Environmentalists have for years been eyeing what they call the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" -- masses of plastic rubbish combining bottles, fishing nets and much more.
US researchers who sampled rubbish from the northeastern Pacific between California and Hawaii said they found 37 kinds of invertebrates that originated from coastal areas, mostly from countries such as Japan on the other side of the ocean.
"The high seas are colonized by a diverse array of coastal species, which survive and reproduce in the open ocean," they wrote in the study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
"Coastal species persist now in the open ocean as a substantial component of a neopelagic (new, sea-dwelling) community sustained by the vast and expanding sea of plastic debris," the study said.
More than two-thirds of the items examined had coastal species on them, including crustaceans, sea anemones and moss-like creatures called bryozoans.
Scientists had not often tracked creatures surviving dispersal across entire oceans. The researchers noted that in one rare event in 2012, debris from the previous year's tsunami in Japan washed ashore in North America bearing living species.
Creatures can spread quickly by feeding on the layers of slime formed on floating plastics by bacteria and algae, the study said. Scientists must now investigate how these coastal colonists will fit into the ocean food chain.
"We found that coastal species are commonly observed on the same plastics as the native pelagic species (dwelling far out at sea), suggesting that these two communities are interacting with one another," the study's lead author Linsey Haram told AFP.
"These interactions could include competition for food and space as well as predation. More research is needed to understand whether the implications are positive or negative."
In a 2021 article, members of the same research team warned that the influx of invasive coastal species "might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment".
A study published in 2017 in the journal Science Advances calculated that if current production and waste-management trends continued, there would be 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste in landfills or the natural environment by 2050.
G7 energy and environment ministers declared at the end of talks in Japan on Sunday their "ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040".
They said they hoped to draw up an "international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution" by the end of 2024.
Factfile: Plastic and pollution
Paris (AFP) April 16, 2023 -
G7 nations on Sunday committed to eliminating plastic pollution by 2040, ahead of negotiations in Paris next month to establish a UN plastics treaty by the end of 2024.
Despite the world's seemingly insatiable appetite for plastic, how is the fight for reducing its impact on the environment gaining momentum?
- An international treaty by the end of 2024?
G7 members (United States, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Canada) committed to zero plastic pollution by 2040 -- an attainable goal thanks to the rise of the circular economy and the reduction or banning of single-use plastics and non-recyclables, according to a Sunday statement.
Further commitments are also pending: a year ago in Nairobi, 175 countries convened to put an end to plastic pollution worldwide by developing a legally-binding United Nations treaty by the end of 2024. The next session to negotiate the treaty is scheduled for May in Paris.
Among the anticipated measures is a global ban on single-use plastics, the establishment of a "polluter-pays" system and a tax on the production of new plastic.
- How much plastic does the world produce?
Global plastic production almost doubled between 2000 and 2019, from 234 million tonnes to 460 million tonnes, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Plastic waste more than doubled in that time, reaching 353 million tonnes in 2019.
But global production fell slightly in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic for only the third time in the history of modern industry, according to trade association Plastics Europe.
The OECD said 22 million tonnes of plastic were discarded in the environment in 2019 alone, with six million tonnes ending up in waterways, lakes and oceans.
Plastic makes up at least 85 percent of total marine waste, according to the UN Environment Assembly.
- Where is plastic produced?
More than half of the plastic came from Asia in 2020, with China representing almost one-third of the global total.
Plastic production in the world's second-largest economy jumped by 82 percent between 2010 and 2020, well above the global growth average of 30 percent, according to a Plastics Europe report.
Europe's production in 2020 was 55 million tonnes, a five-percent fall on 2019 levels.
The growth mostly came from the United States and the Middle East as primary materials there are much cheaper, and from China because its demand is growing more strongly, said Jean-Yves Daclin, Plastics Europe's director general for France.
- What about the future? -
A 2021 report by the World Wildlife Fund estimated that global plastic production would double by 2040.
Recycling is the main solution to halt the relentless march of plastic production.
Although Europe recycles more than one-third of its plastic waste, globally only around nine percent of plastic waste was recycled in 2019, according to the OECD.
Other solutions include developing packaging-free products, returnable items and eco-friendly designs with long lifespans.
- Oil-free plastic? -
Plastic made from bio-friendly sources -- such as sugar, starch, corn and wheat -- represents less than one percent of global production.
The use of agricultural land and water resources limits their development as a way of reducing oil consumption in plastic production.
Even worse, these plastics are rarely completely biodegradable or compostable and "in reality only dodge the issue", according to the Heinrich Boell Foundation, an environmental think tank in Germany.
The problem has spurred the development of second- and third-generation plastics sourced from vegetable waste or algae.
Another promising technique is making plastic from the carbon dioxide belched out into the atmosphere by industry.
Factories have started to emerge, including in Austria, where the company Covestro manufactures polyurethane.
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