Resource: Race for Water
INITIATIVES TO REDUCE THE EFFECTS OF PLASTIC POLLUTION
While more information is clearly required about the effects of plastic waste on marine ecosystems and human health, governments, businesses and NGOs are already starting to tackle the problem of plastic pollution.
In 2008, the Chinese government banned the production of the ultra-thin plastic bags handed out free by supermarkets. Prior to the ban, an estimated 3 billion plastic bags were used every day in China, creating an estimated 3 million tonnes of waste each year. Discarded plastic bags were commonly found in waterways, on beaches, and in other "unofficial" dumping sites across China. So common was this kind of waste that a special term emerged: white pollution.
China is not the only government to ban or restrict plastic bag use. Countries such as Australia Rwanda, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Italy and cities including San Francisco and Mumbai have also restricted plastic bags by law. France, which had been slow in adopting consumer plastic reduction measures, has now given the go-ahead for a 'plastic tax' to take effect in 2014.
To date, the primary role of NGOs has been to raise awareness of the problems associated with plastic pollution. In 2010 the Plastiki, a 60foot catamaran made of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other recycled PET plastic and waste products, sailed from San Francisco to Sydney to raise awareness of plastic in the ocean.
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