414 million pieces of plastic found on remote island by Ben Smee

414 million pieces of plastic found on remote island group in Indian Ocean

Debris on Cocos (Keeling) Islands was mostly bottles, cutlery, bags and straws, but also included 977,000 shoes, study says

Ben Smee               Thu 16 May 2019 14.23 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/16/414-million-pieces-of-plastic-found-on-remote-island-group-in-indian-ocean

On the beaches of the tiny Cocos (Keeling) Islands, population 600, marine scientists found 977,000 shoes and 373,000 toothbrushes.

A comprehensive survey of debris on the islands – among the most remote places on Earth, in the Indian Ocean – has found a staggering amount of rubbish washed ashore. This included 414m pieces of plastic, weighing 238 tonnes.

The study, published in the journal Nature, concluded the volume of debris points to the exponential increase of global plastic polluting the world’s oceans and “highlights a worrying trend in the production and discharge of single-use products”.

The lead author, Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania’s Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, said remote islands without large populations were the most effective indicator of the amount of plastic debris floating in the oceans.

“Islands such as these are like canaries in a coal mine and it’s increasingly urgent that we act on the warnings they are giving us. Plastic pollution is now ubiquitous in our oceans, and remote islands are an ideal place to get an objective view of the volume of plastic debris now circling the globe,” Lavers said.

The study found the quantity of debris buried up to 10cm beneath the beach was 26 times greater than the amount visible; that previous surveys that only assessed surface garbage might have “drastically underestimated the scale of debris accumulation”.

Lavers led a previous study, published in 2017, that found the remote Henderson Island in the eastern South Pacific was among the places most affected by plastic pollution.

While most of the debris found on Henderson Island was fishing-related, on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the plastic was mostly single-use items such as bottles, plastic cutlery, bags and straws.

“Our excessive and unrelenting demand for plastics, coupled with ineffective policy and waste management, has resulted in myriad negative effects on marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments, including entanglement and ingestion of debris, and subsequent exposure to plastic-associated chemicals,” the report said.

“The Cocos (Keeling) Islands [are] touted as ‘Australia’s last unspoilt paradise’, with tourism a primary source of income for the local community. However, the impact of debris on tourism and [their] beaches is increasingly difficult to avoid.

“Sadly, the situation on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands is not unique, with significant quantities of debris documented on islands and coastal areas from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Together, these islands and coastal areas reflect the acute symptoms of an otherwise rapidly increasing environmental hazard.”

(...)

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.

VOCABULARY

Tiny: Small, little

Debris: Rubbish, garbage

Wash ashore: To bring (something) onto the shore by waves. A lot of debris was washed ashore during the storm.

Point to: To mention or refer to (something) as a way of supporting an argument or claim

Bury up to:  Not a phrasal verb. To bury something means to put it into a hole in the ground and cover it up with earth.

Beneath: Something that is beneath another thing is under the other thing. She could see the muscles of his shoulders beneath his T-shirt.

Cutlery: Knives and forks

Straw: A straw is a thin tube of paper or plastic, which you use to suck a drink into your mouth.

Unrelenting: Inexorable

In myriad: A great number of persons or things

Entanglement: The condition of being wrapped and twisted together in a mass:

Touted: Publicised

Unspoilt: Pure. An unspoiled place is beautiful because it has not been changed or damaged by people.

Landfill: A place where garbage is buried

Wash up: In this case: If something is washed up on a piece of land, it is carried by a river or sea and left there. Generally this phrasal verb refers to the act of clean something.