The plastic plague. Photo: Jason Childs
An estimated eight million tons of plastic trash ended up in our oceans from coastal countries in 2010 alone. If that doesn’t boggle your brain, consider a recent study that suggests over five trillion plastic pieces are currently floating in the world’s oceans as we speak. Yes, five TRILLION, and that number is only rising. Luckily, our coastal communities have wised up and are finally taking action.
Just hours ago, California passed AB 888, which bans the sale of all personal care products that contain microbeads by the year 2020. Additionally, plastic pollution was dealt another blow this week, as the City of Miami Beach unanimously passed a bill that completely bans expanded polystyrene containers (styrofoam). Two major feats in their own right, but if we truly want to end the plastic plague, we must first educate ourselves on the severity of the problem.
By now, plastic pollution is a serious and undeniable threat to our coastal and marine environments. It’s so prominent that it’s impossible to ignore. Just walking from our cars to the ocean leads us through minefields of plastic cups, bottle caps, cigarette butts, and a number of items that are perhaps too inappropriate to mention.
While lauded for its importance to science, medicine, and everyday life, plastic is an insidious polluter that has found its way to the shores of the most remote atolls and the deepest depths of the sea. The problem with plastics, particularly single-use plastics, is that they never really go away. Instead, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. Once in the ocean, these plastic bits are mistaken for food by animals such as sea birds, turtles, and fish, which are then consumed by larger predators—notably humans.
The advent of microbeads has further complicated the plastic pollution issue, and only in recent years has it gained the attention of policymakers and environmentalists. Unlike larger, more noticeable pieces of plastic debris, such as plastic water bottles or cutlery, microbeads are extremely tiny. So tiny, in fact, that one can hardly see them with the naked eye. Microbeads are essentially tiny plastics pellets that are found in hundreds of personal care products, from toothpaste to shaving cream to exfoliating soaps. Once these products are washed down our drains, theses tiny microbeads travel to the waste water system where they pass directly through the filters and are eventually delivered to the ocean. Like other plastic pollution, these microbeads end up cycling through the ocean food chain until they land back on our dinner plates as, for example, fish tacos or sushi.
It’s a vicious, deadly cycle, but it’s one that can be broken with enough awareness and work. While I applaud California’s stance against microbeads, Hawaii’s thumbing of plastic bags, and San Francisco’s movement towards zero waste, I implore my fellow surfers and beach lovers to start sharing in the responsibility to rise above plastics in order to ensure the continuity our natural environment. It’s only through simple life changes, such as ditching straws or investing in reusable grocery bags, that we’ll be able to move towards a future where beaches are still made of sand and our favorite waves aren’t fouled by someone else’s take-out container.
Learn more about microbeads and what you can do by visiting the Beat the Microbead website.
