11 billion pieces of plastic bringing disease from Thailand to Great Barrier Reef

 

File photo

 

Billions of bits of plastic waste are entangled in corals and sickening reefs from Thailand to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists say.

 

The trash is another pressure on corals, already suffering from over-fishing, rising temperatures caused by climate change and other pollution.

 

In the Asia-Pacific region a total of 11.1 billion plastic items - including shopping bags, fishing nets, even diapers and tea-bags - are ensnared on reefs, the scientists wrote in the journal Science on Thursday.

 

 

They projected the numbers would rise by 40 per cent by 2025 as marine pollution gets steadily worse.

 

Full story: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/11-billion-pieces-of-plastic-bringing-disease-from-thailand-to-great-barrier-reef

 

-- SBS NEWS 2018-01-26

11 billion pieces of plastic..... but no cigarette butts

I must say I got tired of telling cashiers in Big C etc., that I didn't mind if they put more than one item in each bag. I've started taking re-usable bags now.

It's a sad situation but Thailand are not the only people to blame.

 

That reported plastic will be from  Phils, Vietnam, Cambo, Indo etc...

 

Worldwide problem, there's Islands not on land but islands of plastic waste near the maldives.

 

The companies that produce goods in plastic bottles should be the ones held accountable

14 minutes ago, Colborn said:

It's a sad situation but Thailand are not the only people to blame.

 

That reported plastic will be from  Phils, Vietnam, Cambo, Indo etc...

 

Worldwide problem, there's Islands not on land but islands of plastic waste near the maldives.

 

The companies that produce goods in plastic bottles should be the ones held accountable

They do forensics on the plastics. That tells what country produced it. Probobly all 11 billion of them are from thailand. The other 50 billion come from the other countrys you mention. But this article is about thailands plastic.

And let me tell you first hand. The plastic on the west coast of phuket just off shore is a force to be recond with.

 

 

Edited January 26, 20188 yr by quadperfect

48 minutes ago, Wiggy said:

I must say I got tired of telling cashiers in Big C etc., that I didn't mind if they put more than one item in each bag. I've started taking re-usable bags now.

Other day in 7 11 the cashier wouldn't put my purchases in my provided bag, despite my protestations, and I had to insist they put everything in 1 bag rather than 2.

In Big C the problem is being able to stop them putting everything in new bags before I can produce my pre used Big C bags.

 

Till the culture changes EVERYWHERE ( not just Thailand ) the reefs are toast.

3 minutes ago, quadperfect said:

They do forensics on the plastics. That tells what country produced it. Probobly all 11 billion of them are from thailand. The other 50 billion come from the other countrys you mention. But this article is about thailands plastic.

And let me tell you first hand. The plastic on the west coast of phuket just off shore is a force to be recond with.

 

 

Im aware of the ID processing but even to ID 11 billion bits of plastic is not doable.

 

So the stats are skewed like always or it's an estimation.

 

Yes I have seen them use tweezers to identify small pieces and record the data

11 minutes ago, quadperfect said:

They do forensics on the plastics. That tells what country produced it. Probobly all 11 billion of them are from thailand. The other 50 billion come from the other countrys you mention. But this article is about thailands plastic.

And let me tell you first hand. The plastic on the west coast of phuket just off shore is a force to be recond with.

 

 

The article is not about Thailand's plastic, but well done for the Thai bashing post of the day.

Most of the countries in SE Asia are major plastic litter in the sea contributers.    Indonesia and the Phillipines have a much larger coastline and larger populations, but nevertheless Thailand ranks number 6 in the worlds worse polluters.  Not something to be proud of.

Thais love their plastic. Every item bought from the market is in its own plastic bag. Even soda is served up in plastic bags!

When finished simply toss it over your shoulder. After all, a landscape without sufficient trash strewn about is quite unsightly. Mai pen rai! 

China is the biggest manufacturer of plastic, and probably the biggest source of plastic trash.  Though, per capita, Thailand is probably in the top 20 worldwide for irresponsibly dumping trash.

 

This is such a big topic, it's hard to know where to start.  Here's a partial list:

>>>  contributing to death of seas

>>>  badly affecting all life forms in the sea, from the smallest on up to whales and whale sharks

>>>  Since humans are top of the food chain, it badly affects humans also. I stopped eating shellfish while in my teens.  Currently, there are few water animals I'll deign to eat.

>>>  plastic bags are bad, but there's never mention of larger plastic items like pallets and speed bumps.  One plastic speed bump probably weighs as much as a million plastic bags.

>>>  Plastic doesn't decompose to basic organic molecules.  It decomposes to tiny pieces of plastic which are useless organically.  In water, those tiny pieces form goop, sometimes meters deep near the surface.  All sorts of aquatic organisms eat that goop, and it doesn't do any of them any good.  It sickens and kills them, and the inorganic non-digestible gunk gets concentrated, the higher up the food chain it goes, ......up to sharks, orcas, and humans. 

I am glad I did not have to count them. Imagine concentrating enough to count 11 billion without a mistake.

Thailand will categorically deny it and insist that the figures are outdated and that Thai people ''would never do anything like that''  !

1 hour ago, ballpoint said:

The article is not about Thailand's plastic, but well done for the Thai bashing post of the day.

no but it should be

 

Thai marine dept contribution to anti littering and plastics in the ocean  - ban smoking on some beaches 

If you wanna get looked at like you have 2 heads just say ‘mai ow tung’ at 7-11or Big C. Wowee 555

Edited January 26, 20188 yr by MadMuhammad

2 hours ago, eliotness said:

Most of the countries in SE Asia are major plastic litter in the sea contributers.    Indonesia and the Phillipines have a much larger coastline and larger populations, but nevertheless Thailand ranks number 6 in the worlds worse polluters.  Not something to be proud of.

Thailand wants to be No 1 in everything, I admire their determination to be No.1. They have accomplished No 1 in road deaths. Next Target No 1 in worlds worst polluters and following that to be No 1 in corruption.

Maybe its just me, but I use the very thin green Big C bags in the kitchen, to put rubbish in. The rubbish goes to the blue bins, and from the blue bins I assume its taken to the landfill. Somehow I think it will not end up in the sea.

 

I'm using the same plastic bag now for two years or more to get things from the mom and pop store around the corner. Slowly they're getting used to it, but consider it weird I guess.

4 hours ago, ballpoint said:

The article is not about Thailand's plastic, but well done for the Thai bashing post of the day.

I think that the Thai bashing award should go to whoever wrote the headline

 

7 hours ago, webfact said:

11 billion pieces of plastic bringing disease from Thailand to Great Barrier Reef

 

Coral reefs get sick from plastic waste - study

By Alister Doyle

 

FILE PHOTO: Divers swim above a bed of corals off Malaysia's Tioman island in the South China Sea May 4, 2008. REUTERS/David Loh/File Photo

 

OSLO (Reuters) - Billions of bits of plastic waste are entangled in corals and sickening reefs from Thailand to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists said on Thursday.

 

The trash is another pressure on corals, already suffering from over-fishing, rising temperatures caused by climate change and other pollution.

 

In the Asia-Pacific region a total of 11.1 billion plastic items - including shopping bags, fishing nets, even diapers and tea-bags - are ensnared on reefs, the scientists wrote in the journal Science.

 

They projected the numbers would rise by 40 percent by 2025 as marine pollution gets steadily worse.

 

The plastic increases the likelihood of disease about 20 times, to 89 percent for corals in contact with plastics from four percent in comparable areas with none.

 

Trash may damage the tiny coral animals that build reefs, making them more vulnerable to illness. And bits of plastic may act as rafts for harmful microbes in the oceans.

 

Scientists were shocked to find plastic even in remote reefs.

 

"You could be diving and you think someone's tapping your shoulder but it's just a bottle knocking against you, or a plastic trash bag stuck on your tank," lead author Joleah Lamb of Cornell University told Reuters.

 

"It's really sad," she said.

 

"Corals are animals like us and have really thin tissues that can be cut and wounded, especially if they are cut by an item covered in all sorts of micro-organisms," she said.

 

The scientists, from the United States, Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, Canada and Indonesia, surveyed 159 reefs from 2011-14 in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

They found most plastic in Indonesia, with about 26 bits per 100 square metres (1076 square feet) of reef, and least off Australia, which has the strictest waste controls.

 

The link between disease and plastic may well apply to other reefs such as in the Caribbean and off Africa, and may be harming other life on the ocean floor such as sponges or kelp, Lamb said.

 

At least 275 million people worldwide live near reefs, which provide food, coastal protection and income from tourism. The presence of plastics seemed especially to aggravate some common coral afflictions, such as skeletal eroding band disease.

 

The scientists urged tougher restrictions on plastic waste. In December, almost 200 nations agreed to limit plastic pollution of the oceans, warning that it could outweigh all fish by 2030.

 

Co-author Douglas Rader of the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund said better management of fisheries was the best way to strengthen coral reefs to enable them to fend off man-made threats such as more plastics.

 

"This is not a story about 'let's give up on corals'," he told Reuters. "Overfishing today is the biggest threat." He said nations from Belize to the Philippines were acting to regulate fisheries on corals.

 

(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-01-26

Mai si tune krup

 

8 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Other day in 7 11 the cashier wouldn't put my purchases in my provided bag, despite my protestations, and I had to insist they put everything in 1 bag rather than 2.

In Big C the problem is being able to stop them putting everything in new bags before I can produce my pre used Big C bags.

 

Till the culture changes EVERYWHERE ( not just Thailand ) the reefs are toast.

Australia has the right idea.  Years ago there was the introduction of the reusable 'green bags' which most people nowadays use in lieu of plastic bags.  And main supermarkets use biodegradable plastic bags as well (not sure if they still generate microplastics that don't degrade further rapidly).  Australia also has a successful recycling program for waste.  They even have plastic bag collection points where plastic bags are broken down and made into furniture and building materials.  Re-usable green bags would be a great first step for Thailand.  Seen them actually for sale in DIY stores.  Waste management is still very backwards in Thailand as well as sewer/stormwater outflows with little/no treatment.  Not sure if foreign investment into waste management here is viable? 

And thai response, not our problem is farang reef

I’m glad to read others are bringing their own bags.  At the end of the day actions speak....   I encourage all to examine their own practice and exert the power they have over their own actions