SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - By 2050 Oceans Will Have More Plastic Than Fish

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk Legislator Kara Hahn last month joined with environmentalists and the county’s Single Use Plastic Reduction Task Force in calling for Suffolk to “declare independence” from plastic straws. Given the name “Strawless Suffolk,” it is an important campaign considering, as Ms. Hahn noted, “Every day, Americans discard a half a billion plastic straws, many of which find their way into oceans and inland waterways, which to put in perspective could wrap around the Earth 2.5 times per day.” 

And, as she emphasized, in “Suffolk County, which boasts some of America’s most beautiful beaches, a thousand miles of shoreline, and waterways teaming with marine life, the innocuous plastic straw has become a tangible threat to the county’s tourist-driven economy, littering our beaches with debris and threatening turtles, birds and other marine life.”

Plastic straws are the tip of a plastic iceberg.

A study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum concludes, “If plastic continues to be dumped at its current rate, the oceans will carry more plastic than fish by 2050,” notes the website EcoWatch. And, EcoWatch cites a report of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) that determined “as much as 51 trillion microplastic particles—500 times more than stars in our galaxy—litter our seas.”

Those findings call out to be repeated—“the oceans will carry more plastic than fish by 2050,” and, “as much as 51 trillion microplastic particles—500 times more than stars in our galaxy—litter our seas.” 

Outrageous and totally unacceptable! 

The destruction of marine life from plastic is happening everywhere. Last month, on a beach in Spain, “yet another terrifying reminder of the ocean’s plastic pollution problem, a dead sperm whale has been discovered with 29 kilograms of plastic waste inside its stomach,” reported the website ibelieveinmothernature.com. There was a ghastly photo accompanying the article of the whale, its mouth open revealing loads of plastic. In Thailand in June, a whale was found having died after swallowing 80 plastic bags. Here in Suffolk in June, on the beach at Shinnecock East County Park in Southampton, a leatherback sea turtle was discovered dead last month, believed to have drowned from plastic found in its intestines.

“The planet is on the edge of a global plastic calamity,” was the headline of a June article by Erik Solheim, executive director of UNEP, in The Guardian. It stated, “Now, after a century of unchecked production and consumption, convenience has turned to crisis. Beyond a mere material amenity, today you’ll find plastic where you least expect it, including the foods we eat, the water we drink and the environment in which we live. Once in the environment, it enters our food chain where, increasingly, microplastic particles are turning up in our stomachs, blood and lungs. Scientists are only beginning to study the potential health impacts.”

“Since we began our love affair with this now ubiquitous material, we’ve produced roughly nine billion tonnes of plastic,” said the piece in The Guardian, published in the U.K.  and distributed internationally. “About one-third of this has been single-use, providing a momentary convenience before being discarded. The straw in your average drink will be used for just a few minutes, but in the environment, it will last beyond our lifetimes. In your shopping trolley, a plastic bag will be used for less than an hour, but when they find their way to the ocean they kill more than 100,000 marine animals a year.”

“Current projections show that global plastic production will skyrocket in the next 10-15 years. This year alone, manufacturers will produce an estimated 360 million tonnes. With a booming population driving demand, production is expected to reach 500 million by 2025 and a staggering 619 million tonnes by 2030.”

“Avoiding the worst of these outcomes requires more than awareness,” declared the article. Necessary is a “wholesale rethinking of the way we produce, use and manage plastic.”

Suffolk County has taken some pioneering action on plastic. 

In 2010, a year after the Suffolk Legislature passed a first-in-the-nation law barring the sale here of baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers and other products used by children that contain the plasticizing agent Bisophenol-A, acronymed BPA, New York enacted a statewide ban based on the Suffolk model. Other states followed and in 2012 came a federal ban. Research has found BPA to be a cause of cancer and other maladies. It’s especially toxic to youngsters. Grassroots action was key. The Suffolk law stemmed from Legislator Steven Stern being made aware of the dangers of BPA by Karen Joy Miller, founder of Prevention is the Cure, an initiative of the Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition.

Far more action against plastic is necessary—worldwide.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.