For most people, the Mediterranean is the ideal holiday destination. The images associated with this destination are clear blue waters, endless beaches and enchanting places.
Unfortunately, things are no longer the same because of her plastic pollution. In particular, according to research by the environmental organization WWF Greece, 570,000 tons of plastic end up in the Mediterranean every year. What does this mean; It means that it is like throwing 33,800 plastic bottles into the sea every minute (!).
And plastic pollution is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the coming years, while the production of plastic waste in the region is estimated to quadruple by 2050.
According to the same research, microplastics are now everywhere, with the result that all people are exposed to plastic pollution (!). In fact, it is estimated that each of us swallows without knowing it amounts of plastic in the form of microplastics…
68 kg of plastic per capita…
As it turns out, Greece produces approximately 700,000 tons of plastic waste every year, or 68 kilograms of plastic per capita.
The influx of tourists to Greece’s coastal areas increases waste generation by up to 26% during peak season, while only 8% of plastic waste is recycled…
It is estimated that almost 40,000 tons of plastic waste are released into the environment every year. Of these, 11,500 tons end up in the Greek seas and almost 70% of this plastic waste pollutes the Greek coasts every year.
The Greek economy is estimated to lose approximately 26 million a year due to plastic pollution, as it affects the tourism, shipping and fishing economy.
The effects on human health
According to the latest research by the World Wide Fund for Nature, more than 87% of the Mediterranean Sea, which stretches from the Atlantic to Africa, Europe and Asia, is polluted by microplastics and other pollutants, including toxic metals and industrial chemicals.
Globally, water pollution is linked to 1.4 million premature deaths, creating problems for the 150 million people who live along the shores of the Mediterranean and the 270 million tourists who are attracted to these waters each year.
Widespread plastic pollution poses significant health risks due to the accumulation of persistent chemicals (PFAS / perfluorinated alkylated substances).
The biggest polluters
Based on what is reported in the research, the biggest polluter is Egypt with 0.25 million tons of plastic ending up in the Mediterranean. Next is Turkey, with 0.11 million tons and Italy with 0.04 million tons of plastic in the polluted sea. All these amounts are part of the 1.9 million plastic fragments per square meter found in the Mediterranean.
Danger to birds and fish
And not only humans are affected by plastic pollution: based on research, worldwide 344 species have been found trapped in plastic. In fact, in our wider region, in the Mediterranean, 134 species are victims of plastic consumption.
Today, 90% of seabirds have some kind of piece of plastic in their stomach (in 1960 that percentage was 5%), while until 2050 that percentage, if nothing changes, can reach 99% (!).
It’s an open secret that plastics are suffocating the planet and threatening life… According to experts from an ecological organization, 18% of tuna and swordfish have plastic waste in their stomachs (mainly cellophane and PET,) and also 17% of the galley. species Galeus melastomus in the Balearic Islands.
It remains in the environment for hundreds of years
As the environmental organization WWF points out, plastic is a material with particularly problematic properties. It is light and therefore easy to transport. It is durable and therefore does not decompose in the natural environment, remaining there for tens or hundreds of years.
And why is it such a big problem? Because, as the environmental organization says, apart from the fact that plastic is a material with problematic properties, it is also a material for which no solution has been provided for its effective management.
Plastics are literally everywhere: in the soil, in the rivers, in the seas and by extension in the food chain, with each of us unwittingly consuming five grams of microplastics a week.
According to experts, the uncontrolled production of plastic not only drowns our cities and nature in plastics, but also contributes to the worsening of the triple planetary crisis: climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity.
2+1 factors that intensify plastic pollution
According to WWF Greece, plastic pollution is increasing, among other things, because:
– Mediterranean companies market 38 million tons of plastic products every year, but their help to manage the produced plastic waste is still not effective. In addition, due to the low cost of “virgin” plastic, they do not invest in the design of new products based on the reuse, reduction or even replacement of “old” plastic.
– Coastal activities are responsible for half of the amount of plastic that enters the Mediterranean every day, while, as the research states, each kilometer of coast accumulates more than 5 kilograms of plastic. The coastal areas with the highest rates of pollution include popular tourist destinations such as Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Valencia, the Gulf of Marseille and the coast of Venice, while the Turkish Cilicia is first in plastic waste pollution.
-The problems in the management of plastic waste in the Mediterranean are also seriously aggravated by tourism, according to the report, because tourists in the summer season increase the production of waste by 30% in many coastal areas of the Mediterranean. In particular, in Greece, tourism increases plastic waste by 26% in the summer season, causing management costs of 4-8 million euros. It should be noted that marine litter costs the tourism, fishing and shipping sectors around 641 million euros every year.
A global problem
A recent study by the American office of the environmental organization Greenpeace (“Circular Claims Fall Flat Again”) states that in 2021 households in the United States created approximately 51 million tons of plastic waste, of which only 2.4 million tons were recycled ( !).
The study mentions, among other things, that plastic recycling has a downward trend, after it decreased by 5%-6% in 2021, while in 2014 it was 9.5% and in 2018 it was 8.7%. When asked why this happened, the editors replied that it was because of the ban on the import of plastic waste imposed by China in 2018!
It is noted that until then the United States (but also many other countries) exported millions of tons of plastic waste to China and counted those exports as “recycling”, although a large part of it simply ended up in the trash or was burned. ..
Now, after China’s move to no longer accept plastic waste, it ends up in Africa and various other Asian countries. A United Nations report on how plastic pollution – and by extension plastic production – has a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities and countries, notes, among other things, that these countries experience high levels of environmental injustice, while at the same time they are more likely to do so. to include colored citizens.
Why plastic recycling is failing…
The question is reasonable: Why does plastic recycling fail? In the report of the American office of the environmental organization Greenpeace, it is stated that it fails, among other things, because the plastic waste is extremely difficult to collect, and that is because of the huge amount of plastic that overwhelms us from everywhere. In addition, plastic waste must be sorted before it can be recycled, so even if it was collected, it would be impossible to sort through trillions of plastic waste.
According to scientists from an ecological organization, in addition to consumers and the state (recycling systems, etc.), an important factor in the failure of the system is that the producers of plastic pollution, single-use plastic packaging, do not have the obligation to monitor the cyclic life of their products