Animal Neighbours Project: The Problems with Plastic

What are Plastics?

Plastics are man-made material, derived from inorganic and organic materials such as carbon, silicon, oil and natural gas. 'Plastic; comes from the Greek word 'plastikos' which means having the ability to be shaped into various shapes. This man-made material is also designed to be resistant to microbial attack and environmental factors such as light and moisture.

Due to its flexibility and durability, plastic is used for almost any application, including packaging, building, textiles and transportations. The figure below shows a trend of continuous increase in the annual global plastic production, with production of only 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 381 million tonnes in 2015.

Global plastics production from 1950 to 2015 (billion tonnes).

Photo credit: Plastic Pollution (Ritchie, H. and Roser, M.)

However, the additives that make plastics more flexible and durable, eventually create a significant disposal problem as the additives increase the lifespan of plastics, allowing it to persist for hundreds of years in the environment after disposal.

Plastic Pollution

A crab found in a plastic cup in the Philippines.

Photo credit: Noel Guevara/Greenpeace

80% of plastics in the ocean came from land. There are three main pathways of how plastics end up in the ocean (source from: WWF):
i) Plastics transported to landfill can be blown away due to to its light weight, eventually finds its way into waterways and finally into the oceans.

ii) Plastic waste from littering will be carried away by rain and wind into drains and rivers, ultimately into the oceans.

iii) Plastic products or waste that was flushed down the toilet will escape into the oceans as wastewater plants are unable to filter those particles due to its small sizes.

Around 700 animal species are known to be affected by plastics. Plastic was shown to be fatal to wildlife, mainly due to entanglement, ingestion and starvation. Entanglement usually involves plastic rope, netting and fishing gear.

Meanwhile, ingestion of plastics can occur either unintentionally, intentionally or indirectly through consuming prey that had ingested plastics. When consuming a large amount of plastics, the plastics will take up space in the animal's stomach, reducing its appetite and finally starve it to death. Plastics can also cause other health issues such as reduced enzyme activity and metabolic disruption.