Volume of microplastics found on ocean floor triple in two decades

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Microplastic debris found on the bottom of ocean beds has tripled in the past two decades, scientists have warned. That is despite repeated awareness campaigns and protests calling for the reduction of single-use plastic around …

Sampling program sheds light on microplastics and pollution at North Carolina beaches

This summer, a group of volunteers spent quite a bit of time out on the beach combing through the sand in search of microplastics.“The microplastic sampling program we modified from the EPA’s beach plastic sampling protocol and we engaged roughly 30 volunteers that are sampling beaches all the way from North Topsail to Sunset Beach just to take a look at what the microplastic issue might be like,” said coastal specialist Georgia Busch.The North Carolina Coastal Federation hosted the citizen science program in an effort to better understand what kind of plastic pollution was showing up on the beach.“Once weekly volunteers would go out to their assigned beach access and use sieves and their buckets and use some of the ocean water and they were looking for microplastics that are 5mm in size or less so the sieve would catch those tiny, tiny microplastics and they would categorize them into five different categories and count them up as part of our greater data collection,” Busch said.Now that the sampling has wrapped up, organizers said they were surprised by some of the results of the collections.“A trend I don’t think I expected is that a couple of our volunteers took it upon themselves to sample sound side and intercoastal waters in addition to the beach sand and microplastics were much more heavily accumulated in more of the marsh habitat versus on the beach sand,” Busch said. “But if you think about it, it makes sense because the marsh grasses, the tides, just the way the hydrology works in and out of those ecosystems they’re going to capture and hold onto more of that debris.”Aside from where more of these tiny plastics were found, there was also a particular type that was found more often.“One thing we learned during the microplastics sampling is that the small polystyrene or small foam beads are something that is incredibly prevalent all up and down the coast and that floating docks are the primary source of them,” said coastal advocate Kerri Allen.It’s not just the data collection the coastal federation was interested in. Allen and her team took the results to local towns like North Topsail, Topsail, Surf City and Wrightsville Beach.“We were able to draft ordinances that now four towns in North Carolina have adopted requiring the encapsulation of these floats and with this success,” Allen said. “We’ve actually had people in other states all over the country reach out and want to emulate what’s been done here.”Another key takeaway according to program organizers was also the awareness the sampling brought about the pollution problem in North Carolina.“One thing we learned from talking to the general public is that they had no idea the depth of the problem,” Allen said. “You know most of our beaches around here are pretty clean, and so for someone to go out on a beach that looks pretty clean and just find all of this microplastics I think it opened a lot of people’s eyes.”Organizers of the microplastics sampling project say they plan to continue the sampling efforts next year with a higher focus on soundside areas based on this year’s results.

A new Shell plant in Pennsylvania will ‘just run and run’ producing the raw materials for single-use plastics

Internal documents unearthed by congressional Democrats reveal an apparent moment of candor two years ago from Shell public relations executives discussing their company’s environmental responsibilities related to the massive plastics manufacturing plant they were building 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

The multi-billion dollar Shell plant became fully operational in November after years of construction and has already been cited by state environmental regulators for exceeding its yearly limit of volatile organic compounds, which create lung-damaging smog. The plant along the Ohio River in Beaver County has the capacity to produce as much as 3.5 billion pounds of plastic pellets a year, the building blocks for such products as bags, bottles, food packaging and toys. 

Among the documents made public Dec. 9 was email correspondence within the Shell communications team, where a corporate vice president acknowledged that the company had no answer to questions about its long-term responsibility for making “the raw material with which to produce 30 years of single-use plastics.”

The Shell executive’s comment came in the context of criticizing a New York Times article with a provocative headline—“Big Oil Is in Trouble. It’s Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.” The Times report noted that oil companies were shifting to plastics production as climate change threatened fossil fuels, and revealed an effort by the American Chemistry Council, a major petrochemical lobby, to promote pro-plastics U.S. trade policies in Africa.

“Frankly, we do have questions to answer about whether we’re going to take any responsibility for where PennChem’s output ends up,” a corporate communications vice president, Rob Sherwin, wrote to another top Shell communications official, Curtis Smith, on Sept. 1, 2020. “This is one that’s gonna run and run … because we haven’t even finished building a facility that will potentially churn out the raw material with which to produce single use plastic for 30 years.”

Another Shell official in the company’s communications shop, Sally Donaldson, chimed in that this was “definitely a topic we need to be on top of.”

The development was previously referred to as the Pennsylvania Chemicals project, according to Shell’s website.

The Shell emails were among a trove of documents from oil companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP made public by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, as part of an investigation into the fossil fuel industry and its role in driving climate change.

Shell officials did not respond to requests for comment.

In recent years, companies have increasingly been pressured into taking responsibility for the plastic waste they produce, or the environmental damage they cause. In 2020, for example, Shell announced it would strive to achieve net-zero carbon emissions and that it had joined a global alliance of companies working to end plastic waste.

But the global plastics problem has turned into a crisis, with oceans choked with plastic and microplastics ubiquitous, and the United Nations looking for a solution.

In western Pennsylvania, the company’s plant—fed by the ethane byproduct of fracked natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions—has been seen by business advocates as a potential center for a new Appalachian petrochemical hub, and by critics as a source of health-damaging pollution and a driver of climate change.

Environmental advocates in Pennsylvania described the email comments from the Shell officials as both alarming and revelatory.

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The world can’t recycle its way out of the plastics crisis

There are an estimated 50 trillion to 75 trillion plastic particles in the world’s oceans and another 8 million to 10 million tons are added every year, with catastrophic impacts on marine wildlife and ecosystems. Damage to these ecosystems from plastic pollution causes an estimated $500 billion to $2.5 trillion a year in economic losses. But the costs don’t stop at the shoreline. Deloitte estimates that in North America alone plastic pollution in rivers and streams costs up to $600 million per year.Nor do impacts end at the waters’ edge. Plastics contaminate commercially harvested fish and shellfish, fishmeal fed to animals, agricultural soils and food crops, tap and bottled water, and the air we breathe. An unfortunate but inevitable consequence of this pervasive pollution is that plastics are also showing up in human bodies: in our waste, lungs, blood, even in the placenta of pregnant people. An unknown but potentially enormous array of toxic chemicals can enter the human body via these plastics.But the volume of toxins leaching from plastic products and particles is dwarfed by the pollutants being released into communities where plastics and petrochemicals are made, and where plastic’s oil and gas feedstocks are pumped from the ground. The risks from this pervasive pollution are particularly acute for the communities that live on the fence lines of these facilities and the front lines of the ongoing buildout of plastic and petrochemical infrastructure.That buildout poses risks not only for the environment and human health, but for the global climate. Because 99 percent of what goes into plastic is fossil fuels, plastics are essentially fossil fuels in another form. As demand for oil and gas in energy and transport declines, fossil fuel producers are looking to plastics as a way to continue profiting from fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency projects that by 2050, more than half of all oil and gas will be used to make plastics and petrochemicals. This has enormous climate impacts. On our present trajectory, plastic production, use, and disposal could emit 56 gigatons of CO2 by 2050 — equivalent to 13 percent of the earth’s entire remaining carbon budget that keeps warming below the critical 1.5 degree Celsius threshold. These impacts would be compounded if plastic pollution disrupts natural carbon sinks in the ocean and soils. Accordingly, the plastics treaty is being hailed as the “most important climate deal” since the Paris Agreement.The scale, scope, and diversity of these impacts explain why negotiators for the new plastics treaty are mandated to address not just plastic waste but the entire lifecycle of plastics, including the production that drives plastic pollution in all its forms, and why that mandate requires binding — not just voluntary — commitments. Put simply, the world cannot recycle its way out of the plastics crisis.Last month, Greenpeace documented that less than 5 percent of all plastics used and discarded in the United States each year are actually recycled. It found that for all but a small subset of plastic products, the real recycling rates are even lower. The Greenpeace investigation proves yet again that for most products and for most communities, plastic recycling is simply a myth.But widespread belief in that myth is not an accident. The plastics industry has long been aware that plastic recycling does not work at any meaningful scale, yet continues to promote it as a solution to the plastic crisis.If this story sounds familiar, it should.Massachusetts was among the first states to launch an investigation into the oil industry’s role in the accelerating climate crisis. That investigation led the state to sue ExxonMobil for misleading the public and investors about the climate risks inherent in its fossil fuel products. In April, California launched a similar investigation into the role of plastic producers in the plastic crisis, beginning with a subpoena to Exxon, also a leading plastic producer. A parallel investigation by Massachusetts could examine the impacts of industry greenwashing on the state, even as legislators advance efforts to address the plastic crisis at state and local levels.But just as confronting climate change demands coordinated national and global action, so too does confronting the plastic crisis. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have cosponsored the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act, which would represent a vital first step in a national response to plastics pollution.Having failed to learn the lessons from 30 years of failed climate negotiations, the United States is actively promoting the Paris Agreement as a model for the plastic negotiations. Rather than seek ambitious action to confront plastic production, US negotiators are calling for voluntary commitments, a major focus on recycling, and an approach that puts plastic producers at the negotiating table with the countries and communities plagued by plastic pollution. It is also spearheading a coalition of countries seeking to lower ambition for the plastics treaty. This approach has failed in the fight against fossil fuel-driven climate change. And people around the world are living with the accelerating consequences.Markey sits on three Senate committees that will oversee US engagement in these negotiations, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As a major coastal state whose people and economy will be affected by the success or failure of the plastic treaty, Massachusetts has a big stake in getting it right. The people of Massachusetts have proven that they are ready to confront corporate deception and demand strong action to confront the climate crisis and the rising impacts of climate change, and have shown they are prepared to act on the root causes of the plastic crisis as well. They should expect nothing less from the government that represents them before the international community.Negotiators should abandon the misplaced trust in the fossil fuel and plastics industry to help solve the problems its products create and its profits demand. The world missed that opportunity at the climate talks. It shouldn’t miss it again on plastics.Carroll Muffett is president of the Center for International Environmental Law.

Good eggs: Eggs can be used to filter microplastics and salt out of water, research finds | Euronews

Eggs can be used to filter microplastics and salt out of water, researchers have discovered.The humble egg is a staple at breakfast tables around the world.But it could prove an unlikely ally in the battle against plastic pollution, scientists at Princeton University have found.According to their ground-breaking new research, freeze dried and super-heated egg whites can remove salt and microplastics from seawater with 98 per cent and 99 per cent efficiency respectively.“The egg whites even worked if they were fried on the stove first, or whipped,” said Sehmus Ozden, first author on the paper published in Materials Today.How can scientists use egg whites to filter water?Egg whites are a complex system of almost pure protein.When they are freeze dried and heated to 900 degrees Celsius in an environment without oxygen, they form an interconnected structure of carbon strands and graphene sheets.This ‘aerogel’ structure acts like a very tightmesh sieve, sifting nasty microplastics or salt out of the water.You’ve got to break a few eggs to filter microplasticsThe scientists tried a number of different options before they got to eggs.Professor Craig Arnold – one of the researchers on the paper – found inspiration for the experiments during a lunchtime faculty meeting.”I was sitting there, staring at the bread in my sandwich,” he said.”And I thought to myself, this is exactly the kind of structure that we need.”The team initially tried to use bread mixed with carbon to filter microplastics. None of these methods worked very well, so the researchers kept removing ingredients.”We started with a more complex system, and we just kept reducing, reducing, reducing, until we got down to the core of what it was,” Arnold said,“It was the proteins in the egg whites that were leading to the structures that we needed.”Are egg whites a scalable solution to microplastic pollution?Microplastics – tiny particles of plastic up to 5mm long – are everywhere. According to a recent study, people inadvertently consume up to five grams of micro and nano-plastics every week.The phenomenon could have dangerous health implications.The tiny particles linger in human blood, lodge in the organs, and pollute foetuses. Emerging research suggests they may be able to induce carcinogenesis in cells, the process that triggers cancerous mutations.Eggs alone are not going to solve this problem – humans have produced more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic since the 1950s. But if the research group can refine the fabrication process, they could help with water purification on a larger scale.While store-bought eggs could form part of the solution, the researchers are also looking into producing synthetic proteins with the same filtering qualities.It could have significant benefits, Ozden says – not least being significantly cheaper than existing options.“Activated carbon is one of the cheapest materials used for water purification. We compared our results with activated carbon, and it’s much better,” he said.

Coke is a sponsor of the Cop27 climate talks. Some activists aren’t happy

The decision to include Coca-Cola as a major sponsor of this year’s United Nations climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, has angered many climate activists, who cite a recent report that says the company’s production of plastics is increasing.The beverages giant, which was named the world’s leading polluter of plastics in 2021, has increased its use of new plastics since 2019 by 3 percent to 3.2 million tons, according to an annual report issued this month by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which has united 500 organizations in a “global commitment” to reduce plastic waste.Activists note that the majority of plastics are manufactured using fossil fuels like crude oil, coal and natural gases. The British government, which hosted the previous round of global climate talks last year in Glasgow, took a stricter approach to corporate responsibility issues, barring fossil fuel companies from sponsorship arrangements.A delegate from last year’s conference, Georgia Elliott-Smith, called to revoke Coke’s corporate sponsorship in an online petition, which garnered more than 238,000 signatures in the lead-up to the summit.“Plastic is suffocating our planet and, year after year, one company leads the pack of polluters — Coca-Cola,” Ms. Elliott-Smith wrote on the petition’s webpage.“Coca-Cola spends millions of dollars greenwashing their brand, making us believe that they are solving the problem,” she said, adding that “behind the scenes,” the company had “a long history of lobbying to delay and derail regulations that would prevent pollution, keeping us addicted to disposable plastic.”In an email, a Coca-Cola representative, who did not give their name, said the company shared the goal of eliminating  waste from the ocean and appreciated efforts to raise awareness about this challenge.“While we recognize that we have more work to do, we believe that effective climate solutions will require all of society to be involved including governments, civil society and the private sector,” the press officer said.The company says it plans to make its packaging recyclable worldwide by 2025, according to its Business & Environmental, Social and Governance Report, published last year. Coca-Cola also produced 900 prototype bottles in 2021 made almost entirely of plant-based plastic, excluding the cap and the label.But the progress report released by the MacArthur Foundation this month has cast doubt on its environmental ambitions, revealing that the target of shifting all packaging to reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025 will “almost certainly” not be met.“The report clearly shows that voluntary commitments from companies to address plastic pollution have failed,” said Graham Forbes, a global project leader focused on plastics at Greenpeace. “Instead of tackling the plastic pollution crisis, big brands like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Mars actually increased the amount of plastic they create since the EMF Global Commitment was launched in 2018.”

Blue whales swallowing 95 pounds of plastic daily, scientists estimate

Blue whales, the largest creatures on Earth, are ingesting 10 million pieces of microplastic daily, scientists estimate.
With plastic waste rapidly accumulating in the world’s oceans, researchers sought to gauge how much is consumed by humpback, fin, and blue whales off the U.S. Pacific Coast. All three feed by gulping up mouthfuls of krill and other tiny creatures and then pushing the seawater out through a bristle-like filter called a baleen. In the process, they are prone to swallowing large amounts of plastic.
Scientists estimated the weight of plastic ingested by tracking the foraging behavior of 65 humpback whales, 29 fin whales, and 126 blue whales that were each tagged with a camera, microphone, and GPS device that had been suction-cupped to their back.
Accounting for the concentration of microplastics off the Pacific Coast, scientists estimate that humpbacks whales who favor krill over fish likely consume around 4 million microplastic pieces each day, or up to 38 pounds of plastic waste. Fin whales swallow an estimated 6 million pieces each, amounting to as much as 57 pounds of plastic. And blue whales eat an estimated 10 million microplastic pieces, or up to 95 pounds of plastic waste. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
“They’re lower on the food chain than you might expect by their massive size, which puts them closer to where the plastic is in the water,” Matthew Savoca, a marine biologist at Stanford University and a coauthor of the study, said in a statement. “There’s only one link: The krill eat the plastic, and then the whale eats the krill.” While other marine creatures are at risk of consuming microplastics, Savoca said, “The unique concern for whales is that they can consume so much.”
ALSO ON YALE E360
Why Bioplastics Will Not Solve the World’s Plastics Problem

Microplastics, tiny pollutants plague Pennsylvania rivers, streams

Microplastics are everywhere, even in Pennsylvania’s cleanest waterways.According to a new report by the activist and research group PennEnvironment, tests for the presence of microplastics conducted in 50 of some of the cleanest streams and waterways throughout the commonwealth found the pollutants present in every single one.Microplastic pollution was found in all high-quality waterways tested in a study led by environmental advocacy group PennEnvironment with analysis by researchers at Drexel University.A new report by the group shows the extent of the proliferation of plastic residue throughout the environment from various sourcesRepresentatives from local advocacy groups and PennEnvironment gathered at Monocacy Park to discuss the report and push for greater environmental regulation against easily discarded plasticsLocal representatives from the Sierra Club, Bethlehem Environmental Advocacy Council and Monocacy Creek Watershed Association on Wednesday joined those from PennEnvironment to discuss the report and how it pertains to local waterways and the environment in the Lehigh Valley at Monocacy Park.Microplastics are plastic pieces less than 5mm long, or smaller than a grain of rice.They have been found in people’s lungs, blood and excrement after being ingested. They have even been found in the deepest parts of the ocean and on the top of Mount Everest. Scientific studies theorize that its proliferation may pose health risks to wildlife and humans due to toxins within plastics in addition to being a widespread pollutant.“Plastic doesn’t biodegrade,” PennEnvironment Field Director Flora Cardoni said. “So while something like an apple core or a piece of paper will break down into organic compounds and components over time, plastic doesn’t do that. Instead, plastic just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces.”
PennEnvironment is the statewide chapter of the advocacy group Environment America.Fifty waterways were selected among what the state Department of Environmental Protection deems to be Exceptional Value, High Quality and Class A Cold Water Trout streams. Water samples were collected from them in 2021 and 2022 by PennEnvironment staff and partners, then analyzed by environmental researchers at Drexel University.In the Lehigh Valley, waterways such as the Lehigh River, Little Lehigh Creek, Saucon Creek, Bushkill Creek, Monocacy Creek and more were examined. Each was found to contain different microplastic fragments, fibers or films – often residue from discarded or degraded plastic products such as clothing, hard plastics, bags, flexible packaging and cosmetic products.Different types of pollutants were found in different waterways, but all had some form of microplastic pollution.That was in spite of the report’s observation that many waterways had little to no visible litter at the point of access.“It’s alarming how plastics have invaded all facets of our lives and are present in many forms in all 50 waterways tested,“ Monocacy Creek Watershed Association board member Michael Harrington said
Even though some plastics may be recycled, there are logistical and legal barriers to the process. A recent report from Greenpeace claims only about 5% of plastics recycled are turned into new products.“The Monocacy and many other waterways in the Lehigh Valley are impacted by urbanization and development,” Sierra Club digital organizer Rachel Rosenfeld explained at the event.“The creek runs through the city of Bethlehem and has regularly flooded in more densely populated parts of town during heavy rainfall events. Stormwater runoff carries its materials over impervious surfaces like plastic waste, excess nutrients and sediment.”Plastic bag bans already are being implemented in parts of Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, and other states including New York.“Plastic itself has only been around since the 1950s,” Cardoni said. “We didn’t really think of all the consequences that might have. I believe it’s just been a bigger problem as more and more of our life becomes plastic, as we have moved from a glass milk jug to a plastic bottle.“Even Snapple has moved from glass to plastic. Plastic bags are everywhere, except for in places that are banning them.”To address the issue, the advocacy and research group recommended phasing out single-use plastics, passing producer responsibility laws that shift the burden of waste onto product manufacturers and sellers, updating the recycling law Act 101 to improve Pennsylvania’s recycling capabilities and reducing the use of so-called “fast fashion,” which often are produced with plastics.The group also calls on lawmakers to end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and plastics producers.You can view the full report here, as well as a map of sampling locations’ data.Read more from our partners, WLVR.