Are we eating a CREDIT CARD worth of plastic each week?
We may be aware of the global harm plastic is causing to our environment, oceans and wildlife, but are we aware of just how much it affects humans?
With about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste produced every year, and our single-use, throwaway culture rife, plastic is all around us. More plastic has been produced globally since the year 2000 than in all previous years combined. Micro-particles find their way into our air, our food, our soil, our waterways, and ultimately our bodies.
There are few well-researched studies into the impact of plastic ingestion by humans, but a 2019 study commissioned by World Wildlife Fund and carried out by University of Newscastle - No Plastic in Nature: Assessing Plastic Ingestion from Nature to People - found that humans may be ingesting around 2000 tiny pieces of plastic every week, which works out to around 5g - the weight of a credit card.
The largest source of plastic ingestion by humans is through water, both bottled and tap, as the survey found. Other sources highly recorded were shellfish, beer and salt.
In order for this to change, we need to minimise the leakage of plastic into nature. While much of this needs to come from government and big business, there is more we can do as individuals to decrease our own plastic consumption and disposal.
What can we do?
Aside from influencing local government and businesses to implement new policy and make changes, and reducing our own plastic consumption, Clean Up Week is a great time to look at how you can play a part in cleaning up our environment. The obvious is to not litter - but given we hope that you don’t do this anyway - let’s look at some other ways you can get involved.
Clean Up Week
Keep New Zealand Beautiful Clean Up Week happens annually in NZ - tying in with World Clean Up Day. World Clean Up Day is a global social action program with participants in 191 countries, combating the global solid waste issue. Clean Up Week in New Zealand occurs around this day, with Kiwis from around the country coming together with their friends, whānau and communities for the country’s largest cleanup event. In 2021, over 30,000 volunteers took part, collecting 300 tonnes of litter across an area equivalent to 2589 rugby fields.
This year Clean Up Week kicks off on Saturday 17th September (World Clean Up Day!) and will run through to Friday 23rd September. ANYONE can get involved by organising a cleanup crew to tackle the litter on a beach, park, street or any piece of the environment. You can register HERE.
Organise your group (it doesn’t matter how big!)
Decide on your location
Put together a kit (you will likely have everything you need already - buckets/ reusable bags/ sacks, gloves, and maybe some tongs!)
Organise your disposal (some councils, EnviroWaste and Waste Management transfer stations are on board to support Clean Up Week by providing free litter disposal - see Keep New Zealand Beautiful for the info!)
Speak to the people in your circles about what you are doing, or share on social media - even if they don’t get involved physically, spreading the word about the importance of keeping litter out of our environment gets people thinking!
Get out there and get cleaning up!
See if there are events happening in your community here!
References:
