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Plastic in rivers

Over 500,000 tiny fragments of plastic found in the top 10cm of sediment in just 1m2. I can’t get my head around that...
 
70% flushed out of rivers by floods still leaves a heck of a lot in rivers, if that's the amount that's flushed during each period of high water will there will be a gradual build up that wont be flushed?
 
Looks like so far they've only published the results from one before and after so we'll have to wait and see what they come up with. Wonder if they are looking at how much is getting into fish
 
Apparently it was 1907 - 111 years ago plastic was first invented we've been sliding towards the point we are now ever since, it'll take at least that long to claw our way out of it ... if governments of the world are determined enough to see it through, but like so many things threatening our planet it will only be if a CHEAPER alternative can be found, if the alternatives are more expensive forget it ! We need to stop producing the stuff end of ! recycling etc etc is only sticking plaster on an open wound ! Edit .... and as for us look at all the plastic we use in our tackle, and if it's not plastic much of it will be packaged in it, and the stuff that goes directly in the river that doesn't even go via a bin ! by the low lifes who don't give a S&^T !
 
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Yes, but the more it's highlighted and the more coverage this story gets, the better. We need people to 'think' about what they're buying and how it's packaged. When the kids unwrap their pressies at Xmas and birthdays, the packaging gets me seriously depressed. Now we have recycling for paper, food waste, plastic bottles (etc) and glass out normal bin just has plastic in it.
 
Richard Parsons said:
Yes, but the more it's highlighted and the more coverage this story gets, the better. We need people to 'think' about what they're buying and how it's packaged. When the kids unwrap their pressies at Xmas and birthdays, the packaging gets me seriously depressed. Now we have recycling for paper, food waste, plastic bottles (etc) and glass out normal bin just has plastic in it.
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I hear what you're saying Rich, and i'm with you 100% , But whilst we can do our bit, and put it in the recycle bin...(of which a lot apparently doesn't get recycled) ... the mere fact we keep buying the stuff perpetuates the problem, but who would be the first to say i'm refusing to buy any plastic product, or anything packaged in it ? it would be nearly as bad as saying i refuse to buy oil based fuels, your life would grind to a halt such is our dependency on it ! and therein lies the problem, the manufacturers are driven by profits, we are driven by need for their products, we're caught between a rock and a hard place, hence why i said it'll take as long to get rid of the stuff, as we've had it since it was first invented.
 
Ian Grant said:
I hear what you're saying Rich, and i'm with you 100% , But whilst we can do our bit, and put it in the recycle bin...(of which a lot apparently doesn't get recycled) ... the mere fact we keep buying the stuff perpetuates the problem, but who would be the first to say i'm refusing to buy any plastic product, or anything packaged in it ? it would be nearly as bad as saying i refuse to buy oil based fuels, your life would grind to a halt such is our dependency on it ! and therein lies the problem, the manufacturers are driven by profits, we are driven by need for their products, we're caught between a rock and a hard place, hence why i said it'll take as long to get rid of the stuff, as we've had it since it was first invented.
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I take your point, Ian, and completely agree. I do, however, believe there's a market for food, etc, that's not packaged in plastic. That's my point really; the more this problem is highlighted and fed into the public consciousness, the more 'normal' this niche behaviour becomes. Soon, plastic is seen as unnecessary. Better still, it's seen as evil! :)
 
We do need to tackle it and it is an issue. It’s so over used and really we should look towards it only being used in products that are designed to last, for example a cooker in comparison to a straw.
The above photograph, Mumbai? I’d guess... high lights the forgotten issue with many of these global environmental issues. Many nations simply don’t give a toss. Particularly in the developing world.
There was a story last week about the contamination of food and drinking water with plastics and the unknown harm that these could cause with long term exposure.
The Germans have been quite keen to push the packaging back onto the producers. It’s a hot debate at present and I’d expect movement on it over the coming years, once enough public support exists to levy taxation on it. The money leads, as always.
 
Stephen,
Your point about developing nations is perfectly true. Just think back to the industrial revolution and places like Ironbridge Gorge ! The British were probably the biggest polluters in history.
 
Very much so, I often wonder how much of what we’re experiencing is due to the industrial revolution, two world wars and the discharge of neucleur weapons.

We’ve come along way in the western world, (not there yet). The credibility of the taxation of so called big engines and switching to LED lightbulbs in comparison to the pollution of industrial activity and developing nations is hard to swallow at times.

I’d like to point out for transparency’s sake that I took Environmental science at college and that I would declare myself a skeptic (not a denier) of man made climate change. I will state far more relevantly that pollution is serious matter and that man made climate change is merely part of the problem.
 
Plastic is only one part of the problem(s) that have been manifesting themselves as a result of humanities activities particularly over the last 100 years or so, at the bottom of all these problems is one driving issue.... the ever growing human population, caused by our ability to over ride nature with technology, as the population grows, growing with it is the need to supply the masses with essentials to just live... food, clean water, housing, then we have the non essentials ... the luxuries, of which some are becoming part of the essentials at least to those living in technically advanced societies. If we dispose of plastic, ( and we must ) then we are going to have to replace it's many functions with something, one of the essentials is food packaging, meat for instance how many of us now as our parents did visit the butchers 2 or 3 times a week and get fresh meat wrapped in paper ? Most people neither have the time on their hands in this day and age to do that, nor would the delivery system be able to cope with the whole population relying on fresh daily deliveries of meat to butchers, or more likely supermarkets, it's just one example, plastic is a product that has performed it's function very well, but now we are seeing the downside of it's use, the fact that we will again rely on scientists to find a replacement for it is just indicative of the underlying problem... the over population of the planet which is growing even as i write by probably thousands, and it's a problem we are never going to resolve, as we find solutions to problems we see now, more will rear their ugly heads !
Plastic is one small piece of the jigsaw, technology has been at least in part the cause of creating an over population of the planet, and now we must rely on it as our savior, i don't believe it will be, at least not in time find the answers, the problem of over population, and the demands that puts on our planet will continue.... until nature calls time out ! That'll mean a few million years of nature redressing the balance ( a snippet in time to her ) and then it'll likely all start again maybe with an entirely new species, that in time will go down exactly the same road as we have. Plastic is bad, no doubt about that, and hopefully we'll find a solution to the problem, but it's not even close to our biggest, that is one which no one really wants to seriously ... or can for that matter address.
 
Places such as the UK can do their bit but its a drop in the ocean when from what I read 90% of the plastics in the oceans comes from just 10 rivers with the Yangtze being the worst dumping 1.5 million tonnes every year, it needs a worldwide change in attitude to stop this and imo the only way is for governments to ban not only the use of plastics as packaging but the imports of things made of plastics, not going to happen I know imo the situation will only get worse without strong action.
 
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