Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

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I looked at how polluted Nairobi River is. What I found

October 7, 2019 3.45pm BST | Damaris Mbui, Lecturer, University of Nairobi

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Nairobi River flows through a low-income settlement. Tatsiana Hendzel/Shutterstock

A lot happens along the course of the Nairobi River as it makes its way from the north west to the south east of the city. It’s mainly used by residents of low-income settlements as a source of water for cleaning homes, bathing and for watering crops. But it’s also used to discard household and human waste as many homes don’t have toilets, and industrial waste is frequently dumped in the river.

I’ve done studies on the quality of water in Nairobi River focusing on the presence of metals in the water. I found that the levels of lead, copper, chromium, zinc and manganese were far beyond those allowed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority.

I also found harmful levels of bacteria. The levels of Escherichia coli (E. coli) were incredibly high – up to one million units in 100ml of water. There should be no E.coli in drinking water. It’s presence indicates faecal contamination, which could lead to periodic outbreaks of water-borne diseases like typhoid, cholera and dysentery.

There are major concerns about the state of the river, which runs through the heart of the country’s capital – Nairobi. And Kenya’s national environmental management agency is cracking down on industries accused of discharging pollutants into the river.

But there are huge holes in the governance of the river and the city’s waste, which have enabled the river’s poor condition. More needs to be done to address this, especially as the city continues to grow.

Waste management

There needs to be better management of industrial waste. Policies that govern waste water purification from industries aren’t strictly followed, often due to a lack of official monitoring. The heavy metals I found indicate industrial waste that comes from paint, leather and electroplating industries, among others.

Another problem is a lack of proper solid waste management. Kenya currently doesn’t have landfills, most solid waste is disposed of in uncontrolled, open dumpsites. An engineered landfill is deliberately constructed to handle waste. It’s lined at the bottom to prevent groundwater pollution and has a system to collect and treat leachates and capture biogas.

Human waste is also not treated properly. There are very few sanitation facilities in slums and other informal settlements, so residents will use the river to dispose of their waste. For those with sanitation facilities, there are just two sewage treatment plants that service Nairobi – Ruai and Kariobangi. But Ruai can’t process very much waste water and most of the equipment at the Kariobangi treatment plant has broken down.

Pollution impact

These pollutants can affect the health of those who rely on the river, or live close to it. For instance, farmers along the Nairobi River and its tributaries commonly use polluted water and raw sewage for irrigation. This exposes them, and consumers, to disease or infections.

Compounds from industries can have wide-ranging effects. For instance, lead is known to affect children’s mental development, cadmium can damage kidneys and some compounds, like chromium, are carcinogenic.

What needs to be done

A lot needs to be done.

First, the river itself needs to be cleaned. This can be done by diverting it as it enters the county into a dam. Then air can be pumped into the water to provide more oxygen to break down harmful chemicals – a process called aeration. Other processes of water purification can also be used such as introducing clay and charcoal, which can filter water. A monitoring plant will then need to be set up to return the water to the river course. It would be good to have several water treatment dams and monitoring sites along the course of the river.

While this is happening, the government must ensure that sewage units are efficient and that policies involving waste water disposal into the river are adhered to.

Mechanisms to prevent further pollution must also be put in place.

Companies must be held accountable for their waste. For instance, policies exist on how industries should manage their waste water. They must be enforced by the relevant government authorities, and tough penalties be imposed on defaulters.

Sanitation facilities need to be set up in informal settlements, and used properly. There are many systems to upgrade informal settlements, but these need to happen at a much larger scale. Investment is lacking because the settlements are only meant to be temporary.

Also, proper methods of dumping waste, such as well-engineered landfills, need to be put in place. The county government needs to do this so that solid waste doesn’t leach dangerous substances into the river.

Finally, waste water treatment plants to handle the waste produced in the county must be upgraded and expanded.


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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

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I am convinced that many South African rivers are in the same deplorable state!


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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

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Lisbeth wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 9:50 am I am convinced that many South African rivers are in the same deplorable state!
Very true O/


Next trip to the bush??

Let me think......................
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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50554911

There just seems to be no end to it.


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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

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Nigerian river snails carry more microplastics than Rhine snails

November 27, 2019 2.31pm GMT | Emmanuel O. Akindele, Senior Lecturer, Obafemi Awolowo University

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The Melanoides tuberculata. Shutterstock

Plastic pollution is a serious environmental menace. A recent United Nations Environment Programme report indicates that there could be more individual plastic items than fish in the oceans by 2050.

People continue to find ways of using plastic because it is easily shaped and lasts a long time. The world’s plastic production currently stands at about 380 million tonnes a year. That also means there has been a surge in plastic pollution.

Nigeria, whose population has been predicted to be the third largest in the world by 2050, uses 0.85 million metric tonnes a year and in 2010 accounted for 2.67% of the world’s mismanaged plastic waste.

Environmental researchers are finding that pollution produced in one environment finds its way to others via rivers and oceans. It also finds its way into food chains, including food that people eat. Plastics greater than 5mm in size – macroplastics – are often broken down into smaller pieces – microplastics. This often happens through ingestion and digestion by animals.

In the first study of its kind, my research group investigated microplastic pollution in the Osun River system in Nigeria. We did this by testing for microplastics in gastropods, commonly known as snails. We found fibre was the most common microplastic in the species. This is the first chemical identification of polymer types in African freshwater invertebrates.

To provide a comparison we also researched microplastics in a gastropod species in the Rhine River, an international river with economic importance.

Our findings revealed the presence of microplastics in both rivers, with higher microplastic load per individual in the African gastropods. Polyethylene, nylon and polypropylene plastic types, which are commonly being used as shopping bags and bottle caps, were recorded in the study.

Our findings provide insights into the differences between a developed nation that has good waste management practices and a developing nation with poor waste management practices.

Plastic waste in Nigeria

Plastic waste is a common sight in Nigeria, on the land and in freshwater and coastal environments. Lots of it is generated in along the coast through activities like fishing, shipping and recreation. But research has also established a link between plastic waste generated inland and that found in the ocean.

In Nigeria, most plastic waste introduced into the environment through human activities inland. It is washed off into streams and rivers when rain falls, and ultimately transported to the ocean.

My research group reported that rivers could serve as either the sink (final destination) or the conveyor belt (mode of transfer) of plastics to the ocean.

My research group also investigated the presence of microplastics in two rivers that drain into the Atlantic Ocean – the Osun and Ogun Rivers. We used some freshwater insects as bioindicators. We found that the animals had ingested microplastics in the form of fibres and fragments. Among the plastic types were polyester and polypropylene.

The harm plastic waste can cause

Plastic pollution in Nigeria spells a great danger to Nigerians, animal species and the environment.

Research has found that they can have serious physiological and toxicological effects when they’re ingested by animals, even threatening certain species.

More worrisome is the fact that such plastics can be transferred along the food chain from animals to man, posing the same toxicological risk.

Another implication of plastic pollution in Nigeria is its potential to reduce the aesthetic values of landscapes, beaches and shorelines, making them become less attractive for activities, like tourism. Some environmental psychologists have also associated clean and attractive environments with human health.

But Nigeria is doing very little to contain the threat from plastics.

What’s missing

The growing trend of plastic pollution in Nigeria, and the danger it poses to the environment and human health, calls for urgent action. Many countries have either formulated or reviewed their policies on the use of plastics. But Nigeria has been slow to respond.

Earlier this year the legislative arm of government passed a bill to ban plastic bags.

Nigeria was late to the party. Other African nations like Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have banned plastic bags and formulated policies aimed at checking plastic pollution in their respective environments. To a large extent, these bans have achieved positive results.

Nigeria needs to quickly formulate a strong policy on plastics and plastic pollution, and then put it into action. But implementation needs attention so that it achieves its objectives.

Other steps government could take could include organising awareness campaigns to encourage individuals to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic. It could also consider banning disposable single-use plastics like straws, cutlery and plates.

Nigeria has a history of taking action, but then not pushing through to ensure the right outcomes are reached. For example, 10 years ago, the country spent hundreds of millions of naira on plastic waste recycling plants in 26 cities. Today, these facilities don’t work.

It can’t afford to waste more time.


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Scientists create mutant enzyme that recycles plastic bottles in hours

Bacterial enzyme originally found in compost can be used to make high-quality new bottles

@dpcarrington | Wed 8 Apr 2020 16.00 BST

A mutant bacterial enzyme that breaks down plastic bottles for recycling in hours has been created by scientists.

The enzyme, originally discovered in a compost heap of leaves, reduced the bottles to chemical building blocks that were then used to make high-quality new bottles. Existing recycling technologies usually produce plastic only good enough for clothing and carpets.

The company behind the breakthrough, Carbios, said it was aiming for industrial-scale recycling within five years. It has partnered with major companies including Pepsi and L’Oréal to accelerate development. Independent experts called the new enzyme a major advance.

Billions of tonnes of plastic waste have polluted the planet, from the Arctic to the deepest ocean trench, and pose a particular risk to sea life. Campaigners say reducing the use of plastic is key, but the company said the strong, lightweight material was very useful and that true recycling was part of the solution.

The new enzyme was revealed in research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The work began with the screening of 100,000 micro-organisms for promising candidates, including the leaf compost bug, which was first discovered in 2012.

“It had been completely forgotten, but it turned out to be the best,” said Prof Alain Marty at the Université de Toulouse, France, the chief science officer at Carbios.

The scientists analysed the enzyme and introduced mutations to improve its ability to break down the PET plastic from which drinks bottles are made. They also made it stable at 72C, close to the perfect temperature for fast degradation.

The team used the optimised enzyme to break down a tonne of waste plastic bottles, which were 90% degraded within 10 hours. The scientists then used the material to create new food-grade plastic bottles.

Carbios has a deal with the biotechnology company Novozymes to produce the new enzyme at scale using fungi. It said the cost of the enzyme was just 4% of the cost of virgin plastic made from oil.

Waste bottles also have to be ground up and heated before the enzyme is added, so the recycled PET will be more expensive than virgin plastic. But Martin Stephan, the deputy chief executive at Carbios, said existing lower-quality recycled plastic sells at a premium due to a shortage of supply.

“We are the first company to bring this technology on the market,” said Stephan. “Our goal is to be up and running by 2024, 2025, at large industrial scale.”

He said a reduction in plastic use was one part of solving the waste problem. “But we all know that plastic brings a lot of value to society, in food, medical care, transportation. The problem is plastic waste.” Increasing the collection of plastic waste was key, Stephan said, with about half of all plastic ending up in the environment or in landfill.

Another team of scientists revealed in 2018 that they had accidentally created an enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles. One of the team behind this advance, Prof John McGeehan, the director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth, said Carbios was the leading company engineering enzymes to break down PET at large scale and that the new work was a major advance.

“It makes the possibility of true industrial-scale biological recycling of PET a possibility. This is a very large advance in terms of speed, efficiency and heat tolerance,” McGeehan said. “It represents a significant step forward for true circular recycling of PET and has the potential to reduce our reliance on oil, cut carbon emissions and energy use, and incentivise the collection and recycling of waste plastic.”

Scientists are also making progress in finding biological ways to break down other major types of plastic. In March, German researchers revealed a bug that feasts on toxic polyurethane, while earlier work has shown that wax moth larvae – usually bred as fish bait – can eat up polythene bags.


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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

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The plastic problem: How does plastic pollution affect wildlife?

Read the original article here (with numerous links and photos)

https://www.aquarium.co.za/blog/entry/t ... t-wildlife


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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

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The numbers are scary and it makes me sick to see and read about the consequences of the laziness and carelessness of people 0= 0=
Unfortunately, the ones to blame do not read this kind of article. The various countries ought to make more information and make the facts known to everybody concerned in some way.

I have seen the result of the right information in Cambodia. All the villages are more or less full of plastic bags and fishing gear and it is especially visible in the Tonlé Sap lake villages where the houses are all built on stilts as the water gets high in the rainy season. The villages where the plastic ban has been carried out, everything looks so nice and clean, while the others look squalid and poor. It also does something to the people living there :yes:


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Interesting, Lis! \O


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OUR BURNING PLANET

The Age of Plastemic: Tiny plastic particles are infecting the remotest oceans and mountains via aerial transmission

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By Tiara Walters• 14 July 2020

Peer-reviewed study in Nature sounds alarm about new ways in which humanity’s favourite material, plastic, is spreading to Earth’s sensitive regions.

Road traffic is not only choking up the thin layer of atmosphere that has evolved over billions of years to protect life against solar radiation. It’s sending huge amounts of plastic particles on a toxic aerial conveyor belt to climate-shocked areas.

This could speed up warming in sensitive regions, a new study led by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research has found.

Released on Tuesday, 14 July 2020, in the journal Nature Communications, the study warns that traffic arteries are spitting out such a staggering quantity of microplastics that these are being picked up and spread across the globe by atmospheric transport such as wind.

Hitching a ride on atmospheric pathways, thousands upon thousands of tons of tiny plastic particles are disembarking at some of Earth’s most far-flung and pristine corners, such as the Arctic.

Think of these pathways as airborne delivery systems dumping the same amount of plastic into our oceans as polluted rivers across the world.

“In recent years, marine, freshwater and terrestrial pollution with microplastics has been discussed extensively, whereas atmospheric microplastic transport has been largely overlooked,” the authors note.

According to the study, road microplastics arise from brake and tyre wear — more specifically, mechanical abrasion and corrosion.

“Other sources include polymer-modified bitumen, used for road pavements or road-marking paint,” it notes.

Although the health impacts of plastic waste in humans and animals are widely known (asthma, for instance), the study highlights that the “rate of new plastic products continues to increase”. Plainly speaking, this means that “ever greater quantities evade waste collection and recycling”.

Even so, the full ecological and environmental effects of humanity’s love affair with plastic are still “poorly understood” — and these include the routes these materials take to hijack the planet’s life-support systems.

To probe the global movement of road microplastics, the researchers conducted simulations of pathways via the atmosphere.

Using these means, they determined that emissions from road microplastics constitute a significant 30% of total microplastic pollution.

Less surprisingly, the study highlights most heavily urbanised, populated regions such as Asia, Latin America, eastern US, northern Europe and the Middle East as plastic-distribution hotspots.

The biggest particles do not concern this study as much as smaller microplastics, which it defines as units that are no bigger than 2.5 micrometres.

“Larger particles were deposited close to the source of production,” the study adds, while small-size road plastics are more insidious and easily whisked away by atmospheric pathways. “They can remain airborne for long periods.”

According to the study’s estimates, an annual microplastic soup equal to 52,000 tons are pouring into the world’s oceans as a result of this phenomenon; and atmospheric pathways are depositing around 20,000 tons of the stuff, like deadly confetti, on “remote snow- and ice-covered surfaces” such as polar regions and mountain tops.

In areas that are warming faster as a result of their sensitivity to fossil fuels, the concept “surface albedo” is especially important — this is the quantity of sunlight bounced back by the Earth’s surface.

Rather than reflecting sunlight, however, dark microplastics “decrease surface albedo” (thus, collect more heat).

This reverse effect could “hasten melting” in wildernesses such as the Arctic, already teetering on a delicate edge due to global warming.

“In addition,” the study says, “road microplastics may concentrate in Arctic melt pools, with unknown ecological consequences.”

Some recent predictions suggest that the Arctic could be ice-free in as little as 15 years.

None of this is to say that these road microplastics simply enjoy a one-way journey to a single destination and stay there indefinitely. They may be far more well-travelled than that.

“Strong winds may remobilise deposited microplastic particles both from the land and the ocean surface, allowing secondary transport of these particles,” the study warns.

“Another important aspect is the fact that emissions from non-road vehicles (tractors, mining trucks and equipment, construction and forestry machinery, and even military), have not been included in our emission inventories,” the authors say, suggesting that we are a long way from understanding the full consequences of transport-related microplastics.

“While these vehicles are fewer, they work in difficult conditions, are heavier and carry heavy loads leading to enhanced tyre and brake wear.” DM


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