The Plastic Misadventure: No Exit Strategy

Introduction:

“Dad, what’s this?”, Grayce asked, holding a plastic object of unknown origin and identity. 

“If you walk this beach long enough, one of everything made of plastic will wash up,” I told her. 

Pak Lahanie, the 92 year old caretaker of the island who has inhabited it alone with its green sea turtles for the better part of forty years has made a good start on such a collection of plastic items.  He’s witnessed the mass invasion of plastic and, truth be told, will only see its escalation during his lifetime.

Methods:

This summer friends and colleagues have mounted no fewer than six expeditions to study the bluest heart of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that distant continent-sized area of swirling bits of plastic pieces in the center of the North Pacific Ocean Gyre. 

I’ve decided to work the edges--the places where humans and plastic pollution create the greatest conflict with life in ocean--and record what I find with words, numbers and images. 

My travels have meandered from my home in California to El Salvador and Honduras, then across the ocean to Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia.  Our group has varied and morphed to include photographers, writers, scientists, explorers, local advocates and change-agents.  But the core duo through it all has been my seven year old daughter Grayce and I.

Results:

1. 1. On a remote beach in El Salvador, endangered hawksbill sea turtles are making their last stand, but must dig through a layer of plastic bottles to reach the sand and lay their eggs. (photo: Mike Liles)
   

2. 2. A shallow seagrass bay where young green turtles feed in the Anambas Islands, Indonesia is flooded with plastic bags from the adjacent village, where there are no waste disposal options. (VIDEO)
   

3. 3. Children walk through a burning plastic smoke haze in a seaside dump located on the road to school. (photo: Neil Osborne)

   

   
   

4. 4. A tropical summer storm floods rivers, depositing thousands of plastic bits, syringes, plastic bags and bottles per 100 meters and eroding out the plastic previously buried on an exclusive Central American beach.
   

5. 5. The plastics industry launches a $10 million social-media blitz to extoll the virtues of plastic aimed at young people.
   

6. 6. A colleague forwards the abstract of a paper to be presented at the American Chemistry Society concluding that microplastics leach previously unknown carcinogens.
   

7. 7. Singapore airport hotel room service order includes iced drinking water, results in delivery of plastic bottled water from Fiji.
   

Discussion:

Wherever our team went, there was plastic pollution and waste.  On the plane, on the streets, in the hotel, on the beaches, in the ocean, far away, nearby, under docks, along jetties, inside sea turtles and in us.

Plastic is shipped by the ton to small island communities without an "exit strategy".  It's literally sliding down the hillsides into the sea in a burning, smoking mess, rushing down rivers with each rain storm or being dropped straight into the water, despoiling some of the most stunning and biodiverse spots on the planet.

In the coastal waters, where most of the life is, sea turtles and fish eat the plastic.  Chemicals accumulate in them and ultimately in us.

This is the real Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  To call it a “patch” is an error, it’s a mass invasion.  One that begins in our hands, in our refrigerators and stores, covers over our islands and beaches, and ends in us.

Conclusion:

We are aggressively deploying plastic to every corner of the globe, but without an exit strategy.  Expect a hundred-year occupation, at least.

Join the effort to remove unnecessary disposable plastic from your life and support efforts to find sustainable alternatives.

We all need to protest escalation of this plastic misadventure and turn the tides: this is a global war on plastic pollution.

Participate in the International Coastal Cleanup on September 19th