The world’s throwaway attitude to plastic has nasty repercussions for East London’s Nahoon beach.
According to EL Museum scientist Kevin Cole, research shows its plastic pollution is among the worst on the SA coastline.
Producers make 80000 tons of plastic annually but only a fraction of this is recycled. The rest goes into the oceans, often eaten by marine life.
“Studies by UCT’s Professor Peter Ryanshow Nahoon is one of the hardest hit. The cause is lack of compliance and law enforcement,” said Cole.
There is no single solution to the problem. But there are immediate steps that Cole believes will make a significant difference. He says if Valli Moosa, minister of environment affairs in the 1990s, was still in charge, grocers flirting with changing plastic shopping bags for more eco-friendly ones would have compliance deadlines. Delay tactics and promises of “planning, beginning, working towards, researching, and studying” would end.
“A total ban on plastic bags will ensure shoppers use their own or paper bags. Eventually, they might refuse to buy products heavily wrapped in plastic, as is happening in many countries,” said Cole.
He urges a full ban on single-use plastic. A plastic bottle takes 450 years to decompose, as do disposable diapers. Fishing line takes 600 years.
Paper, cardboard, and newspaper decompose in between two and eight weeks.
Throughout the first world massive corporations, amongst them Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, Nestle, L’Oréal, and locally Spar and Woolworths, set dates to eliminate single-use plastic, but seldom stick to deadlines.
The common excuse is that prices would soar, penalising their customers, a view backed by the European Commission.
Countering this, the World Economic Forum reckons recycling would save $8-billion annually. The biggest PR budget usually wins the argument.
Jonathan Earl, a director of waste management and recycling company Collectall, agrees with Cole’s views.
Earl was involved with the East London Mercedes-Benz plant’s ISO 14000 waste management system in the early 2000s. The parent company was implementing the system internationally.
The budget was substantial, the goals clearly identified and communicated, and commitment from senior directors intense. Getting the message through the ranks, from management to worker level, was simply considered part of the manufacturing job, and people embraced it.
Once the plant was compliant, the system moved down to suppliers. Their contracts depended on sticking to rules, and deviations were not tolerated.
“If a manufacturing plant can get this right, there is no reason that East London shouldn’t. Step one is communication, getting people on board.”
Cole’s view on plastic non-compliance harks back nearly 70 years to the tobacco industry when doctors in the UK proved that smoking led to lung cancer. Yet the industry denied it, and many tobacco executives perjured themselves fighting laws curbing lighting up.
Despite all the adverts and warnings, more Americans still die from cigarette-induced illnesses than due to murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes or alcohol abuse.
People don’t die, not directly anyway, from plastic pollution – or not yet anyway. Cole says this will change as marine life ingests more plastic, and humans eat more marine life.
“Single-use plastic – bottles, earbuds, polystyrene cups, confectionery, straws, food wrapping – is washed into our rivers. Antiquated sewerage systems just can’t cope, and it is released, untreated into the sea. Fixing that is the ultimate goal, but banning bags is the first step.”
Plastic-chomping bacteria – along with decomposable plastic, awareness, and compliance, might return Nahoon into a pristine beach, and not a plastic dump. If we all do our best...