Earth’s oceans have always been a place rich in life and beauty. However, it’s being turned into a liquid desert filled with garbage. This paper will be answering the question on how to reduce the waste that gets packaged in all the world’s oceans.
An area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a good example of this change taking place as it covers a surface area “twice the size of Texas” and might contain some ware between “80,000 to 100,000 tons of plastic in this area alone” (Silverman). Killing countless numbers of aquatic animals that call this area home. Since a good number of items that reside in this area consisted of plastic bottles and bags, these items can be reused. Programs such as Teracycle focus on the removal of plastics that wash up on shorelines, where it is then cleaned and melted into new plastic molds that can be used by the public. Ocean Cleanup is another that specializes in the removal of plastics by monitoring and intercepting plastic derby that drifts down rivers across the planet before it enters any type of ocean.
However, another step that is needed in order to reduce the packaging of waste is to reduce the source that’s producing the waste. In China, it’s estimated that 28 percent of the waste can be found all over the globe. Making it the biggest country that mismanages waste products. Indonesia would come in at second place with a 10 percent of global waste production. A likely reason for this is the fact that China has industrialized sensed the 1950’s and produces a significant portion of plastic-lined products to other counties which include the United State of America. But this can also be reduced if large companies make smarter decisions that minimize the waste that comes out of their product.
An example is with the company called Adidas who focuses on making items like clothes, shoes, and other accessories items. Each sneaker is made out of about 11 plastic bottles in total, which means just one pair of normal-looking sneakers can help prevent 22 plastic bottles from entering the ocean. Now when you take into consideration that in the content of Europe Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer, then you quickly see how much industrial waste is taken out of the equation. Adidas long term plan is to eventually use “100% recyclable plastic in their sneakers” and making all their footwear recyclable as a result (Silverman).
Another company that looks to a similar solution to deal with waste is Biofabrik White. However, instead of using waste as clothing, they use waste as a fuel source. This type of manufacturing allows Biofabrik White to generate about 380 million kilowatts of electricity per hour. Additionally, we can still more plastics, but we can make more eco-friendly ones instead. Manly by replacing petroleum with plant oils that will decay naturally; all thanks to Henry Flords discovery in 1941.
Oceans are complex ecosystems that existed for billions of years. Now they face a threat they have never seen before that is artificial. Its future rests on us and the choices we make on whether it becomes a liquid dessert or fluid praised.
Essay by: Alexander Gabriel Caro
University of Phoenix