Turning the Tide on Plastics

New laws in some Australian states and territories could mean first steps to heading off the crisis levels of plastic pollution in our seas

In September 2020, South Australia created environmental history in Australia by becoming the first state or territory to pass laws banning a wide range of single-use plastics (SUPs). From early 2021 (on a date yet to be fixed), it will be illegal to sell, supply or distribute a “prohibited plastic product”, including drinking straws, drink stirrers and cutlery. 

Twelve months later, some polystyrene and other single-use products will be added to the banned list, such as coffee cups and lids, plastic bowls, plates and food containers, balloon sticks and plastic-stemmed cotton buds — products that constitute 70 per cent of all marine litter. There will be exemptions for people with a disability or medical condition who need to use the banned items.

Western Australia recently released its ‘Plan for Plastics’ that will see the initial phasing-out of SUPs similar to South Australia over the next three years, with a second stage ban on single-use plastic produce bags, microbeads, polystyrene packaging and oxo-degradable plastics.

Both Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory are considering draft laws, which may come to a vote in the coming months, while New South Wales recently completed public consultations on proposed bans but is yet to announce its plans.

During October and November 2020, the Recycling and Waste Reduction Bill 2020 was debated in the Australian Parliament. It is likely to be enacted in the near future and will replace current laws managing products produced or sold in Australia. The laws will also ban the export of plastic waste to other countries, forcing Australians to take responsibility for their own rubbish. But Mr Cucow believes these new laws have a critical flaw. “They don’t actually reduce the amount of plastic we are generating, and so they won’t help our ocean wildlife,” he says. 

Overseas, the European Union banned a range of single-use plastic items in 2018 and many other countries are adopting similar measures to stem the tide of plastic pollution.

Why pick on plastics? They are cheap, strong and durable — properties that make them adaptable to a wide range of uses that benefit our daily lives. In fact, they are one of the most widely used materials in the world, which is part of the problem. They are nearly indestructible and when they are discarded, they accumulate in the environment where they remain for a very long time, causing enormous damage to ecosystems on land and in the oceans. In Europe alone, the cost of this damage will grow to an estimated €22 billion by 2030.

Plastic pollution of our marine environment is a global crisis that rivals the threat of climate change. A few brief facts will illustrate the scale and enormity of the problem.

Plastics production has surged over the past 50 years and is expected to double again over the next 20 years. Half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once, and then thrown away, generating about 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Much of this waste finds its way into the world’s oceans, which already contain an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces (over 150 million tonnes) of plastics. Globally, this pollution is growing at the rate of about 10 million tonnes each year and some scientists predict that by 2050 the oceans will contain more plastics by weight than fish.

The contamination of the marine environment by plastic debris affects every ocean on the planet: from the Arctic to Antarctica, floating on the surface, resting on the deepest seabeds and washed ashore on our beaches. 

The chemical structure of most plastics renders them resistant to degradation by many natural processes, especially in deep sea environments where low temperature, low light and higher pressure actually have a preserving effect. And once plastic is in the ocean, most of it stays there forever, breaking up into ‘microplastics’ (pieces less than 5mm wide) that cause other problems. 

According to Dr Jennifer Lavers, a marine biologist at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, “Plastics never really go away. It may take anywhere between 100 and 10,000 years to break up — I don’t use the term ‘break down’. It never breaks down and goes away.” 

South Australia’s new laws also ban ‘oxo-degradable plastics’ that have additives to make them break apart more quickly into smaller pieces. 

Plastic pollution has a direct and deadly effect on marine organisms. Every year thousands of animals die from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris, including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish. And while most plastics are chemically inert, their additives contain toxins and metals such as lead, cadmium and arsenic that are released during degradation and find their way into the human food chain. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated that people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of microplastics every year.

While applauding SA’s new laws, Simon Reddy, international environment director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, warns, “There is no silver bullet, there is no solution that can simply be applied — lots of policies are wanted. You need innovation and systems change.” But action was needed urgently, he said, as once plastic reached the sea it was almost impossible to get it out again.

In the meantime, environmentalists are advocating: reuse, recycle, recover.