Marseille – Ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference in June, the research schooner Tara docked in Marseille for a day dedicated to tackling plastic pollution in the oceans.
With global plastic production doubling in less than 10 years, reducing it is key for protecting the ocean, according to findings at the Reducing Plastics: A Vital Issue for the Ocean conference, held in Marseille on Monday.
French and European scientists and policymakers gathered at the Mucem museum in Marseille for the summit – organised by the Tara Ocean Foundation and the French branch of the Interparliamentary Coalition to End Plastic Pollution.
"Today, we are facing a plastic crisis, which is a major crisis affecting the oceans and the environment in all its dimensions – climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss,” Henri Bourgois-Costa, head of public affairs for the Tara Ocean Foundation, told RFI.
French schooner Tara charts a course for change ahead of UN oceans summit
Recycling not (the only) solution
Today, at a global level, 50 percent of plastics are landfilled, 14 percent are recycled, 17 percent incinerated and 19 percent are poorly managed, explained Fabienne Lagarde, an environmental chemist at Le Mans university.
"Recycling is the tree that hides the forest, because the end of life of plastic is also polluting," she said.
Moreover, 98 percent of plastics today are not biodegradable, and two-thirds are not recyclable, Lagarde pointed out.
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"Most of our waste is either buried or incinerated, leading to a major environmental leak that originates primarily from land,” explained Jean-François Ghiglione, a researcher from the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the scientific director of the Tara Microplastics mission 2019, whose initial results were published in April.
"And more than 80 percent of plastics that end up in the sea come from the land," he added.
The study published last month, which focused on nine major European rivers, showed that 100 percent of these rivers were polluted by microplastics arriving directly from land.
"Microplastics come from the breakdown of large waste. A large piece of waste – through abrasion, friction and UV exposure – breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, almost infinitely," explained Ghiglione.
These microplastics measure between 0.025mm and 5mm, and are invisible to the naked eye.
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The study also showed that 85 percent of plastics in the sea are in microplastic form.
These microplastics are also found throughout the food chain, affecting 1.4 million birds and 14,000 mammals every year. Doctors are now investigating the consequences for human health.
"We absolutely must reach a global plastics treaty that reduces the quantity of plastics, because we have scientifically shown that the more plastic is produced, the more pollution there is. The relationship is linear," concluded Ghiglione.
Earlier this week, France urged countries around the world to ratify the landmark High Seas Treaty before the UN Ocean Conference, which opens in Nice on 9 June.
The treaty was adopted in June 2023 by 193 countries but cannot take effect until it is ratified by 60 countries. So far, only 21 have done so.
