The problem of plastic in the world's oceans is increasingly serious. Among the solutions: a ban on single-use plastics. Here's why.
The European ban on single-use plastic tableware due to come into force by the end of 2021 seems almost like a joke today. "But hang on," the sceptics might exclaim, "with a pandemic under way, we're banning cups, straws and plates that can help ensure compliance with hygiene standards?" And yet, far from being the cure for our ailing world, single-use plastics are in fact a large part of the problem — for the health of the environment and for our own.
Around 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide every year. Of these, more than 8 million end up in the sea, swelling the so-called "plastic islands" in the world's oceans — vast accumulations of this material that have formed as a result of ocean currents. A large portion of these islands consists of fragments of single-use plastics.
Every ten seconds, 240,000 single-use plastic bags are used globally. Some of these end up in the oceans and can be accidentally ingested by marine animals: fish, mammals, turtles, birds. Around 100,000 animals every year mistake this material for food — a material on which bacteria and algae can also proliferate. This is a problem that concerns not only the health of wildlife, but our own as well. Plastic that enters the food chain puts commercial fishing and aquaculture at risk — a significant risk for the 1.4 billion people for whom fish is one of the main sources of protein.
Looking at our own country, the situation is no better. Around 90 tonnes of plastic a day are dumped off the coast of the peninsula, owing to negligence but also to poor waste sorting. It comes as no surprise, then, that the 2020 Beach litter survey, which Legambiente conducts every year to monitor the health of Italy's coastlines, once again showed that marine pollution on our beaches is truly alarming. The stretches of coastline examined numbered 43, across 13 regions. According to the survey, which took place despite the difficult conditions imposed by the restrictions introduced in response to the new coronavirus, 654 items of waste were found per 100 metres. Eighty per cent of the waste consisted of plastic. Topping the list were fragments ranging from 2.5 to 50 cm in length. These were followed by single-use tableware, bottle caps and small bottles, as well as cigarette butts. On one in three beaches, Covid-19 protective equipment was found: primarily disposable gloves (56.8 per cent), followed by face masks (34.1) and other sanitary items (9.1).
So what is to be done? One of the possible solutions is precisely a drastic reduction in single-use plastics. The person who managed to get them banned in her own country, the Bahamas, is Kristal Ambrose. Among the winners of the 2020 edition of the highly prestigious Goldman prize, widely known as the "Nobel Prize for the environment", Kristal has been on the front line for eight years fighting the scourge of plastic in the ocean and on the paradise beaches of her homeland.
Ambrose became an activist at the age of twenty-two, after joining a scientific expedition to study the enormous Pacific "plastic island" and coming to understand the gravity of the situation. In 2013 she went on to found her non-profit organisation, the Bahamas plastic movement. One of the problems to be tackled immediately was waste management — not only the waste produced by the archipelago's 400,000 inhabitants, but above all that left behind by the tourism industry. The 700 Caribbean islands were, in the pre-Covid era, a destination for around 5 million tourists a year.
To try to resolve the situation, Kristal decided to involve as many people as possible, young people in particular, in order to raise awareness of the problem. How? Through educational environmental programmes for schools: the Junior Plastic Warriors — as the project is called — allows young children to develop environmental awareness through music, art and dance. She also organises beach plastic litter-picking days and waste management workshops. So far she has involved more than 500 students.
Buoyed by the success of the initiative, in 2018 Ambrose and her students met with the Minister of the Environment to propose a law banning single-use tableware. The media buzz was enough to shift public opinion and compel the government to turn the bill into reality. It came into force in January 2020, and was accompanied — from July onwards — by hefty fines for those who broke it. An example that, all going well, we Europeans will follow before long.