STOEP CHAT

at Action Ads

8 June 2023

#BeatPlasticPollution says UN

Nurdles are back!

Last week I picked up over 800 nurdles along the high de mark at Noetzie over a distance of only about 40m.

Nurdles, those ny, round plasc balls that are shipped around the world, are the raw materials that factories use to make plasc goods. When a container of nurdles falls over board they spread around the world like a plague.

I also picked up stacks of ny bits of broken plasc. I can’t walk past them without feeling guilty about the seabirds, dolphins, turtles or a thousand of other sea creatures that might swallow them. Plasc polluon is a blight on this planet.

Microplascs have been found at the two most inaccessible places in the world – the top of Mount Everest and the boom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean.

Among this doom and gloom, I was delighted to read that the United Naons’ theme for World Environment Month is #BeatPlascPolluon.

It was launched on June 5th, World Environment Day UN secretary-general Antonia Guterres said: “This is our call to beat plasc polluon. We must work as one – governments, companies and consumers – to break our addicon to plasc.”

Don’t get me wrong. Plasc is important in many spheres, from medical to engineering, plumbing, lighng, computers and much more. It is the so-called “single use” plasc that is the problem, plasc that is used only once and then tossed away. Water boles, fruit and veg trays, plasc bags, cooldrink boles, ear buds, shampoo boles, take-away cups and cutlery, straws, polystyrene packaging, household cleaning boles, yoghurt and margarine tubs, etc.

More than 400 million tons of plasc is produced every year, of which 50% will be used only once. Of this, only 10% will be recycled. Scary.

Between 19 and 23 million tons of plasc ends up in the world’s rivers and seas annually - about the weight of 2,200 Eiffel Towers.

So what can we do? Recycle, obviously, but also try to reduce how much we use. Take your own mug for take-away coffee. Use your own water bole. Use those net bags to get your vegetables weighed.

But it is difficult. What alternaves are there to plasc shampoo boles or dishwashing liquid? So much fruit and veg comes in plasc, as does milk, yoghurt, margarine, cooking oil, meat, toothpaste, loo paper, detergent, pasta, mayonnaise, rice, medicines – the list goes on. Even tampons, sanitary pads and condoms contain plasc. We are trapped in a plasc world.

But help is on the horizon. The UN’s Intergovernmental Negoang Commiee on Plasc Polluon is working on what could become the first global treaty to curb plasc polluon.

Last week 170 countries agreed in Paris to draw up a dra of a legally binding plascs treaty

Can’t predict what it will contain, but it will have to tackle plasc from producon to waste. One hopes it will include finding alternaves to plasc and establishing limits on plasc producon.

In the meanme we just have to try to reduce our plasc consumpon, reuse what we can and recycle what we can’t.

Roll on the UN Treaty