Plastics, fertilizer poisoning world's oceans, says UN

Feb 18, 2011, 10:28 GMT

Nairobi - The world's oceans are being poisoned by the double impact of chemical fertilizer and discarded plastic, the United Nation's Environment Programme (UNEP) said Thursday.

In the release of its annual year book, UNEP said the twin pollutants of phosphorus and plastic fragments were harming water quality and poisoning fish stocks.

'The phosphorus and marine plastics stories bring into sharp focus the urgent need to bridge scientific gaps but also to catalyze a global transition to a resource-efficient Green Economy in order to realize sustainable development and address poverty,' UNEP head Achim Steiner said.

According to UNEP, phosphorus is linked with algal blooms that damage water quality and is causing an estimated 2 billion dollars per year damage in the United States. The global costs could run into tens of billions of dollars, the watchdog said.

Over the last 50 years, concentrations of phosphorus in freshwater and land have grown by at least 75 per cent, and the estimated flow of phosphorus to the marine environment is running at about 22 million tons a year, UNEP said.

Research also suggests that small fragments of plastics in the oceans, combined with pellets discharged by industry, could be absorbing toxic chemicals linked to cancer and impacting the reproductive processes of humans and wildlife.

Per capita consumption of plastics has rocketed, UNEP said. In North America and Western Europe, each person uses around 100 kilograms of plastics annually, a figure set to increase by 40 per cent by 2015. Plastics use in Asia is set to almost double to 36 kilograms per person by 2015.

The new report came ahead of a meeting next week of environmental ministers at UNEP's headquarters in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Steiner said the meeting would focus on problems such as those outlined in the year book.

'Whether it is phosphorus, plastics or any one of the myriad of challenges facing the modern world, there are clearly inordinate opportunities to generate new kinds of employment and new kinds of more efficient industries,' he said.

UNEP's report said that recycling wastewater and cutting the erosion of topsoil could help reduce the discharge of phosphorus into the oceans.

The year book called for better enforcement of existing rules on recycling, better consumer awareness and more support for national and community-based initiatives.

'If plastic is treated as a valuable resource, rather than just a waste product, any opportunities to create a secondary value for the material will provide economic incentives for collection and reprocessing,' it said.