Since it was discovered, the polymer used for create plastic it quickly found widespread use, also thanks to the advent of large-scale consumer goods and the extraction of hydrocarbons which favored its use. The technological and economic development they did the rest, reducing the price of this material thus allowing it to find wide use in various sectors. There production growth has been exponential over time: we have gone from producing around 2 million tons of plastic per year, a figure dating back to the 50s, to today in which world production is estimated to be equal to 380 million tons. Future forecasts predict 25 thousand million tons by 2050.
Mind-boggling numbers if you think you can recycle only 20% correctly of all the plastic produced and placed on the market. The rest ends burnt, helping to raise levels of air pollution with all the related problems such as global warming, ordispersed in the environment with a negative impact on flora and fauna. Those who suffer from this situation are above all the seas of our planet: by 2050, year in which it is estimated that plastic will reach its maximum production peak, more plastic residues than fish will swim in salty waters around the world. To suffer from this enormous damage is also the Mediterranean Sea.
A recent survey carried out on Italian beaches showed that on average every 100 meters of sand there are 670 abandoned waste, 84% of which is plastic. According to some studies, the concentration of plastic in our waters is proportionally higher than that of the Pacific Ocean where the famous plastic is found Great Pacific Garbage Patch, A 'plastic island of immense size, with an area as large as 3 times that of France, the largest hitherto known and which was formed in a single point due to the subtropical vortex which determines ocean currents.
The damage to the marine ecosystem is immense especially for a sea, such as the Mediterranean, in which due to the Strait of Gibraltar the replacement of all the water present takes place in a 100-year cycle. The strait is in fact the only access to the Atlantic Ocean but it is not wide enough to allow a rapid recycling of the water. Situation further aggravated by pollution caused by maritime traffic which is estimated to be 30% of world traffic. Leakage of plastic material in water is causing numerous problems: almost 8% of all marine species known to date live in the entire Mediterranean area.
La disappearance of any of these would result in enormous damage to the fragile marine balance, with damage that should not be underestimated for the well-being of this sea and its impact on our daily life as well. In fact, the disappearance of an animal has negative repercussions on the whole ecosystem chain involved. Not counting the collateral damages. The lesser presence of fish also puts bird life at risk, putting biodiversity at serious risk. Faced with a problem of this magnitude remains urgent find a solution. Among the guidelines proposed by the European Union itself there is the obligation to reduce the use of plastic as much as possible, for example by replacing the plastic bags in the fruit and vegetable department of supermarkets with biodegradable ones; recycle as much as possible with correct sorting and avoid dispersion in the environment.
However, these solutions do not seem to be sufficient and for this reason they are studying and placing them on the market bioplastics which derive from renewable products, like corn. If on the one hand they are the best solution to reduce the dispersion of microplastics in waters around the world, on the other hand they create other issues: they require large spaces for cultivation, which could instead be dedicated to the production of crops for humans, and require a truly considerable supply of fresh water for irrigation.
In the meantime, solutions are also being studied for clean up the seas from the plastic present, thus reducing the increasing mortality rate of numerous animals. Let's think, for example, of turtles, 52% of which have ingested plastic residues at least once in their life, with enormous damage, often even fatal. That's how they were born associations to clean up the waters, very often with the use of robots, then recycling the collected plastic to make other products, and currents are being studied to better understand where the accumulation of this material will take place and thus be able to collect it faster.
From Eniday.
