’s time to ban sweatpants.
Look who’s eating your plastic now: A whole unprecedented ecosystem We already knew that barnacles, lanternfish, and whales have been gobbling up plastic. It turns out that the problem is even bigger than we thought — because it is much, much smaller. Welcome to the “plastisphere,” the tiny plastic-based ecosystem developing within the world’s oceans. The alien-sounding title is fitting, as scientists have found more than 1,000 species of microbes living there, some of which still have not been identified. The study, done by a team in Woods Hole, Mass., took a high-resolution look at plastic particles between 1 and 5 millimeters in size (I believe the unscientific term is “itty bitty specks”). How big a deal is it to discover a new ecosystem developing in the middle of an old one? One very interesting but very hypothetical possibility proposed by the Woods Hole team is that some of these microbes may actually be cleaning up the plastic for us, since they were found hunkered down in ‘pits’ on the surface of the plastic particles.