Karen Leonardo 11/29 Reading Response – ENG 2100: Writing 1 with Jay Thompson

Plastic will outweigh fish by 2050 if it keeps increasing at such a fast rate in the ocean. “experts estimate that up to 10% of plastic debris produced will enter the sea and that plastics will outweigh fish in the ocean.”
Plastic is having a very negative impact on marine life. “In addition to entanglement, physical impacts include blockages in the digestive tract when plastic is consumed by marine animals, which can lead to false satiation.”
Plastic is slowly creeping into our food chain even though it contains toxic chemicals like pathogens or parasites. “For example, some microplastics have been shown to contain additives that are known reproductive toxins, carcinogens, and mutagens”
countries are getting together to try to reduce the marine plastic numbers. “Between the years 2000 and 2019, at least 28 international policies were established to reduce plastic pollution”
There have been multiple bans made in many different countries like, single use bag bans and cosmetic microbeads. “At the national level, governments worldwide are increasingly adopting policies to target single-use plastic bags and other macroplastics, primarily through the adoption of regulatory bans”
Although all the efforts against plastic is being made there are still more difficulties being faced, the countries don’t come to terms with each other. “These governance challenges are further complicated by the durability and dispersal of plastics, the scientific uncertainty in the amount of pollution making its way into the oceans, and the difficulty in determining who is responsible for that pollution”
Some of the strategies are not strong enough to go against the plastic crisis. “Current international rules, state policies, nonstate rules, and consumer behaviors are not strong or comprehensive enough to protect the environment at a global level.”
There are many ways that plastic could end up in the ocean. “For example, plastic can be lost to the surrounding environment and transported to the oceans via waterways, winds, and tides due to littering and improper waste management in open or uncontrolled landfills.”
Students and staff were asked to offer solutions for plastic pollution. “Because most information regarding plastic pollution prevention and collection technologies is located in internet resources, we focused on this literature, including news media, press releases, and other non-peer reviewed literature.”
They conducted a couple experiments that focused on research on technology that already exists to prevent the leakage of plastic pollution into waterways or collect existing plastic pollution in the oceans. “We excluded technologies that did not fall into these two categories – such as plastic-to-fuel, bioremediation, or new materials to replace plastic – due to our focus on prevention and collection technology.”
They were very organized when conducting the experiments. “When inventions were not branded, but were labeled with descriptive names, we grouped together inventions that appeared identical.”
They try their best to identify when the technology is from and when it was made, that way they know exactly where all of this micro and macro plastic is being collected from.
Not only did they find this information on Google, they also went to a professional and asked for their feedback and knowledge. “In addition to these searches, we consulted with experts to add additional technologies to the database that we did not identify through our review of internet sources, scholarly literature, or patents.”
They came to a conclusion that most of the technology they researched focused on collecting macro plastics.
Although these technologies are actually trying to help the oceans, they are not enough. Companies need to get together and create a bigger project. “The Inventory allows us to reflect on challenges in scale, the plastic lifecycle stage targeted, the ubiquity of microplastics, costs associated with technology implementation, and deployment location for these technologies.”
“PumpGuard” uses mesh nets to remove debris from wastewater and stormwater systems and removes 97% of debris present”
“The Ocean Cleanup Project has been refining its design since 2012 and has recently developed “System 002,” which improves upon the previous design.”
“The only invention that specifically targets the prevention of fishing gear pollution is the “Stow It Don’t Throw It” – an invention aimed at changing fishers’ behavior at a small scale by collecting fishing lines used by recreational fishers before they enter the marine environment as waste.”
There are multiple small technologies that help capture plastics. ““Cora Ball” is a ball that is placed in a laundry machine and captures microfibers that are generated when washing synthetic clothing items. The “Lint LUV-R” is a filter that is installed outside of the washing machine that captures synthetic microfibers in wastewater discharge.”
4.4 Section: Funding needs to be required to create successful technologies. “Although examining the financial feasibility and costs was beyond the scope of this study, such a massive global problem cannot adequately be addressed without viable, consistent sources of funding.” “Options for potential funding sources to further the implementation and deployment of these technologies may include fees and taxes on plastic products or research and development investments by industry.” “Of the top 20 countries with the greatest amounts of mismanaged waste, 12 countries are classified as low or lower-middle income and may be less likely to have the resources for public investments to deploy these technologies on a large scale.”
4.5 Section: The use of technologies should be even more imporatant in areas that dispense the most plastic into the oceans. “Plastic pollution distribution is not uniform. Different countries have disproportionate inputs into the ocean and once plastic enters the ocean, it is transported by waves and currents to various depths and ocean ecosystems.” “The widespread dispersal of marine plastic pollution, especially microplastics, creates challenges for collection technologies, which often target the surface of the ocean.”
4.6 Section: “New microplastic prevention technologies may also work in concert with policy efforts to establish inventories detailing microplastic release into the environment and efforts to decrease the use of harmful chemicals in microplastics, especially microfibers from synthetic clothing items.” “In combination with efforts to reduce the source of plastic waste and subsequent microplastic generation, policymakers could create incentives for expanding and implementing these technologies in areas that are hotspots of marine plastic pollution.” “Technological developments cannot be separated from policy, which likewise cannot be separated from individual and industry efforts.”