Increasing amounts of plastic litter
\nare dumped into the waters, affecting the health of ecosystems. Studies show
\nthat by 2050 the amount of litter will exceed that of fish, as tonnes of pieces
\nof plastic litter are floating in the oceans. Plastic accounts for 85% of marine
\nwaste and genuine ‘islands of plastic’ are floating in the world’s seas. Many
\nsea species are mistakenly using micro-particles of plastic as their food and plastic
\nthus makes its way into the food humans consume. Environmentalists have already
\npulled alarm signals calling on the authorities to come up with plans to reduce
\nthe quantity of waste in the world’s seas. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Luis Popa, director general with the
\nGirgore Antipa Natural History Museum in Bucharest explains the impact of plastic
\nwaste on the sea environment: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Plastic production began around
\n1960s and in the last 50 years we have reached an output of 300 million tonnes
\nof plastic at global level. Plastic is 90% made of oil. In fact, plastic
\nproducers are using the same amount of oil as the entire aeronautic industry. Moreover,
\nplastic is a synthetic material, which isn’t biodegradable and this proves to
\nbe a major downside when it comes to waste disposal. It can pollute the
\nenvironment for hundreds and thousands of years, and even longer in the ocean
\nenvironment. What is the impact of plastic disposal? First there is a direct
\nimpact on wildlife but it may also have indirect consequences. For instance, if
\nplastic particles have made it to the beaches, they may lower the temperature
\nthere and that may influence tortoises, which need a higher temperature to
\nhatch. Half of the plastic disposed in the seas is floatable but there is
\nanother half that goes straight to the bottom of the ocean affecting the oxygen
\nexchange with a heavy impact upon the flora and the fauna there. A good deal of
\nthese plastic particles become fish food. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Since 2009, the Mare Nostrum
\nOrganisation in Constanta has been monitoring the beaches on the Black Sea
\ncoast, gathering tonnes of waste. 2018 was considered the dirtiest year, with
\nthe largest amount of waste registered on the Romanian Black Sea coast. Over
\n100,000 items of waste have been identified and eliminated since 2014. The city
\nof Constanta holds the negative record with 22,612. The towns of Costinesti and
\nCorbu have reported the lowest amounts of waste, with around four tonnes each.
\nHere is Marian Paiu, an environment expert with the Mare Nostrum NGO. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, last year we
\nreported the largest amount of waste. At the beginning of the year we thought we would have
\nan acceptably clean year, but it later turnout out as the dirtiest year, with
\nmore than 38,000 items of waste reported in autumn alone. This is a very large quantity.
\nIn 2015 we collected 2,019 items of waste in spring, in 2016 we had 3,885 waste
\nitems, in 2017 waste went up to 18,000 items, while in 2018 we collected 24,000
\nitems. This type of waste consists mainly of small items, besides items of
\nclothing and fragments of building materials. All this waste we collect and
\nthen sent to be destroyed is found in the sand, on the beach. In recent years,
\ncigarette butts have been the most common type of waste found as part of our
\nmonitoring activity. For example, in the Constanta sector known as Trei Papuci,
\nwe found ted more than 6,000 cigarette butts, and this sector doesn’t have more
\nthan 10,000 square meters in surface area.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Mare Nostrum environmental
\norganisation is currently running a project aimed at improving public access to
\nmonitoring data on marine waste with a view to reducing sea pollution in the
\nBlack Sea basin. The project is also meant to promote stronger cross-border
\nintegration of information, knowledge and expertise in the areas of environment
\nmonitoring and marine waste in the Black Sea basin. Marian Paiu explains: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As part of this project, we have
\nbeen trying to centralise the existing data and to make them available for
\nresearchers and institutions that could use them to improve their management,
\nbut also for the general public, to make them aware of how serious the problem
\nis. We have already run a workshop to get a sense of the number of institutions
\nthat collect data on the situation of marine waste and what kind of information
\nthey have collected and to look at ways to reduce marine waste on the Romanian
\nsea coast. The conclusions of the workshop were very revealing as to where we stand at the moment, and I must say we’re not doing too well. Only a handful of institutions collect this kind of data. In
\nfact, no one seems to pay attention to how much waste is generated or collected
\nevery year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Four more workshops on marine waste
\nand its impact on the Black Sea ecosystem will be held at the beginning of May in
\nRomania, Turkey, Bulgaria and Ukraine, as part of the ANEMONE European project. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marine waste poses a severe threat to the marine environment the world over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44315],"tags":[35052],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-153211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-planet","tag-waste"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n