micro-plastic is everywhere – in the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat. According to a WWF study, a person takes up to five grams of microplastics per week – roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card.
where is the stuff? It is known that small beads to go in cosmetics directly into the wastewater. Many think of the plastic garbage that is dumped in some countries, still directly into the rivers and into the sea. You are somewhat informed, you know that washing machines and dryers, plastic fibers of clothing in Micro-turning plastic.
factory fresh in the environment
A completely different source of permanent contamination with plastic particles, the device is only now in the view:, of all things, virgin granules directly from the production for a good part of the pollution with micro-plastics be responsible. In the case of poor handling of the small Pellets during Loading and Unloading and the Transport to escape, and then go with the Wind or the rain water from the factory premises into the environment. Like other Micro-plastics in the ocean, these Pellets accumulate toxic chemicals from the surrounding water. You like to be eaten, because a lot of types to confuse the Pellets with fish eggs.
micro-plastic With every meal we eat about 100 plastic particles By Gernot Kramper
Exact global surveys, there is not. It is estimated that annually more than 250,000 tons of granular material in the ocean. As of 2017, the two vessels collided, there were 49 tons of Pellets into the sea. This 49 tons of ranged, around 2000 kilometres to the South Africa coat niche coast with small beads to. 450 days after the collision, the Pellets reached even Australia.
plastic-Pellets are everywhere
In February 2019, the Scottish environment group Fidra reported on the pollution caused by Pellets in 28 of the 32 countries surveyed. For the UK, a study States that only the local production lose plants between 5 and 35 billion Pellets per year. Preliminary estimates assume that about half of the micro-plastics consists of the pre-production pellets. “Pellets are the second most common type of micro-plastic, we find, according to the fragments, which are formed when larger things decompose,” says Sherri Mason, of Pennsylvania State University to the Portal “Quartz”. “I can go to any beach, after five minutes I find something. On a river Bank is 10 minutes away. Once you know what these Pellets look like, you will find them everywhere.”
environmental and climate protection concerns all of us. This post is part of the project “let’s do it!”, the Bertelsmann Content Alliance, which also includes the star as a part of Gruner + Jahr. With the combined power and reach of our journalistic services, we aim to create maximum awareness and Knowledge – for one of the most important issues of our time. #PACKENWIRSAN
In the actual production plant can not escape these basic materials. The problems arise at the time of Loading and transportation. Under-pressure hoses, the small lenses suck in and rinse them in a Container and Transporter. At the connection points Pellets of occur always, others are gone with the Wind. Remedy could make a closed Loading, and a recycling duty. Once the beads have fallen to the ground, you are as a raw material without purification unusable. They are usually washed away carelessly, so you can enter the sewage system.
jurisdiction pull
In Denmark to 2018 samples of Fauna & Flora International (FFI) showed an alarming result. The samples were made in the surroundings of enterprises, the plastic products manufacture. Everywhere the environment was charged with Pellets. And, although some of the companies follow voluntary industry standard Clean Sweep, which should result in no losses of Pellets. “Because in Denmark there are no manufacturers of plastic pellets, we thought it could be a case study about a country with Zero-pellet loss. Since we were wrong. These results show that Pellets of companies along the whole supply chain in the environment are released, and the current voluntary efforts by the industry to prevent this do not work,” said Elisabeth Whitebread of FFI.
The small beads are not considered as dangerous goods, according to lax the rules are. However, the ideas change slowly. In Texas, the company Formosa Plastics has introduced millions of Pellets in a Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. Until residents had enough of it, that their beaches of Pellets are covered, and began to monitor the discharges meticulously. In June, a Federal judge ruled that Formosa had violated the state and Federal water pollution laws. The residents want the company pays, therefore, to 184 million dollars in fines, the Maximum allowed by the Clean Water Act.
sources: The Atlantic, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Quartz
see also:
With each meal, we eat about 100 plastic particles
study: people take a week up to five grams of micro-plastic
How harmful micro-plastics for our body?
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