Ocean Pollution On The Rise, More Plastic Than Fish In The Sea By 2050
The oceans of the world could contain more plastic than fish by 2050, with both plastic production and pollution on the rise, according to a new report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The report also suggests that 20 percent of all oil production in the next few decades could go to the production of plastic, and plastic production is 20 times greater today than it was 50 years ago.
Plastic is recyclable, but very little of it is actually recycled. According to numbers from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 78 million metric tons of plastic was used in packaging materials in 2013. Of that 78 million metric tons of plastic, 14 percent was collected for recycling, and just 2 percent actually made it back into the production line. The rest can be accounted for as process losses, at 4 percent, and cascaded recycling, where the plastic is recycled for use in lower-value applications, at 8 percent.
There are two main points to take away from that information. The first is that 98 percent of the plastic produced in 2013 used virgin feedstock, or petroleum products, rather than recycled plastic. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation report, continuing at this pace could mean that 20 percent of all oil production in the next few decades could flow straight into the plastic production line.
The disturbing conclusion drawn by the new report is that, eventually, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea.
Right now, the best estimates put the amount of plastic in the oceans at about 150 million metric tons. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, that amount is being added to at a rate of one garbage truck dumping its entire load straight into the ocean each minute, which adds up to about eight million metric tons of plastic each year. At that rate, and assuming that industry and consumer practices remain unchanged, there could be one metric ton of plastic for every three metric tons of fish in the oceans of the world by 2025.
By 2050, there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish, measuring by weight.
The solution suggested by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a three-pronged approach that includes improving global plastic recycling efforts, reducing the amount of plastic that is leaked into the environment each year, and eventually decoupling the production of plastic from the fossil fuels that currently make up 98 percent of the feedstock in plastic production.
According to Fortune, attempts to increase global recycling efforts could face a major hurdle in the form of low oil prices. With the collapse of global oil prices, plastic recycling becomes less profitable, and Fortune reports that large recycling firms in the United States, like Waste Management, have reported steep declines in revenue from their recycling operations.
Do you think that we’ll ever see more plastic in the ocean than fish, or will plastic pollution change in the coming decades?
[Photo by AP Photo/Julio Cortez]