Greencap Eco-News  |  Issue 5  |  March 2022

The Problem With Plastic

As part of Greencap's commitment to all things sustainable, we are pleased to send this regular communication where Greencap's own Eco-Sustainability Committee team members provide interesting facts, quick eco-tips, and recent environmental news.

This issue includes loads of interesting information on plastic waste and in particular 'micro-plastics'.

Did you know?
Only 9% of all plastic waste is recycled (and a further 22% is mismanaged)

Why has plastic turned into a problem and what do we know about its dangers?

The OECD reports that the world is producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, with the bulk of it ending up in landfill, incinerated or leaking into the environment with only 9% successfully recycled.
- Read the full article

This inefficiency combined with rising populations (and incomes / consumerism) drives a significant net increase in the amount of plastic being used and subsequently thrown away.
 

- https://www.oecd.org/environment/

• Plastic consumption has quadrupled over the past 30 years, driven by growth in emerging markets. Global plastics production doubled from 2000 to 2019 to reach 460 million tonnes. Plastics account for 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

• Global plastic waste has also more than doubled from 2000 to 2019 to 353 million tonnes. 

• Only 9% of plastic waste is recycled (whilst 15% is collected for recycling,  40% of that is disposed of as residues). Another 19% is incinerated, 50% ends up in landfill and 22% evades waste management systems and goes into uncontrolled dumpsites, is burned in open pits or ends up in terrestrial or aquatic environments, especially in poorer countries. 

• In 2019, 6.1 million tonnes (Mt) of plastic waste leaked into aquatic environments and 1.7 Mt flowed into oceans. There is now an estimated 30 Mt of plastic waste in seas and oceans, and a further 109 Mt has accumulated in rivers. The build-up of plastics in rivers implies that leakage into the ocean will continue for decades to come, even if mismanaged plastic waste could be significantly reduced.

Most plastic pollution comes from inadequate collection and disposal of larger plastic debris known as macroplastics, but leakage of microplastics (synthetic polymers smaller than 5 mm in diameter) from things like industrial plastic pellets, synthetic textiles, road markings and tyre wear are also a serious concern.

An international approach to waste management including aligning design approaches and the regulation of chemicals will be key to improving the circularity of plastics. 

Helpful Tips & Tricks

Just as Eco-News Issue 17 shared many great ways every household can improve their food waste sustainability, there are simple behaviours everyone can employ to prevent the plastic in your life leaking into the environment and onto your local wildlife and marine life’s dinner plate:

• Garbage – Avoiding careless practices, such as leaving small items un-bagged in the home bin or adding an item to an already full street bin when it is clear that the litter item will escape.
   
• Loads – Secure them so loose and/or light items aren’t dislodged off your vehicle or trailer, and please - no ‘push and pray’ L or P-plates behind the rego plate; use a holder.
   
• Kerbside – Look carefully when parking to avoid road litter. Be aware that hubcap, bottle, takeaway food container, P plate, cigarette lighter or biro that is in your path will become a crushed clone if driven over.
   
• Take pride in your community and set a civic duty example by keeping your residence’s gutter litter-free. If not you, who? If not now, when?
   
• Mowing - Check grass is clear of debris before and after mowing, otherwise you’ve just multiplied the problem into smaller pieces. Pocket your whipper-snipper spent lengths and check for the snipped bits!
   
• Be proactive – You might not bother picking up that small piece of plastic but multiply the lazy thought of ‘it’s only a small thing, it won’t matter’ by the world’s population and you see how little things do add up.
  Take the temptation away from any curious wildlife and keep the plastic out of their stomachs!
   

Not interested in Eco-News?

1. Car Tyres

We all know tyres are made from rubber but they are also comprised of around 60% plastic (styrene butadiene). The friction, pressure and heat of driving wears tyres down so much they produce an estimated average of 63,000 tonnes of plastic dust each year in the UK.
When blown into the atmosphere, that dust can contribute to the poor air quality identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a cause of premature deaths. 
Likewise when it is washed into drains, rivers and oceans, it is likely to be eaten by filter feeders such as mussels, entering the human food chain. 

2. Clothing

Clothing made from acrylic and polyester, polyamide, spandex and nylon shed up to 700,000 microfibres with each wash. Once in water, microfibres are difficult to filter out and subsequently often find their way into the tap water in many countries.

3. Tennis Balls

The fuzzy outer layer of tennis balls is actually made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate), the same material that’s used to make plastic milk bottles. Just like the above-mentioned tyres, this plastic gets worn away with use, becoming plastic dust.

4. Laundry & Dishwasher Pods/Tablets

All kinds of detergents and disinfectants with scrubbing agents have microplastics such as polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) - the same beads are thankfully banned in cosmetics but not in this application.

5. Cigarette Butts

Cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate, a non-biodegradeable plastic and an all too common pollutant in the world's oceans. 

6. Glitter

Perhaps unsurprisingly glitter makes an appearance on this list of offenders.
Most glitter is made from PET or polyvinyl chloride film (PVC) and is (as we all know 😒) very hard to dispose of - it gets everywhere!
There is however a more environmentaly-friendly alternative in biodegradable cellulose film glitter, made from eucalyptus trees. 

7. Wet Wipes

Wet wipes, baby wipes, hand wipes, and make-up removing wipes are all typically made from polyester, polyethylene, and polypropylene – or a mixture of those plastics and natural fibres.
Not only do they block sewers and contribute to “fatbergs”, the plastic doesn’t break down.
A traditional all-cotton flannel is the eco-friendly choice.

8. Tea Bags

Unfortunately tea bags are surprisingly not 100% biodegradable as many teabags actually contain a polypropylene “skeleton”. That skeleton then breaks into tiny pieces when the paper breaks down in the compost or soil. When purchasing look for 'plastic-free' options or switch to loose-leaf tea. 

9. Paint

Dust from the thermoplastic paints used for road markings, ships and houses globally is found across the surface of the oceans. Not all paints however contain plastics so look for paints that alternatively use linseed oil or latex as binders when doing your next DIY project. Keeping a lid on dust is important for all paint removal projects, not just lead in the HazMat space.

10. Takeaway Cups

If you’ve seen Sly Stallone & Arnie in 'Escape Plan', you’ll know paper takeaway cups are lined with a layer of polyethylene. Like teabags, the paper element breaks down, but the plastic breaks up into tiny pieces if the cup is littered or composted. Mixed materials need to be handled by a specialist recycling facility but it's obviously best if you just use a reusable cup!

So, if we want to have a real impact, we need to address all plastic waste, both that which we see and the significant amount that we can’t. Whilst there are some plastics we cannot live without, there are many others we could easily reject, replace or at least reduce.

- Read the full article

All Eco-News articles are authored by Greencap's own Eco-Sustainability Committee team members who's passionate interests drive thought-provoking, science-driven articles combined with personal experiences, encouraging readers to examine their eco-sustainability behaviours and strive for continuous improvement in extending our purpose to make the world safer (and cleaner).

Greencap - working towards making our world safer

​Further reading:

• Watch: Plastic Pollution: How Humans are Turning the World into Plastic 

• Plastic summit could be most important green deal since Paris accords, says UN

• Clean Up Australia website

• Marine pollution: sources, distribution and fate

• United Nations Environment Programme - Marine Litter: Vital Graphics

•  ABC Catalyst - Micro-plastcs

• Total Environment Centre - The Big Steps After COP26

•  SMH - What is plastic and how much plastic is in the world?

•  Watch: Dr Mark Browne Interview

   

The contributing weather comes from a high-pressure tropical cyclone off the east coast that is matched by a low-pressure area over the land, trapping clouds that would normally pass over the continent from west to east.
Rain that would normally have fallen into the ocean has been falling on the coast where many of us live with floodwaters contributing to significant property damage and an increase of debris (and plastics) flowing into our rivers and oceans.

Brisbane is one of the worst hit areas, and it has a long history of major floods, seven since European settlement. Soil records also indicate that there is a long pre-European history of flooding in the Brisbane floodplain. 

What astounds about floods in Brisbane is that they continue to take us by surprise
(ABC News)

Part of the response to a large flood in 1974 was to create the massive Wivenhoe Dam with storage capacity of over 3 million megalitres but with an operational holding capacity of just over 1 million megalitres. While the Brisbane region was being hit with heavy rain on 21 February the Wivenhoe Dam was at 180% capacity, which meant it was overflowing into emergency storage areas and water was being released as quickly as possible in anticipation of further rain. The same thing happened in 2011 when Wivenhoe engineers opened the floodgates to prevent the dam from exceeding capacity.

The problem then, as now, is that the receiving rivers are already bursting their banks, increasing the probability of more flooding. It’s hard work managing a large dam, you get criticised if it’s too full when it’s raining and if it’s too empty during a drought. Sydney has a similar problem with its Warragamba Dam which has remained close to 100% full for the past few weeks. If/when that overflows the water goes to the Prospect reservoir, which in turn would overflow into rivers around the city of Penrith. The NSW Government has plans to raise the level of the Warragamba Dam by a further 15 metres, which if full during a future flood, would be a disaster for the western suburbs of Sydney. 

Perhaps less known though, is that we have a warming climate to blame for this.
Tropical cyclones are boosted by the size of the temperature difference between a warm ocean and a cold atmosphere (a gap that is closing), but while we will probably have fewer cyclones, they are likely to be more severe. The Bureau of Meteorology notes that cyclones are already happening in a warmer, wetter and more energetic atmosphere, suggesting that the speed at which they intensify and move will increase, and the strength at which they reach land will be greater. Rising sea levels also mean the storm damage will be greater.

All of which means we need to redouble our efforts to reduce our greenhouse emissions. Greencap has an emissions target of net-zero emissions by 2030 and so far is making good progress towards this. The current flooding provides a timely reminder as to why we are doing this. 

Please visit the Greencap website to learn more on Flood Damaged Property: How to mitigate subsequent mould risks