Would you ever eat plastic? You may already do

People could be ingesting up to five grams of plastic every week, which is equivalent to the weight of a credit card

KARACHI: With a population of over 200 million people, it is no surprise that Pakistan -- like the rest of the world -- is also facing the challenge of plastic waste production and management, particularly in big cities.

In fact, plastic waste is not only posing a serious threat to freshwater and marine life but it is also adversely affecting humans in the form of microplastics. Experts, therefore, warn that a collaborative and proactive approach is needed to address the issue before it gets too late.

How big is the problem?

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), around 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans each year – the equivalent of a full garbage truck emptying into the ocean every minute.

Compared to the whole last century, the world has produced more plastic in the last decade, 50 per cent of which is single-use or disposable. This includes plastic bags, plastic cutlery, straws and soda and water bottles, to name a few.

Today is International #PlasticBagFreeDay Day. 🛍️

On average, single-use plastic bags are used for 2️⃣5️⃣ minutes and take over 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ years to degrade. Try reusable shopping bags on your next shopping trip and help #BeatPlasticPollution. 💪 It's time to #BreakFreeFromPlastic. ⏳ pic.twitter.com/rV6UZUFnfE

— UN Environment Programme New York (@UNEP_NYO) July 3, 2019

When seen from a sustainability perspective, plastic does not decompose unlike some other kinds of waste. In fact, plastic items like water bottles can take over 400 years to biodegrade. Other items like straws can take up to 200 years to biodegrade, while foam plastic cups can take up to 50 years.

Once the plastic is dumped into the oceans, they form the most prevalent type of debris.

When the large plastic debris piled up in the sea and river beds break down into smaller pieces, they pose a great threat to marine and human life in the form of microplastics.



What are microplastics?

As the name suggests, microplastics are tiny bits of plastics – usually the size of a sesame seed or less than five millimetres in length – that fill oceans, seas and rivers to pollute them.

Microplastics not only originate from the large plastic debris, but they are also found in seawater in the form of microbeads which are tiny pieces of manufactured polyethene plastic. Microbeads are commonly found in some beauty and health products, such as facial scrubs, cleansers and toothpaste.

Owing to their tiny size, water filtration systems are unable to hold microplastics back and they easily end up in the oceans to work their way into marine organisms. They are also ingested by human beings through seafood and drinking water, posing some serious health hazards.

According to Marco Lambertini, director general at WWF International, plastics are not only polluting oceans and waterways and killing marine life, but they are also entering human bodies. Therefore, global action is urgent and essential to tackling this crisis.

“While research is investigating potential negative effects of plastic on human health, we are all clear that this is a worldwide problem that can only be resolved by addressing the root cause of plastic pollution,” Lambertini said.

“If we don’t want plastic in our bodies, we need to stop the millions of tons of plastic that continue leaking into nature every year. In order to tackle the plastic crisis, we need urgent action at government, business and consumer levels, and a global treaty with global targets to address plastic pollution.”

Health risks for humans

Scientific evidence shows that microplastic particles are entering human bodies and that the particles transport molecules that can cause health-related problems at certain concentrations. Although research is still in progress to find out the exact effects of microplastics on human health, its ongoing accumulation can be hazardous in the long run.

A recent study commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International and carried out by the University of Newcastle, Australia, assessed the impacts of microplastics on humans and revealed that, on average, people could be ingesting approximately five grams of plastic every week, which is equivalent to the weight of a credit card.

Titled No Plastic in Nature: Assessing Plastic Ingestion from Nature to People, the study suggests that people are consuming about 2,000 tiny pieces of plastic every week – that makes approximately 21 grams a month and just over 250 grams a year.

The situation in Pakistan

Shedding light on the gravity of the situation, Hammad Naqi Khan, Director General WWF-Pakistan said that plastic pollution is a serious issue facing the international community and Pakistan is no exception.

He said that although the federal and provincial governments have been making efforts to ban plastic bags, there is a need to promote alternatives and develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure zero plastic waste in Pakistan.

Emphasising the need for new policies to ban plastic products, he said that there should also be community awareness programmes to educate people about the hazards of plastic pollution and discourage them from the use of plastics in their daily lives.

Using the example of Rwanda which imposed a national ban on plastic bags, Hammad Naqi Khan said that such a model can also be introduced in Pakistan.

Muhammad Moazzam Khan, Technical Advisor Marine Fisheries at WWF-Pakistan said that the current study depicts a realistic picture of how plastics are damaging the environment and harming human life.

Sharing the findings of a recent study conducted in Pakistan by a student under his supervision, Moazzam Khan explained that there are more than 300 pieces of microplastics in one gram of sand along Karachi’s Clifton Beach.

“This is an alarming situation as microplastics consumed by marine animals find their way into humans through seafood,” he said. “According to an estimate, each year around 13,000 metric tons (m. tons) of garbage is generated in the city and only 8,000 m. tons is lifted by the civic agencies to the dumpsites. However, the remaining 5,000 m. tons of garbage is not accounted for [and it ultimately] goes to the sea or remains on the land or in the air.”

Solid waste management

While environmental experts agree that urgent action is required to address the issue of microplastics and its effect on marine life and human health, Asif Shuja Khan, former director general of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told The Express Tribune that while creating awareness about microplastic is a global concern, the foremost issue for Pakistan is to concentrate on its solid waste management.

“The ongoing littering, open dumping and the inability to manage solid waste are multiplying plastic waste in Pakistan, so much so that plastic – especially in the form of bags – has become a nuisance,” Asif Shuja Khan explained.

Commenting on the federal government’s decision to make Islamabad “plastic free” by imposing a ban on single-use plastic bags from August 2019, Asif Shuja Khan said that an outright ban is not feasible in Pakistan at the moment because the country still has a long way to go in terms of solid waste collection and disposal.

“A common man must be provided with alternatives to plastic bags first [instead of suddenly imposing bans on plastics] and the government must take knowledge-based decisions to tackle the issue,” he concluded.