Costing the earth....

‘Costing the Earth’ was a recent broadcast on Radio 4 which looked at the issue of plastic contamination in our oceans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11478261

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v1qtn

As somebody with a great passion for our oceans it caught my ear. The broadcast essentially was documenting a sail across the South Atlantic in search of the world’s next great garbage patch. Its findings, against the misconception of what these giant patches of waste look like, was in fact that the patch was invisible to the naked eye but there all the same. The plastic particles become broken down but never disappear causing suffocation of organisms or making it highly likely that they will enter the food chain and create major health problems for marine ecosystems and even ourselves.

The solution, in my eyes, lies in product packaging (not even recyclable packaging as this still takes years to biodegrade) just LESS packaging all together- a ‘New Economics’ view of radical change. However although I think a reduction in packaging is viable I think it is inevitable that some plastic will still survive due to its purpose of prolonging shelf life of many products- an obvious plus point for profit making supermarkets and producers.

The future is looking up though! I found this article by company CYNAR who are proposing to use plastic as a fuel – this could address current and future plastic use but could also clean previous landfills of plastic. An idea in the pioneer stage but it may have its place in the future? I think this shows an example of mainstream SC theory- technological advances will save us so we can carry on as we are. The first question that pops to my head is how do they propose to produce the fuel?

http://www.cynarplc.com/

& what about the plastic already in our oceans- send a big boat out to collect it all? Another technological mainstream solution; some groundbreaking research into the formulation of microbes that break down plastics maybe.....

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/coastal_microbes_answer_plastic_ocean_pollution

Also an interesting read; 21^st century challenges- our throwaway society is polluting large areas of the world’s oceans with plastic causing huge garbage patches in our oceans. David de Rothschild’s in March 2010 adventured across the South Pacific in a boat made out of bottles to research and raise awareness of the issue! http://www.theplastiki.com/