The Scourge of Plastic in the Ocean

By Jeanne Gallien, 7 minutes

Plastic is a material that we can not seem to get rid of. Omnipresent in our society for the past 60 years, plastic invaded every aspect of our daily life: textile, furniture, packaging, cars, hygienic protections... It is cheap, light, useful, and easily accessible. Star material in the 60s, the vision of plastic does not embrace anymore its consumers of the ecological era. Considered a scourge of our time, plastic is one of the first battles of the Directorate-General for the environment in the European Commission. This article analyses EU actions against plastic in the ocean in the last few years to review what policies are in place and what can be improved.

What is plastic?

Natural plastic, like horn, tortoiseshell, amber, rubber, and shellac has been used since antiquity. They were used for many purposes from cutlery to hair comb. However, synthetic plastic appeared in the middle of the 19th century in the wake of industrial production. Alexander Parkes was the inventor of what he called ‘Parkesine’, now recognized as synthetic plastic. This new plastic made items like dice, vase, and deco more affordable for the population, democratizing consumer goods and style. Ironically, it first intended to substitute ivory and tortoiseshell to make piano keys, jewellery, and billiard balls… because of the threat of extinction of elephant and turtle species. Later, in the 20th century, the oil and chemical industries formed alliances to produce plastic from the waste products of crude oil and natural gas processing. Thus, polymers of ethylene were combined under great pressure and heat to create the famous polyethylene (PE) plastic that we all know. This new component of plastic made it stronger and therefore possible to create bigger objects like telephones and cars.

Yellow Parkesine fishing reel, made by Alexander Parkers around 1860, source: Science Museum Group Collection & Double lice comb, source: Science Museum Group Collection

Why has plastic become a problem?

The biggest problem with plastic resides in its component: Polymers. These chemicals that make plastic so robust also make it extremely hard to degrade and take a lot of time. Usually, a bottle of plastic made of polyethylene starts to break down after 500-700 years. The reason for this slow decomposition is that the materials do not exist in nature, and no natural organisms are capable of decomposing them efficiently. After a long time, it breaks down into microplastic, which is either ingested by marine wildlife and enters the food chain or floats into the air. This is not without consequences for the environment and our health. The full process of plastic decomposition can vary from 20 years for a plastic bag to 600 years for a fishing line. Furthermore, plastic relies on the fossil fuel industry and produces CO2 emissions.

A much-talked-about article in March 2018 points to the existence of a "seventh continent of plastic" also known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” situated between California and Hawaii and estimated at least 79 thousand tonnes of plastic in an area of 1.6 million km², three times the size of France. An accumulation of our overconsumption of plastic is thrown away in the ocean. Plastic can end up in the ocean in different ways, voluntarily: via littering, illegal landfill, abandonment of fishing gear, and involuntarily: via natural disaster, wind, or rain carrying the waste into the ocean. Most of the litter found in the ocean is made of PE and polypropylene (PP) pieces, rigid plastics, and bundled fishing gear.

Source: European Commission

What is the European Union doing against this?

The European Union and more particularly the DG Environment consider marine litter a worldwide concern that needs to be tackled. Environmental protection is a shared competence of the EU but reducing marine litter also helps to protect marine biology, which is an exclusive competence, this is for this reason that the EU puts so much emphasis on it. The EU is working with patterns in many international fora such as G20 and G7 and contributes to the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 to ensure sustainable consumption and production. In 2015, the EU adopted Directive 2015/720, a revision of Directive 94/62/EC as regards reducing the consumption of lightweight plastic carrier bags. It set out charges and maximum consumption targets.

Although the Member States have shown a lack of reliability to the commitments they have made at the beginning, by simply relaying the Commission's messages, setting agreements with private sectors, or only taxing plastic bags, nowadays, EU member States took more ambitious measures against plastic bags. Even though most have opted for a pricing mechanism, others have decided to go further and ban this item. In other words, the Directive against plastic bags is effective and reduces the consumption and production of plastic, however, it only represents one single-use plastic item and therefore has a limited impact on the overall reduction of marine litter.

Then, in January 2018, the Commission published the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy which aims to transform the way plastic is produced, designed, used, and recycled in the EU based on a circular economy approach. As part of this strategy, Directive 2019/904/EC on Single-Use Plastics (SUP) emerged, which aims at reducing marine litter that is frequently found on beaches, and accidental and deliberate gear losses. The SUP Directive: 

• Introduced market restriction (ban) on the 10 most commonly found single-use plastic

  • Cotton sticks 

  • Cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks)

  • Plates

  • Straws

  • Beverage stirrers 

  • Sticks that support ballons

  • Food containers, beverage containers, and cups for beverages made of expanded polystyrene

• Extended producer responsibilities schemes: to cover the cost of collection, transport, treatment, clean-up litter, and raising awareness. 

• Introduced quantitative targets to reduce the consumption of food and cups for beverage

• Introduces awareness-raising measures

• Introduces production requirements to make sure that beverage containers with a capacity of three litres have caps and lips made of plastic attached to the containers during the products’ intended use stage

• Requires labelling the presence of plastic on cups, sanitary towels, tampons, wet wipes, and tobacco products. 

Pictograms introduced by the Directive, source: European Commission

This Directive was the first to ban products from the European Single Market to fight plastic pollution. You may have noticed that plastic products have been exchanged for paper or cardboard alternatives without knowing that this was a European regulation. Being relatively recent there are still SUP items in circulation on the market but this should not be the case for the next few years.

What can be improved?

First, the SUP Directive entered into force on 2 July 2019, and the Member States had until the 3rd July 2021 to transpose Directive 2019/904 into national law. We are now in 2022, and three countries: Poland, Luxembourg, and Estonia did not inform the Commission of implementing measures and twelve others did not implement them correctly. This may be due to the late publication of the guideline by the commission, internal conflicts or other reasons. 

Second, a study conducted by environmental experts has shown that the SUP Directive was a relatively ineffective solution to the problem it intended to solve. Indeed, it will only decrease plastic marine pollution by 5.5% in the EU which equates to a 0.06% decrease globally. Furthermore, it pointed out that the alternatives that replace the use of plastic are also very polluting. Lastly, this study also encourages new policies to emerge concerning the export of plastic waste in countries such as China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia with high rates of inadequately managed waste. The Commission heard this proposal and amended the EU Waste Shipment Regulation through Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2174. 

Conclusion

Plastic is a scourge that we must get rid of or at least lower our consumption drastically. 2022 IPCC report stresses that we have only 3 years left to act before the situation becomes irreversible. The European Union is trying to act, but time is running out and the expected effects are not there. What the EU is doing is good but it needs to do much more in order to reverse the trend. That is why you, readers, also have a role to play in this fight. Prefer sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic products like stainless steel, glass, platinum silicone, beeswax-coated cloth, wood, bamboo, pottery, ceramic, and paper. You should also throw your waste in the right garbage can for easy recycling and circular economy, make your own cleaning products, and reduce your car use (especially now that gas prices are going up, look on the bright side). There are many ways to stop this gigantic plastic soup in the oceans from growing. So, let us act together.