The Catastrophic Impact of Plastic Pollution on the Environment and Marine Life

The United Nations called for more efforts to put an end to the disaster of this dangerous type of environmental pollution, whose negative and devastating effects on the environment extend for centuries.

“The way the world produces, consumes and disposes of plastic has created a catastrophe,” stressed Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Catastrophic numbers

• According to the United Nations, the annual production of plastic has more than doubled over the past 20 years, to exceed 430 million tons annually, and this figure could increase 3 times by 2060 if the situation is not remedied.
• A draft international treaty to combat plastic pollution is supposed to be drafted by next November, in preparation for reaching a final text in late 2024, according to a decision adopted by 175 countries in Paris a few days ago.
• According to the United Nations, two-thirds of the plastic materials produced annually are short-lived products that turn into waste in a short time, and less than 10 percent of plastic waste is subject to recycling.

Danger out of control

Environmental experts warn that the problem of plastic has become an issue out of control, and micro-plastic particles are present in our soil, water and air that we breathe.

The source of the danger is that plastic contains chemicals that take hundreds of years to decompose.

An estimated 19 to 23 million tons of plastic end up annually in lakes, rivers and seas.

What is plastic pollution?

International academic and environmental expert Ayman Haitham Qaddouri says, in an interview with Sky News Arabia:

Plastic pollution, which formed the focus of World Environment Day this year, is one of the most dangerous forms of environmental pollution, specifically in the marine environment, where the bottoms of oceans and seas suffer from the accumulation of millions of tons of plastic waste that destroy this environment and deplete marine organisms in terms of affecting their activity, discouraging them from The process of producing oxygen in the atmosphere, knowing that the marine environment is the first source of oxygen on the surface of the planet.

– According to United Nations estimates, about 15 million tons of plastic are dumped at the bottom of the oceans annually, with a total of 200 million tons at the bottom of the oceans alone. The Arab region takes the lead in the scene, as it contributes to 60 percent of the total disposal of that plastic waste.

This huge amount of plastic materials and waste is characterized by a complex chemical composition called polymer, which is slow to decompose and takes 50-600 years to decompose according to the thickness of the plastic and the method of its chemical arrangement.

– The presence of plastic waste at the bottom of the ocean hinders the movement and activities of marine organisms, and many of them perish as a result of eating parts of plastic waste, which causes blockage of the digestive channels, and thus leads to their death, and the most prominent creatures of seas and oceans vulnerable to these damages are turtles and whales.

– For sea plants, plastic pollution destroys the ability of these plants to continue the photosynthesis process, by blocking sunlight or wrapping parts of thin plastic waste, such as plastic bags and strings around the plant’s body.

– Coral reefs are considered the first target at the risk of plastic pollution, as they are very sensitive organisms that are affected by any abnormal variables in their environment, and preserving them is to preserve the sustainability of biodiversity in the seabed and oceans in general, because of the nutritional value they carry and being a link at the beginning of the food chain, Simply blocking sunlight exposes it to destruction, and this is the simplest example of what can result from pollution of the ocean floor with plastic waste.

– The danger does not stop at the accumulation of these wastes. When plastic materials decompose after a long period of time that may extend for centuries, polluting chemical and organic substances are produced, most notably methane gas, since fossil fuels are the primary material for 95 percent of the plastic produced.

What is caused by plastic pollution at the bottom of the oceans and seas is a quarter of its impact on land, where the most popular way to get rid of the accumulation of plastic waste is to burn it, and this in itself exacerbates the warming crisis.

The disposal of plastic waste causes 15 million tons of carbon pollution to the atmosphere, in addition to large proportions of methane, ethylene, polyethylene and others, to the atmosphere, which together contribute to an increase in greenhouse gases that cause global warming by 15 percent.

Leaving plastic waste exposed to sunlight and heat without treatment and recycling produces harmful gases, particularly from thin plastic waste such as bags used in shopping.

ways to avoid danger

Defining and restricting the plastic industries and ensuring commitment to recycling them, and then phasing out the complex polymers that make up the plastic material and replacing them with safer and more environmentally friendly materials, are the most important solutions that the industrial group of seven must approve and proceed with their implementation, according to Kadouri, who explains that “such measures It can lead to encouraging results that contribute to continuing to combat plastic pollution beyond 2040.”

Kadouri explains, “Setting 2040 as a date to reach zero plastic pollution is a legitimate ambition, by the Big Seven, but it is far from being achieved, according to current data and the escalation of conflicts and raging economic interests.”