… Why do we litter?
Researchers have discovered that the Northern Pacific Subtropical Gyre – a slow-moving current in the Pacific Ocean that swirls in an enormous clockwise spiral – has collected two large masses of plastic trash now twice the size of Texas State; one between Japan and Hawaii and another between Hawaii and California. But wait a minute, there are 4 more of these gyres floating with ocean currents across the globe. This is rather unnerving! Have you ever thought of where the trash we throw out ends up on the planet? I bet our only concern with the items we no longer need is to not see them anymore, and therefore we care less about where they end up. If only we could follow the dump-truck to the landfill.
Plastics by the Numbers: The Statistics
According to SAS (Surfers Against Sewage – one of the UK’s most successful marine conservation and campaigning charities), plastic production increased exponentially from 2.3 million tonnes in 1950 to 448 million tonnes by 2015, and is expected to double by the year 2050. More than 1 million plastic bags end up in the trash every minute, and 50% of this is single-use plastics. The world produces 381 million tonnes of plastic waste yearly, and this is set to double by 2034 – just about a decade from now.
Every year, about 8 million tonnes of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations such as Ghana, Togo, the United States, New Zealand and Norway. Scientists say that’s the equivalent of five garbage bags full of trash on every foot of coastline around the world. Most of this plastic trash that ends up in the ocean -Earth’s last sink – flows from land and is sometimes carried by major rivers to the sea and transported around the world when caught up in ocean currents. How harmful is this to marine life? I’m thinking of the beautiful coral reefs and the repercussions when this ‘beauty’ can no longer provide food and habitats to the many species of fish.
The Story of Recycling
One may think of just one solution – the all-time key that we have all come to embrace: recycling. But is recycling really the solution? Possibly! Yet the problem is only 9% of plastics have ever been recycled. In the United States, for example, out of the 40 million tonnes of plastic waste generated in 2021 only 5 to 6 percent was recycled. Unbelievably, until recently China took up most of America’s recyclable trash in the name of reprocessing and reutilising them – but in actual fact only a small percentage was actually recycled, most of it went into some landfill on the outskirts of China or was melted and drained into the Yangtse River; the longest river in China. Since China’s ban on taking up America’s plastic waste, other developing nations which are themselves virtually drowning in their own waste – such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam – have taken up the task.
A Little Peek at Ghana
It is just despicable, but a look at the beaches in Accra, particularly, is very distasteful as every wave that breaks on shore leaves some plastic behind. But obviously, this problem is not peculiar to Ghana; beaches all over the world have to be cleaned up constantly to prevent the problem of what is now being called ‘plastic soup’.
‘Plastic Soup’ is Everywhere
There’s no place on Earth nowadays that is indisputably free of plastic; the world is facing a plastic crisis, and it has been given a name too – plastic soup. Tiny fragments of plastic can be found in our rivers, streams, ponds, canals as well as oceans. It is in fact found in water, on land and even in the air. According to the World Wildlife Fund, an average person could be ingesting approximately 5 grammes of plastic every week – and this is from the tiny fragments of plastic known as microplastics that cannot be filtered from our drinking water. I mean, plastics are useful most of the time but do we need that much plastic?
The Consequences
More than a thousand animal species are being affected in some way by all that plastic; they are ingesting it, injuring themselves with it, and suffocating on it. And to think that plastic trash is harmful and toxic to us humans too – and yet we litter – is the part that I find just too incredulous.
Why do we litter? The truth is difficult to digest (literally) but plastic soup, as they call it, is making us all ill and is even dangerous to future generations. Not only do the toxins in plastic affect the ocean, but acting like sponges they soak up other toxins from outside sources before entering the ocean. Since these chemicals are ingested by animals in the ocean, when humans consume these contaminated fish and mammals it leads to negative consequences.
Evidence of damage to health is accumulating by the day, yet we litter. Hence, my question remains why do we litter? Or should I ask ‘why do we produce and keep producing such items that we only need for a short while?’ I cannot wrap my head around the idea of covering the screw-cap of mineral water bottles, (made of plastic) with another not-so-easy-to-decay plastic ring (like we have here in Ghana from some mineral water-producing companies). And to think that these bottles are tightly sealed anyway – and have an already existing tamper-resistant component – bothers me even more. All we do is just rip these single-use plastic seals from the bottle caps and trash them anyhow, anywhere, causing more plastic soup situations. Have you ever thought of what it does to our gutters and waterways? I won’t even dare dive into Ghana’s flood situation here and now.
The Solution
The next time you feel like tossing that plastic trash you are holding – perhaps the bottle cap plastic ring from that mineral water – just think of how it can come back to hurt you and future generations. Simply do not litter! Another way to not litter is by avoiding the use of plastics in the first place, especially single-use plastics; just keep your all-time dependable reusable grocery bag with you – the kind our mothers used in the 90s. And finally, mineral water-producing companies in Ghana should rather depend on the already-made seal on the bottle caps as they are themselves tamper-resistant, and avoid using plastics. Save the planet! Save a life!! Save future generations!!!
