An interesting reply indeed. In a million years from now most of the organic compounds present at this day will have been degraded. Plastics however do not degrade rapidly, hence the major problems caused. It takes hundreds of years at least to degrade completely, in the meanwhile polluting the food chain, killing animals and polluting our food. The appr. 150 million tonnes of plastic present at sea (incl. the gyres), which amount increases by 6-13 million tonnes annually, cannot be collected nor be composted easily without harming the ecosystem. So prevention is the main solution, but trying to clean our mess the next one. if we do not act we swim around in plastics soon. Please refer to the report of the UN and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation of 2016.
Published by Michael Mannaart, Executive Secretary at KIMO Netherlands/Belgium
An interesting reply indeed. In a million years from now most of the organic compounds present at this day will have been degraded. Plastics however do not degrade rapidly, hence the major problems caused. It takes hundreds of years at least to degrade completely, in the meanwhile polluting the food chain, killing animals and polluting our food. The appr. 150 million tonnes of plastic present at sea (incl. the gyres), which amount increases by 6-13 million tonnes annually, cannot be collected nor be composted easily without harming the ecosystem. So prevention is the main solution, but trying to clean our mess the next one. if we do not act we swim around in plastics soon. Please refer to the report of the UN and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation of 2016.