Ecofacts V.6 n. 19 plastics, degraded
Bob Miller
Soon after hearing someone on the radio talking about plastics floating and photodegrading in the ocean, I tried to move a bag of planting mix I'd had for a year or so, and had ignorantly left outside. About to haul it over to my little garden, I quickly realized that the bag was crumbling as I handled it, becoming part of the lovely soil in which I was going to plant vegetables.
Photodegradation is just one of the reasons that plastic does not necessarily hang around for centuries. Although the ways in which it often degrades are not to be confused with "biodegradable", the bio root meaning “life”. When plastics degrade, it is not into harmless life giving elements, but into chemicals like the hormone disruptor BPA, unnaturally synthesized for the production of things like plastic. And other elements besides sunlight cause plastics to degrade, seawater for example.
In one study, researchers took samples from ocean waters near various continents. "All the water samples were found to contain derivatives of polystyrene, a common plastic used in disposable cutlery, Styrofoam, and DVD cases, among other things, said Saido, who presented the findings at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C" in August of 2009. BPA was one of the chemicals found.
Of all the plastic floating in the ocean, “Garbage Patch” or elsewhere, much of it is made up of little bits, readily ingestible bits that then travel up the food chain - on the top of which, we sit. Certain common plastics are breaking down fairly rapidly both on land and in the water, but they are not going away.So, those billions of tons of plastic manufactured in the last 50 or so years are becoming part of the fabric of civilization or more accurately, the food of all living creatures. The amounts and their ill effects may be small, but they are certainly growing. One solution? Less and less new plastic. The American Chemistry Council, lobbying arm of the plastics industry, will not give up without a fight, or zillions of them. If human consciousness does not deal with this particular problem, maybe we'll be reborn into disposable forks. (joke.)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090820-plastic-decomposes-oceans-seas.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/ocean-bpa/
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Barbara Hirsch, recording engineer, eco-person
"Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not."
-- The Lorax, Children's book by Dr. Seuss
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