Plastics, the environment and human health: current consensus and future trends

Abstract

Plastics have transformed everyday life; usage is increasing and annual production is likely to exceed 300 million tonnes by 2010. In this concluding paper to the Theme Issue on Plastics, the Environment and Human Health, we synthesize current understanding of the benefits and concerns surrounding the use of plastics and look to future priorities, challenges and opportunities. It is evident that plastics bring many societal benefits and offer future technological and medical advances. However, concerns about usage and disposal are diverse and include accumulation of waste in landfills and in natural habitats, physical problems for wildlife resulting from ingestion or entanglement in plastic, the leaching of chemicals from plastic products and the potential for plastics to transfer chemicals to wildlife and humans. However, perhaps the most important overriding concern, which is implicit throughout this volume, is that our current usage is not sustainable. Around 4 per cent of world oil production is used as a feedstock to make plastics and a similar amount is used as energy in the process. Yet over a third of current production is used to make items of packaging, which are then rapidly discarded. Given our declining reserves of fossil fuels, and finite capacity for disposal of waste to landfill, this linear use of hydrocarbons, via packaging and other short-lived applications of plastic, is simply not sustainable. There are solutions, including material reduction, design for end-of-life recyclability, increased recycling capacity, development of bio-based feedstocks, strategies to reduce littering, the application of green chemistry life-cycle analyses and revised risk assessment approaches. Such measures will be most effective through the combined actions of the public, industry, scientists and policymakers. There is some urgency, as the quantity of plastics produced in the first 10 years of the current century is likely to approach the quantity produced in the entire century that preceded.

Enhancing public awareness and promoting co-responsibility for marine litter in Europe: The challenge of MARLISCO

“…From a life-cycle perspective, the linear use of resources from production to a short-lived single-use stage to disposal is a central underlying cause of the accumulation of waste in land and the sea (Barnes et al, 2009;Thompson et al 2009). Recognition that marine litter is not merely a waste management issue is fundamental to addressing the underlying causes of this problem.…”

“…Its negative ecological and socioeconomic impacts pose severe threats to the marine and coastal environment and human livelihoods, affecting habitats, species and ecosystems services; human health and safety; vital economic sectors such as fisheries, tourism and navigation (Kershaw et al 2011;Mouat et al 2010;CBD, 2012;STAP 2011;Thompson et al 2009;UNEP, 2009). Particularly after the RIO+20 Summit (UN, 2012), marine litter is recognized as one of the major pollution problems worldwide.…”

“…Plastics are not only ubiquitous in our daily lives but they are now found throughout the marine and coastal environment, from the poles to the Equator, from shorelines and the sea surface to the sea floor (Galgani et al, 2015;Thompson et al, 2009;Eriksen et al, 2014). Inadequate solid waste management, inappropriate waste disposal by consumers at large and discharge of inappropriately treated/untreated waste water can all lead to litter entering the sea but there is also direct input in the marine environment from maritime activities, coastal tourism and recreation (STAP, 2011;Barnes et al, 2009).…”

Oxodegradable plastics: degradation, environmental impact and recycling

“…There is evidence that plastic debris in the marine environment can degrade to give fine particles that then become ingested and accumulate in marine organisms (Browne et al, 2008;Thompson et al, 2004). Narayan (2009) has pointed out that oxo-degradable fragments might act to concentrate pesticide residues in the soil, as has been shown for PE and polypropylene (PP) debris found in the marine environment (Mato et al, 2001;Teuten et Thompson et al, 2009). There are also concerns that degraded fragments may become cross-linked and hence persist in the environment (Feuilloley et al, 2005).…”

Wildlife cancer and plastic pollution

“…As Erren and colleagues describe, there are many unanswered questions regarding the short-and long-term effects of environmental toxins, including plastics. Recent reviews examining the environmental threat posed by plastics 3 , and specifically bisphenol A (BPA) 4 , support the role of wildlife health monitoring and research in bridging the gap between an in vitro understanding of the mechanisms of action and effects of toxins and the actual health risks of exposure in complicated natural settings. There is, and will continue to be, a tremendous need for immediate conservation interventions that address the global problem of pollution, as well as expanded, focused research in animals and humans.…”