Why focusing on Ocean Plastics Collection and Recycling?

This is a very legitimate question. We shall actually all be starting with avoiding plastics use and reducing our plastic footprint to a minimum. Or even better, take plastics away out of our lives. Better to turn off the tap first, before you scoop out the water. That’s clearly the end goal. Yet, our society is for now, and maybe still for a long time, largely dependent on plastics use, and misuse, because of lack of funding on the circularity of the plastic supply chains. Because of these linear mismanaged supply chains, every year, about 13 million tons of plastics end up into World Oceans.?

And that’s where they hurt the most in terms of social, environmental and health issues.? It threatens marine life and ecosystems and our own food chains. By threatening marine life, in particular large mammals, it threatens as well the oceans’ carbon capture capacity. Everything is connected. Studies show we ingest in average the equivalent of 50 plastic bags per year or a credit card of micro-plastics per week*.?

90% of this marine pollution happens in Asia because of factories and population densities, legal and funding deficiencies at country level. Local communities are facing a huge problem they’re in many cases not responsible of. Like for climate action, ocean plastics circularity calls for solidarity with the poorest. On remote coastal areas and islands in Thailand for example, populations with limited resources, see mountains of plastic wastes landing on their beaches during the monsoon in particular, coming from various regional areas of Thailand and even neighboring countries depending on the winds.?

With Second Life , we calculated on Koh Phayam and Koh Lanta that during monsoon months (June to September), in average 300 kg of plastic wastes are landing per kilometre of beach per month, of which 40 to 80 % pet bottles, pp, pe and other mixed plastics items, foam, abs, fishnets,.. The market prices do not cover the total cost for collecting and transporting these plastic wastes to the mainland for recycling, so they are usually burnt or landfilled. If not collected, they go back to the sea or degrade on shore into micro plastics.

It is in these areas that it makes most sense to engage for plastic recycling and circularity, to maximize the social, ecosystem, biodiversity and health impacts per dollar invested, as much for local communities as for us globally. When it comes to ocean plastics, it makes more sense to invest where we maximize the impact, because all oceans are one. We have to start by reducing our footprint at our own level, where we operate, but the contribution to ocean plastics circularity, shall be considered as a Global Action, like for Climate Change.?

Together, let’s rethink, reduce, recycle and reuse plastic wastes, starting with ocean plastics in areas most in need. For us and generations to come.?

*Source: Estimations of the total mass of ingested micro plastic particles correspond to 50 plastic bags per year (Bai et al., 2022), one credit card per week (Gruber et al., 2022), or a median value of?4.1 μg/week for adults?(Mohamed Nor et al., 2021).

Second Life