Why did plastic pollution suddenly get so hyped after being ignored by the mainstream media for years?

One idea is that the WWF is running a string public campaign currently...

Examples will come shortly here...

Here is the link to my question on RG and the WWF campaigns, see

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Plastic_is_dispersed_in_the_rivers_and_the_sea-we_are_openly_destroying_our_planet_What_can_what_must_be_done_Any_helpful_comments_or_ideas

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Because they are not biodegradable, and therefore environmental pollution, including the pollution of lakes, seas and oceans, grows rapidly. Plastic chemicals from plastic poison the water and living environment of many live horanisms. The scale of pollution is growing rapidly every year and will continue to grow until plastic is replaced by biodegradable materials that will replace plastic primarily in packaging. Technologies are already developed, there are already biodegradable materials that can replace plastic. It is only necessary to popularize these ecological material innovations. It is necessary to change the ecological policy in many countries. In the European Union, this process has already begun. The EU parliament voted in 2018 to liquidate plastics from packaging until 2021. However, these regulations will apply only in the European Union at the moment, and should be introduced on a global scale.

Isam Issa Omran

Although the world has benefited greatly from the use of plastics, which has caused a boom in the daily lives of people, the negative ecological effects and health damage caused by misuse and overuse of plastics cannot be overlooked, as it remains in the environment for a long time as it does not decompose but is breaking down into smaller and finer parts. It is a necessary call to confront plastic pollution and find sustainable alternatives.

Increasing global use of plastics is a matter of serious concern for environmental pollution by plastics and micro-plastics which can be tracked down to our food. Being non-biodegradable, effects of this pollution are far more serious. This fact is now hyped after being ignored by media for many years. The society and social media need to spread awareness about this issue and possibly bad complete use of plastics and plastic materials to all possible limits before it is too late to tackle ever increasing of plastics in our lives.

WWF Plastic Campaign Germany:

Here I am posting an initiative by WWF Deutschland, see URL:

https://www.wwf.de/plastikflut/

and

https://www.wwf.de/themen-projekte/meere-kuesten/plastik/plastik-umgibt-uns-auch-in-unserer-nahrung-wasser-und-luft/

I am sure every single person can do something...

Keywords: Environment, Conservation, Natural protection, Wastes, Food, Fish, Nutrition, Water

WWF Plastic Global campaign, see

Global WWF Campaign, see https://yourplasticdiet.org/ and also https://www.wwf.or.jp/file/20190612_oceana01_1.pdf and https://www.mumbrella.asia/2019/06/wwf-cautions-against-plastic-diet-in-campaign-created-by-grey-malaysia

Lately new studies about the ingestion of plastic through the uptake of food reveals the uptak of humans and the accumultinthe body and future illnesses such as cancer, see

Plastic ingestion by people could be equating to a credit card a week

Wednesday, 12 June 2019

A new study finds on average people could be ingesting approximately 5 grams of plastic every week, which is the equivalent weight of a credit card.

📷 Dr Thava Palanisami

The analysis No Plastic in Nature: Assessing Plastic Ingestion from Nature to People prepared by Dalberg, based on a study commissioned by WWF and carried out by University of Newcastle, Australia, suggests people are consuming about 2000 tiny pieces of plastic every week. That’s approximately 21 grams a month, just over 250 grams a year.

The University of Newcastle is the first to combine data from over 50 studies on the ingestion of microplastic by people. The findings are an important step towards understanding the impact of plastic pollution on humans. It also further confirms the urgent need to address the plastic system so that it does not pollute ecosystems in the first place.

“These findings must serve as a wake-up call to governments. Not only are plastics polluting our oceans and waterways and killing marine life - it’s in all of us and we can’t escape consuming plastics. Global action is urgent and essential to tackling this crisis,” said Marco Lambertini, WWF International Director General

“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 solved by addressing the root cause of plastic pollution. 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,” continued Lambertini.

The study demonstrated a wide range in ingestion patterns. Whilst being mindful of the limitations of this evolving field of research, initial findings point towards a global average ingestion rate of plastic by humans of approximately 5 grams per week.

The single largest source of plastic ingestion is through water, both bottled and tap, all over the world. Large regional variations are reflected again, with twice as much plastic found in the US or India than in European or Indonesian water. Of the consumables studied, those with the highest recorded plastic levels include shellfish, beer and salt. The findings of the report demonstrate that the problem of plastic pollution is a universal one and directly affecting people. Leakage of plastic into our environment and food chain has been met so far with an inadequate global response by governments.

No Plastic in Nature: Assessing Plastic Ingestion from Nature to People calls for governments to step up and play a key role in ensuring the entire chain in the plastic system, from manufacturers to consumers, are held accountable to the common goal of ending plastic pollution. WWF is mobilising the public to support the global petition calling for a legally binding treaty on marine plastics pollution that has already garnered over 500,000 signatures. The treaty would establish national targets and transparent reporting mechanisms that extend to companies. Additionally, the treaty should provide for financial and technical support for low-income countries to scale up their waste management capacity.

“While the awareness of microplastics and their impact on the environment is increasing, this study has helped to provide an accurate calculation of ingestion rates for the first time. Developing a method for transforming counts of microplastic particles into masses will help determine the potential toxicological risks for humans moving forward,” comments Dr Thava Palanisami, project co-lead and microplastics researcher at the University of Newcastle.

Ingestion is just one aspect of a much wider plastics crisis. Plastic pollution is a major threat to wildlife, not only through microplastic ingestion but via entanglement and habitat destruction. Plastic pollution also has damaging economic consequences, with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimating its annual economic impact on the ocean economy at US$8 billion.

Further details on the methodology can be found here.

https://www.newcastle.edu.au/newsroom/featured-news/plastic-ingestion-by-people-could-be-equating-to-a-credit-card-a-week

Finally pictures and social media and the internet spread ideas and news in different ways than before...

And a catching picture tells more than 1,000 words...

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/09/14/nature-photographer-snaps-jaw-dropping-photo-he-wishes-didnt-exist/661977001/

And here is a so called wildlife photo of the year...…

636409038530443637-Sewage-surfer-Justin-Hofman---Wildlife-Photographer-of-the-Year.jpg

News on new political decisions are sparking reports on the issue, e.g. Canada and New Zealand prohibit some plastic products such as bags...

Antother fact is that the UN has made a successful effort to unite 186 countries in the Basel Convention to agree to cut plastic wastes in 2019, notably without the US:

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/plastic-waste-pollution-un-agreement-us-basel-convention-a8909186.html

"Almost every country in the world agrees deal to cut plastic pollution – except US

‘Countries have decided to do something which will translate into real action,’ says UN leader

Adam Forrest @adamtomforrest
Saturday 11 May 2019 01:30 The Independent

Almost every country in the world has signed up to a legally-binding plan to cut plastic waste – with the US a striking exception.

The United Nations announced that 186 countries reached an agreement on Friday which means they will have to monitor and track movements of plastic waste outside their borders.

Rolph Payet, of the UN Environment Programme, called the amendment to the Basel Convention “historic”.

He said it would help create a better regulated global trade in plastic, which currently clutters pristine land, pollutes the oceans and entangles wildlife – sometimes with deadly results.

“It’s sending a very strong political signal to the rest of the world – to the private sector, to the consumer market – that we need to do something,” said Mr Payet. “Countries have decided to do something which will translate into real action on the ground.”

The deal affects products used in a broad array of industries, such as healthcare, technology, aerospace, fashion, and food and beverages.

The agreement is likely to lead to customs agents being on the lookout for electronic or other types of potentially hazardous waste more than before.

Countries will have to figure out their own ways of adhering to the accord, Mr Payet said. Even the few non-signatory countries, like the US, could be affected when they ship plastic waste to countries that have signed up.

Mr Payet credited Norway for leading the initiative, which first was presented in September. The time from then to approval was extremely quick by traditional UN standards.

The framework “is historic in the sense that it is legally binding,” Mr Payet said. “They [the countries] have managed to use an existing international instrument to put in place those measures.”

“There is going to be a transparent and traceable system for export and import of plastic waste,” Mr Payet said.

Paul Rose, expedition leader for the National Geographic Pristine Seas Expeditions, said he believed changing public opinion worldwide about plastic pollution had played a positive role in the negotiations.

📷 Baby dolphin found washed up on beach ‘had stomach full of plastic’
📷 Biodegradable plastic bags 'hold load of shopping after years at sea'

“It was those iconic images of the dead albatross chicks on the Pacific Islands with their stomachs open and all recognisable plastic items inside it, and most recently, it’s been when we discovered the nano-particles do cross the blood-brain barrier, and we were able to prove that plastic is in us,” Rose said.

An online petition entitled “Stop dumping plastic in paradise!” has attracted almost a million signatures in the past week.

According to the UN, plastic pollution has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic now found in the oceans. Between 80 and 90 per cent of it comes from land-based sources.

Additional reporting by agencies"

Thank you for all your answers!

I agree Dalveer Singh Somal and Daniel M Turner

that it most likely (like so often) has been ignored for so long - the facts about the devastating impact plastic has on our environment is known and has been researched for decades - by popular media and politics because of our profit-driven industry and the wish for endless economic growth.

I believe that talking alone will not create any reasonable change. It creates awareness but that alone does not make people change their behavior and lifestyle they got so accustomed to. But then again, what is enough change? What can a single person do, when trying to live sustainable or plastic free is so hard because you cannot go grocery shopping without buying plastic packaging or have to drive for miles which again is harming the environment on another account?

It has to come from "above", from the government. Especially here in London (from a UK perspective) a lot of smaller organizations and citizen protests show action. My hopes are just that the media coverage in popular media (not only academic or scientific publications) about plastic pollution will change and move away from only or mainly reporting about the "sexy"/superficial side of the topic and how to avoid single use plastics to the "real" extent and problems of it (overconsumption, the nature scientific uncertainty that underlies the whole research and topic, etc). Or will the media hype around the topic just subside again once a new topic occurs or climate change becomes newsworthier again?

Carsten Weerth thank you for all those examples. It is interesting to see which approaches the different organizations and institutions (ie. NGOs, governments, companies and the traditional media) use to communicate information on the very same topic.

Nagalakshmi Radhakrishnan

And one other idea is that the fridays for future movement is getting its pressure towards the maindstream politics:

In Germany they are still under way and the Green party currently has a voting forecast of 25 % (Conservative party only 26 %) - for the first time a green Chancellor in Germany is possible and Robert Habeck is a very popular poltician...

NB: Germany's Labour Party (SPD) only gets about 13 to 15 % of the votes and the far-right wing party Afd also about 15-16 %...

Lauren Roman

Nutshell: People respond emotionally to cute animals in distress.

I believe the sudden interest was fuelled by timely videos and photos, which went viral on social media and brought the conversation into the public. There has been a growing anti-plastics movement bubbling in environmental circles that I have seen for almost a decade (look at the emergence of the "Story of Stuff" and similar on youtube), but because these videos focused on the environment, it didn't really appear to influence those outside already environmentally leaning groups. In the past few years, however, there have been several viral videos and photos on social media of harm to charismatic animals, which people broadly connect with emotionally (an example being the turtle with the straw in its nose, Midway albatross photos, images of whales and dolphins with plastic bags in their stomachs). I believe these had a large role in moving awareness outside of "green circles" and into the public eye. Unlike "invisible" issues like climate change and deforestation, people see plastic and litter ever day. Connecting these daily experiences of choosing / refusing a straw or plastic bag with those images and videos and responding emotionally is why I believe plastics has taken off as an issue where other (arguably more dire environmental issues) are not as widely spoken about.

Environmental impact is more do it conceen

Soil degradation

Bio açcumulated

Non bio degradation

Leanne Poole

There may be an unconscious element of avoidance: Will there be bickering as to who (or what) must pay for cleanup, especially in bordering countries, such as USA and Canada? That the question of harmful plastics in hostile takeover of most of the earth's natural assets was not brought to the fore until a possible redress collapsed into 'complaint', says more about the priorities of a sensationalist seller than of conscious humanitarian journalistic drive.

In utmost brevity, the strategic advantage of circumventing redress-calibre problems in 'eras', in favour of rolling out an alarmist menu 'at the time', allows for environment-related politics of jurisdiction, impossible koans of capitalism to erupt into regional sqabbles that can increase inter-regional or even international tensions. Tensions that may yield the ultimate prize of conflict. Yes, this would be the worst case scenario, and, yes, arms dealers are always to blame.

It is possible to expand a simple conflict resolution principle ("ah...don't do that"). We all need the knowledge--grassroots revelations--that can first observe, note, then navigate and mitigate, (and, preferably, ultimately resolve by way of new standards) 'the mess, so far', rather than the customary untraceable dislocation. In other words, we could all stand a bit more sophistication. One of the important points is that not everyone is a "Mr. Nice Guy" that immediately run to the correct department, tripping over himself or herself to turn in the data, preferably for free.

Please note, too, the tendency that many societies share, of waiting for a voice or a personality to spearhead 'a cause', almost as if no one will listen, without the sponsorship of celebrity. This is an especially Western habit that is a product of centuries of grooming by a media that gradually became more and more visual, allowing for lowest-common-denominator ticket and merchandise gains; a distraction, in many ways, entertaining hours, days, weeks...years into a disappearing oblivion of complacent 'wait until someone sounds the alarm' doldrums.

Conversely, our society has nearly paralleled the immeasurable leaps forward in technology of the 20th century with abrupt and universal changes that have been not only implemented, but adopted and cherished. "With amazing speed, recycling has shed its tie-dyed image, attracted investment from big business and inspired political passion. Over the course of just a few years it has evolved into a $14 billion industry.1" was the comment in 1992. Recycling was the environmental sensation of 1992. There may be another huge breakthrough, 2019, but this time without the various general public(s) giving an appearance of people that are willing to lose its more beloved home-and-hearth foundation: the environment. Come to think of it...2020...could be a very popular state of excellent vision.

1"Historians may allude to this as the Throwaway Age,“ social critic Vance Packard wrote in his 1960 classic, The Waste Makers." A view from 1992, by Griffin, Rodman D. "Garbage Crisis". CQ Press, CQ Researcher. Sage Pulications, March, 1992. Online: https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1992032000.

A large number of countries still do not appreciate the magnitude of plastic pollution which has now assumed alarming global concern and calls for a global effort to combat this problem. To me, use of all forms of plastics should be banned. The concern of plastic pollution should be hyped more both by civil society as well as media.

Rafael Antonio Martinez

La discusión está centrada en el uso del plástico, Lo que nunca se considero fue el sobre uso excesivo del mismo. Lo grave no solo es los medios de comunicación sino, donde queda el papel de la educación y la conciencia ambiental.

David Eugene Booth

IMO there are so many things going wrong it is hard to follow all of them. We try to do our best but the things closer to our heart usually get priority. Further some governments are so oriented toward producers of these problems it is difficult to have an impact.

Leanne Poole thank you for your insightful answer as well as the interesting read, it mentions many interesting aspects (e.g. necessity of grassroot revelations, journalism that relies on celebrity voices and our capitalism-driven industry). I indeed hope 2020 will have a 'breakthrough', so that we'll finally start implementing changes and use the possibilities of modern technology and the knowledge that we gained throughout the years and make a good use of it to 'save' what we all take for granted and cannot live without, our environment.

Leanne Poole

Absolutely. Seeing the massive re-make that 'recycling' has been, from none to a fully accepted, fully understood and implemented personal/family/business/industrial/governmental habit, in my lifetime (it helps that my Dad, Wally Poole, was an Environmental Ed Professor at Brock U!) has convinced me of 'our' capabilities in the environmental reform department of life.

Thanks for the comment, especially for the start of what will hopefully develop into sufficient analysis to start a new trend.

Leanne Poole

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Dear Colleagues and Friends from RG,

Pollution, mainly plastic waste, has been growing strongly in recent years, especially in developing countries. On the other hand, this problem has recently been noticed in the media because mainstream media has noticed that there has been an increase in public awareness of this problem. In addition, there have been technologies for producing biodegradable materials that have been able to replace plastic commonly used in various packaging and products for many years. Why have the technologies for the production of biodegradable materials of organic origin produced, inter alia, from agricultural crops not becoming more widespread? Because for the needs of plastic packaging, a strong industry has developed for many years and efforts have been made to ignore the growing problem of plastic pollution. The strong lobby of the plastic manufacturers tried to ignore this problem on purpose. Finally, in some countries, public awareness is changing in this area and the media is noticing this problem. Finally, the growing problem of plastic environmental pollution, pollution of both land and water environments of rivers, lakes, oceans and oceans has recently started to be noticed. especially in the seas and oceans, plastic pollution, including micro plastic particles, which threaten entire biological marine ecosystems, has increased strongly in recent years.

Best wishes

Agree with comments of Dariusz Prokopowicz on serious global problem of plastic pollution and the suggested measures to combat this serious issue through public awareness, ban of use of plastics and terminologies for bio-degradation and re-use of existing plastic wastes.

Artur Braun, die Sau rennt aber nun gluecklicherweise schon ziemlich lange durchs Dorf. Vielleicht koennen wir nun auf eine positive Wendung und auch eine staerkere Beteiligung der Politik zur Problemloesung auf nationaler und lokaler(er) Ebene hoffen.

The sad thing is that most plastics indeed cannot be recycled.

On another note: What support would you like to have for your mineral water company (if there is any you would like that could make your sustainable business easier and reduce the use of plastic waste even more)?

Which countries did you have in mind by writing that most media is not independent? And how would you think does this influence the news coverage on plastic pollution in particular?

Olufemi Joseph Akinnifesi

Thank you for your answer, Dariusz Prokopowicz

So you are suggesting that the public awareness of the problem came first and then the media could not ignore the public concern and interest in the topic anymore (hence the media overcame the industry's efforts to ignore the growing problem of plastic pollution) and now the public awareness of the problem grows even further, because the media is reporting about the issues involved?

Erik Strub

Difficult to say when themes really pop up. To my awareness, plastic has already been a theme once in a wile (plastic vortex in the Pacific Ocean) since several years.

Simila

Erik Strub

Similar as CO2. There is a press release from the DPG (German Physical Society) from the early 1970s, but many (not all) media ignored it for decades.

I think it is difficult to say when a theme becomes prominent. At least, the pure information alone is not enough to trigger processes. You always need political drive, narratives, charismatic persons, alliances, maybe economic interest, ...

Recently read an article citing plastic pollution rave as political and economic tools by 'fossil fueler$' to shift attention from global emission cut down. While this opinion remains the authors', the menace of plastics(micro to mega) is increasingly evident yet catastrophic for our ecosystem-especially in developing economies. So, let the 'findings and filming' continue!!