Des déchets qui polluent l'océan pacifique, faire une île recyclée

Pharmacie, épicerie, Franprix : pourquoi nous filent-ils encore des sacs plastique ? « Non, je n’ai pas besoin de sac, merci. » Vous avez arrêté de compter le nombre de fois où vous prononcez cette phrase. Vous prenez votre mal en patience, pensant secrètement « vivement que ces sacs jetables soient interdits ». En 2010, la France s’est engagée à les taxer, afin d’aboutir à l’« éradication » (sic) du milliard de sacs plastique jetables distribués en France. « La loi est bien entrée en vigueur, mais les décrets d’application n’ont toujours pas été publiés, explique Delphine Lévi Alvarès, chargée de campagne du Cniid (Centre national d’information indépendante sur les déchets). Les enseignes qui « offrent » encore des sacs plastique à leurs clients pourront donc se contenter de changer de fournisseurs mais pas de pratiques. Un remède pire que le mal Un remède pire que le mal s’est même emparé d’une part du marché. 10% des sacs distribués aujourd’hui sont dits « oxodégradables ».

Plastic waste responsible for nearly 92% life-threatening cases in marine life | Customs Today Newspaper MEXICO: According to a new study thousands of individual animals from hundreds of marine species including every kind of sea turtle and around half of marine mammals have encountered plastic, glass, and other garbage in the ocean. Often the encounters are fatal. In some cases they may be helping push some beleaguered species towards extinction in the wild. Those are some of the findings in the most comprehensive look at the effects of debris on marine wildlife since 1997. Pharrell is making jeans out of recycled ocean plastic Here’s some news to make you happy: Pharrell Williams not only makes catchy, sunny jams, but he’s trying to do something good with all the plastic junk in the Pacific. The musician and fashion designer announced at New York Fashion Week that he’s partnering with designer denim label G-Star RAW to create jeans out of ocean waste. And it’s not just gloriously tacky back-pocket bedazzling; the plastic is incorporated into the jeans as part of the core of each denim strand. It’s covered in an outer layer of cotton to create “bionic yarn.” (But can it lift cars with a single hand?) Check out Williams’ promo video, which is light on the details but heavy on cute octopuses: The collection, G-Star RAW for the Oceans, will be available in mid-August.

Another Sea Turtle Found With Plastic Trash Stuck in Its Nose Just a few months ago we saw the heartbreaking impact our plastic waste is having on wildlife after researchers removed a plastic drinking straw from a sea turtle’s nose, and now they’re back with another devastating reminder after finding yet another sea turtle in need of help. In August, researchers studying sea turtles off the coast of Costa Rica discovered an olive ridley sea turtle with a straw lodged in his nose and the video they shared of their efforts to help went viral, along with calls for us to reconsider our use of disposable plastic items. Unfortunately, it’s already happened again. This time around, the researchers were alerted to the situation by a tourist on Costa Rica’s Playa Ostional who was trying to get assistance for a nesting olive ridley sea turtle who was spotted with an object sticking out of her face. Love This? Never Miss Another Story. “Although happy that the fork was free, my first feeling was one of disgust. Photo credit: Sean A.

Look who’s eating your plastic now: A whole unprecedented ecosystem We already knew that barnacles, lanternfish, and whales have been gobbling up plastic. It turns out that the problem is even bigger than we thought — because it is much, much smaller. Welcome to the “plastisphere,” the tiny plastic-based ecosystem developing within the world’s oceans. The alien-sounding title is fitting, as scientists have found more than 1,000 species of microbes living there, some of which still have not been identified. The study, done by a team in Woods Hole, Mass., took a high-resolution look at plastic particles between 1 and 5 millimeters in size (I believe the unscientific term is “itty bitty specks”). How big a deal is it to discover a new ecosystem developing in the middle of an old one? One very interesting but very hypothetical possibility proposed by the Woods Hole team is that some of these microbes may actually be cleaning up the plastic for us, since they were found hunkered down in ‘pits’ on the surface of the plastic particles.

Seabin, l'ingénieuse poubelle flottante qui nettoie les océans est maintenant en vente Les concepteurs du Seabin Project, aidés d'une entreprise française spécialisée dans les équipements portuaires, viennent de lancer la commercialisation des 500 premières Seabin, ces poubelles flottantes visant à collecter les déchets qui polluent les ports et les côtes. En 2050, il y aura plus de plastique dans les océans que de poissons. C'est la conclusion préoccupante révélée par un rapport en 2016. Selon cette même étude, ce sont huit tonnes de déchets qui se déversent dans les cours d'eau de la planète chaque année, soit l'équivalent d'une benne à ordures vidée tous les minutes. Alors que des scientifiques se sont lancés dans l'étude de cette pollution, d'autres tentent de trouver des solutions pour l'enrayer. Deux ans plus tard, le duo a conclu une collaboration avec la société française Poralu Marine, un équipementier portuaire, et vient de lancer la commercialisation des 500 premières Seabin. Pomper l'eau pour collecter les déchets flottants Déjà expérimenté dans plusieurs ports

Your plastic garbage is killing whales Whales are eating plastic trash, dying, and washing ashore. It happened this summer in the Netherlands (technically the whale got stranded and THEN died); it happened this spring in Spain. Here are the guilt-inducing, gory details of the latter: Most of this plastic consisted of transparent sheeting used to build greenhouses in Almeria and Grenada for the purpose of tomatoes for the European market. The rest was plastic bags, nine meters of rope, two stretches of hosepipe, two small flowerpots, and a plastic spray canister. Cause of death was intestinal blockage. A WORLD OF UGH. This also happened closer to home — as in, close to Grist’s home in Seattle — three years ago: In April 2010, a gray whale that died after stranding itself on a west Seattle beach was found to have more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, duct tape, a pair of sweat pants, and a golf ball, not to mention other garbage contained in its stomach. Clearly it’s time to ban sweatpants.

L'eau en bouteille de plusieurs marques serait contaminée par des particules de plastique Une étude menée par des scientifiques américains révèle des chiffres inquiétants : sur plus de 250 bouteilles d’eau analysées dans neuf pays, 93% contiennent des particules de plastique. Retrouvés en moyenne au nombre de 10,4 par litre d’eau, ces résidus pourraient provenir du processus d’embouteillage. La découverte inquiète, alors que les conséquences sanitaires des microplastiques sont encore méconnues, et souligne de nouveau l’urgence de limiter la production de matières plastiques. Pour se désaltérer, quoi de mieux qu’une bonne gorgée d’eau fraîche ? Dirigée par Sherri Mason, professeur à l'université de l'Etat de New York à Fredonia, l’équipe de chercheurs a analysé l’eau contenue dans plus de 250 bouteilles, vendues dans neuf pays sous onze marques différentes à travers le monde. De grandes marques concernées 93% des échantillons étudiés contenaient des résidus de plastique. Le processus de fabrication mis en cause Le plastique envahit aussi les milieux naturels Lire aussi : Ooho!

Barnacles are accidentally eating our plastic trash Barnacles in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are attaching themselves to trash and eating little plastic particles. Researchers don’t yet know the implications of these findings, but it’s a safe bet that they’re not good. American scientists inspected the gastrointestinal tracts of 385 gooseneck barnacles collected from the garbage patch, aka the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, and found microplastic in a third of them. Some specimens had a single piece of plastic in their stomach, while others had gobbled down as many as 30. Results of this research were published Tuesday in the journal PeerJ. Miriam Goldstein of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography described her research in the blog Deep Sea News: Gooseneck barnacles look kind of freaky. The barnacles are eaten by crabs, nudibranchs, and other marine creatures that are hunted, in turn, by birds, fish, and dolphins. As Goldstein says, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to learn that barnacles are eating the ubiquitous plastic waste.