Dr. Marcus Eriksen of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation sailed from Long Beach to Hawaii this summer on ‘Junk,’ an aptly-named craft built from 15,000 plastic bottles, a deck from salvaged sailboat masts and a cabin made from the fuselage of a Cessna airplane. The purpose of his 88-day trip was to draw attention to the damaging impact of plastic in our oceans. In November, Eriksen spoke to Palisades Elementary students about his trip and the detrimental effect that plastic waste has on living creatures and the environment. During his presentation, Eriksen held up the cover of a 1955 Life Magazine with the title ‘Throwaway Living,’ which referred to new plastic products that were to become prevalent in America in the next 50 years. He explained that when plastics became an acceptable part of everyday living, there wasn’t much thought given to the long-term effects of a material that is not biodegradable, but rather designed to last forever. ‘When someone says, ‘Just throw it away,’ what does that mean?’ Erikson asked the elementary students. ‘What you consume goes somewhere, but where is somewhere?’ Due to ocean currents, plastic released into the Pacific Ocean from Pacific Palisades could reach Hawaii in a year, and 10 years later could circle back to the site it was released. ‘The ocean is like your toilet bowl, but it never flushes,’ Erickson told the students. ‘The ocean is becoming a plastic soup.’ Plastic is broken down through photo degradation, meaning that sunlight causes it to break into smaller and smaller pieces, all of which are still plastic polymers. Estimates are that it takes 500 years for a disposable diaper and 450 years for a plastic bottle to completely breakdown, which means the more plastic we produce, use and throw away, the more we have to cope with its damaging effects. Even as plastic breaks down, it traps, accumulates and concentrates organic chemicals and pollutants, which are then further broken down once ingested by fish and then humans. Many of those trapped chemicals function as endocrine disruptors. The endocrine system produces hormones in humans and animals. A disruption of that system in some fish can cause males to become females or result in a failure of males to produce sperm. It is unclear about the direct effects in humans, but researchers with the Algalita Foundation plan to investigate the bioaccumulation of the toxins and the implications that it has for the entire food chain. Plastics are even more of a problem for oceans than in landfills because the water cools the plastic pieces, making it more difficult to break down the plastic polymers. Still, as Eriksen emphasized, while half of today’s plastic waste goes to landfills, only 5 percent is actually recycled. ‘We have a huge environmental problem with plastic trash,’ he said. Anna Cummings, who grew up in Rustic Canyon and now works as an education liaison for Long Beach-based Algalita, also spoke to students. ‘Samples taken from the ocean this year indicates that plastic has doubled in the Pacific in the last 10 years,’ Cummings said. She explained how the two men sailing on Junk caught and then dissected several fish, including a rainbow runner that contained 17 fragments of ingested plastic. Through fish, ‘plastic is getting into the food we eat,’ Cummings explained. ‘If plastics are getting into the fish, are they getting in to us?’ The students were quick to answer, ‘Yes!’ Cummings and Eriksen discussed and corrected misconceptions about plastic, including the myth that plastic products placed in the recycling bin will get recycled, or the idea that plastics are made from petroleum refinery waste, when nearly all plastic comes from virgin petroleum and natural gas. When one student asked if it was okay to refill his plastic water bottle as a way to solve the recycling problem, Eriksen responded: ‘You can, but the unbonded monomers [molecules are bonded to other identical molecules] in the bottle break down and you end up ingesting them, which is probably not good for your health.’ Eriksen emphasized that the primary area that students can make a difference is by reducing their use of plastics. After the Algalita presentation, students learned that parents at Palisades Elementary had solicited and received donated Brita water filters for each classroom. Students are urged to bring their own containers and fill them, rather than bringing plastic water bottles. Visit: www.algalita.org or www.junkraft.com.
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