EMPOWERING ACTION AGAINST THE GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS
OF PLASTIC POLLUTION THROUGH SCIENCE, ART, EDUCATION, AND ADVENTURE.
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How will I explain this to her? How did we get here?
Guadalupe Island: 2004
Where there is seawater, there is plastic
Plastic pollution is a design
flaw
Solutions must begin upstream
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I don’t think the folks at Dupont anticipated we would replace everything with plastic in the next 50 years.
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Here is away, watersheds and rivers around the world. Here is a young boy in Manila, Phillipine. Many countries lack the waste management infrastructure to deal with disposable plastics. Here, plastic pollution chokes waterways, and becomes a health issue.
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ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS
663 species impacted by marine debris (CBD Technical Series No. 67)
24%
17%
59%
100%
North Pacific Gyre - 2008
PLASTIC
PLANKTON
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PCB’s are commonly used in capacitors and transistors as insulators because of their heat resistance. Also used as flame retardants. Effects: liver damage due to bioaccumulation, estrogenic properties – feminized males, neonatal function decreased.
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MICROPLASTIC INGESTION (Goldstein et al., 2013) (Cole et al., 2013) (Thompson, 2004)
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The greatest abundance and diversity of life on earth is from creatures smaller than a grain of rice
TRANSLOCATION FROM STOMACH TO CIRCULATORY SYSTEM (Browne, 2008)
ARE WE PLASTICIZED?
NORTH ATLANTIC GYRE
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SOUTH ATLANTIC GYRE
SOUTH PACIFIC GYRE
269,000 tons from
5.25 trillion particles
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0.17% of 2012 global production. Ocean cleanup is a waste of resources. Prevention is key.
GREAT LAKES 2012
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STATE FEDERAL ACTION
BAN LIST LESSONS LEARNED
1. Most of the worst offenders = on the go applications 2. More recycling will not solve the problem 3. Majority of BAN list products mfg with toxic chemicals 4. Many better alternatives are available today 5. More data needs to be collected on pollution and identity of
producers 6. BAN list = starting point for regulatory and voluntary action,
Products that have low recovery and high incidence of env. Contamination should be banned or redesigned. For products that can’t be redesigned, that have low recovery value and high incidence of contamination, we need to look to legislation to ban or place fees on the worst offenders. Products like Styrofoam, straws, cigarette butts, and plastic bags – these all have a few things in common: they are difficult to recover or recycle, and have a high incidence of environmental contamination.
LOCAL ACTIONS = RIPPLE EFFECT
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And these students in Silverlake were responsible for driving change throughout their entire school district, to ban Styrofoam waste used in lunches. They first collected foam trays used in one week, strung them up to create a visible foam “tree” on campus, then pushed for reusable trays at their school, saving their school $12,000. This inspired council members from Los Angeles to institute a ban on Styrofoam trays throughout LA Unified.
DESIGN AND INNOVATION
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Design and innovation also play a critical role. Packaged foods, products, and goods aren’t going anywhere, and we need new materials to replace
WASTE = PROFITS
ZERO WASTE
Video posted here removed as file size too large for posting slides. See video of JunkRaft launch and journey at: http://junkraft.blogspot.com/
