A world of plastic

Is it necessary to recall the invasion of our world by plastics? Some mind boggling figures anyway. There are 150 million tons of plastic in various forms in the oceans, 8 million tons are added to it every year, according to the Ellen McArthur Foundation. At this point: it's the equivalent of a garbage truck every minute (and it is predicted that in 2050, it could be 4 of these trucks per minute). 20% of this pollution emanates from ships, especially industrial fishing, an issue we have already raised (see our article 19 on the decline in fish stocks). 80% therefore fall into the sea from the coast or are carried by rivers. We virtuous Europeans contribute 0.28% of these emissions. In contrast, Asia is responsible for 82% of this pollution. It’s staggering. We also know that 2/3 of these materials are already degraded in the form of microplastics when they arrive at sea. This puts the expensive initiatives of plastic recovery companies into perspective. For instance, the Ocean Clean Up drew much attention: https://theoceancleanup.com /). We know that the first attempt was a flop, but it has (or will have had?) the merit of raising awareness even more, in particular by publishing a pollution mapping.

As we have already stated, we would all like to believe in the emergence of life-saving technology, which would allow us to sleep peacefully without thinking of changing how we consume or revising our way of life. The movement is underway, far too slow no doubt, starting from an evolution of legislation progressively banning plastic. Otherwise, by 2050, the tonnage of plastic in the oceans will be greater than that of fish.