Plastic Toxins World Epidemic — Plastic Pollution

Plastic is everywhere, including in the sea and its fish, in the soil and its plants, in our food and in us. It’s a global epidemic that needs to be dealt with urgently….

Plastic pollution is as critical an issue as climate change. We are forced to deal with plastic pollution with urgency as it is already a worldwide epidemic. It is estimated that there was the equivalent of 200 million garbage-truck-loads of plastic in the oceans and landfills at end 2015 and that this will become the equivalent of 500 million garbage-truck-loads by 2050. This plastic is breaking up into millions of trillions of fibres and micro pieces contaminating literally everything – water, soil, plants, animals, fish and us.

Plastic waste is killing wildlife by the millions annually and has entered our food chain. Results of new studies show that micro plastic is present in sea salt tested in Europe, China and the US. Every product that comes from the seas and oceans would appear to be contaminated with toxic plastic ingredients.

Plastic is a durable and useful material and in an ideal world it would only be used for long life products and 100% recycled. That is not the case. 40% to 50% of the plastic produced is for single use. The Mediterranean Sea has an estimated 500 billion pieces of plastic in it and plastic has been washing up on Malta’s shores and beaches in greater quantities in the last decade. Malta has also to deal with garbage in our sea that is coming from the other 20 countries bordering the Mediterranean. Over 90% of the garbage in the sea is plastic.

Next time you go to a sandy beach you will notice that the plastic in the sand is now visible all over the beach. Some of it is littering by bathers and some is what is washed ashore by the sea currents. On land, plastic trash is everywhere. Look and you will see for yourself. […]

Full article: Plastic Toxins World Epidemic

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