While threats to the U.S., foreign and domestic, may exist, one that seems only marginally considered such a threat is plastic pollution.
For decades, efforts have been made to mitigate the environmental problems caused by plastic consumption and disposal and those efforts have reached the doorstep of the Delta with the launch of the Data Collection for Plastic Pollution Initiative in the Mississippi Delta.
Two Delta mayors — Mayor Aelicia Thomas of Rosedale and Mayor Errick Simmons — along with the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the University of Georgia and the Rosedale Freedom Project hosted a joint press conference Saturday at Big Waters Cafe to discuss such efforts in the Mississippi Delta.
Thomas said the cities that comprise MCRTI all share a common similarity — they all need to do a better job to stop plastic from making its way into their river.
“Our cities cannot do it alone. We need to work with our citizens for better disposal practices, determine infrastructural and operational needs, work with corporations to reduce their plastic use and ensure when plastic is used, it can be recycled,” she pointed out. “This collaborative effort will involve mayors sharing best practices with their waste production and waste management with recycling and working with our citizens.”
Thomas acknowledged that a daunting task lies ahead with working to stop plastic pollution, but believes because of the common goal of folks wanting to see their cities clean, it can be achieved.
She highlighted the advantages of clean communities such as yielding a higher property value, a better quality of life, water security, safe open spaces that attract outdoor recreation and a boost in tourism opportunities.
Dr. Barbare Hendrie, director of the UNEP, North America office, addressed the audience after being introduced by Colin Wellenkamp, MRCTI executive director.
“Plastic pollution is at the very top of our global agenda, especially plastic that finds its way from land and river systems like the Mississippi into the Gulf and into the world’s oceans,” she asserted. “A lot of this plastic, in fact 75% of it, is what we call single-use plastic — stuff like a candy wrapper that we use for a minute and then throw it away.”
Hendrie went on to point out the vast majority of single-use plastic comes from land-based sources and accumulates 11 million tons a year of plastic waste into our oceans.
She explained that 11 million tons of plastic a year does not just “go away,” but remains in the environment, alluding to its durability.
“It breaks down, it releases its toxins, it gets into the marine ecosystems, but it doesn’t disappear,” she reiterated.
Hendrie invited attendees to take a breath, followed by another, to illustrate the damaging and far-reaching impact plastic pollution can have on the environment.
“That second breath and every other breath we take is courtesy of our oceans. Our oceans produce between 60 and 80% of our atmospheric oxygen so when plastic leaks into our sewers and our waterways and from there, into our oceans, we’re not only choking our marine environments and we’re not only destroying the human economies who depend on those environments, we’re literally choking ourselves,” she said further. “As a result, plastic waste is now one of the biggest threats to ecosystems around the world.”
This threat is why the UN Member States forged an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution — the first of its kind and one of the first initiatives to gather critical data on the flow of plastic from cities and towns into a major freshwater system anywhere in the world.
Local data collection efforts using the Debris Tracker, an app invented by the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering’s Jenna Jambeck, began after Saturday’s press conference and will conclude July 15, 2022.
Community volunteers used the Debris Tracker app to track plastic pollution and will continue to in order to assist scientists, policy makers and businesses reduce the amount of plastic making its way into the Mississippi River and ultimately, oceans.
Jambeck talked about the different variables the app uses to compile data and how it can be easily accessed by anyone at any time.
“I have to tell you what you’re doing here and the data you’re collecting is going global so it really is significant,” she said, adding her thanks to all of those who played a part in the endeavor.
