The World Bank, in an immersive story titled “Unpacking the plastics challenge”, stated that South Asia generates around 334 million tonnes of mismanaged waste annually. Of this, 15 million tonnes of plastic make their way to the Indian Ocean each year.
While South Asia’s annual plastic generation volume is comparatively lower than regions like East Asia and the Pacific (468 million tonnes) and Europe and Central Asia (392 million tonnes), it generates a significant amount compared to North America (289 million tonnes), Latin America and the Caribbean (231 million tonnes), Sub-Saharan Africa (174 million tonnes), and the Middle East and North Africa (129 million tonnes).
According to the World Bank, the problem in South Asia is exemplified by the Indus River, which is one of the most plastic-polluted rivers in the world and one of the biggest contributors to marine plastic pollution. It is estimated that the Indus River leaks 11,977 tonnes of plastic into the Arabian Sea (and beyond) every year.
Globally, food and green waste accounts for 44% of the total waste generated, while paper and cardboard accounts for 17%, plastic accounts for 12%, glass accounts for 5%, and metal accounts for 4%.
While the World Bank does not specifically look at Sri Lanka, there is no way one can talk about pollution without touching on the effects of the X-Press Pearl disaster, following a fire on the ship in May 2021 while it was anchored off the coast of Sri Lanka.
Citing various reports, Oceanswell states: “The container ship was carrying nitric acid, urea fertiliser, sulphuric acid, ethanol, sodium hydroxide, lubricants, and other chemicals, along with 78 metric tonnes (170,000 pounds) of a material known as plastic nurdles.”
Oceanswell, a marine conservation research and education organisation, maintains updated resources on the MV X-press Pearl incident, in collaboration with Dr. Chris Reddy from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The X-Press Pearl disaster made all of us aware of nurdles, which many had not heard of before. Oceanswell describes nurdles as small plastic pellets that are melted down and used in the manufacture of a wide range of end-products.
Noting that reports indicate that the nurdles released through the X-Press Pearl disaster were made of polyethylene (PE), Oceanswell stated: “The PE in these nurdles is likely to be relatively inert and unlikely to cause direct, immediate toxicity unless they were manufactured with toxic additives. Even if they were not, PE (like other plastics) can adsorb toxic chemicals from the marine environment that could be released when the plastics are ingested by marine organisms or humans.”
They add that plastics can break down over time into smaller microplastics and nanoplastics, which may be more likely to be taken up by an organism and cause toxicity. However, this is not an immediate concern as it is a process that takes time.
However, Oceanswell goes on to say that nurdles can also physically block the feeding or digestive systems of animals that consume them, adding: “But the size of these pellets would seem to indicate that only small animals would be at risk.”
Oceanswell has also launched a nurdle tracker, which helps them focus their cleaning efforts as well as verify particle-tracking models that lets them predict where the nurdles may go in the long term.
While nurdles are just one item of concern when considering pollution in Sri Lanka, the World Bank warns that the production of plastic far outpaces our ability to manage it when it becomes waste. They highlight that current amounts are expected to triple by 2050 globally.
“The detrimental effects of plastic pollution touch every living thing across every ecosystem on the planet. It is inescapable and has negative impacts on health and livelihoods – not to mention the cleanliness of communities around the globe,” the World Bank stated.
