The regulations brought by 127 countries worldwide including Sri Lanka to refrain from dumping used plastic materials to the ocean or ban such kinds of plastics that create the marine plastic pollution was highlighted by the Central Environmental Authority (CEA).
CEA, Director (Investigations) N.S. Gamage in an interview with the Daily News Finance said according to the European Commission, the global production of plastic currently estimated is around 300 million tons per year and the plastic pollution in the marine environment is around 9.5 million tons. He said as a result 1.5 million tons of plastic is ending up in the ocean annually.
“Considering this situation the global population is highly concerned over the destruction of the bio diversity and fish production due to marine plastic pollution.”
Referring to the World Street magazine, published in 2018, Director Gamage said Sri Lanka is in the fifth place among countries that marine plastic pollution is concerned due to the dumping of used plastics into the ocean.
“As we are aware used plastic are broken into small pieces after a considerable period and such pieces are called as micro plastic and they easily float in the water,”
“The danger is those micro plastics can enter into bodies of marine animals and in turn enters the bodies of land animals including humans when consuming fish and other marine food products, “. Referring to plastic gyres he said these gyres can be found in several oceans including in the Indian Ocean and currently there are around 1.3 trillion of plastic pieces in oceans. By 2050 the global fish production is expected to be much impacted.
He said the plastic debris also ends up in the oceans and creates plastic pollution and it is also harmful to marine biodiversity since micro plastics have an ability to absorb persistent organic chemicals.
He said when micro plastics are in the environment it creates mosquito breeding grounds, blocking water drains, polluting drinking water in reservoirs etc.
Director Gamage further said the best method is to recycle or dispatch used plastics to the Sanitary Land Filling Sites.
“In addition to Dompe site the CEA has also taken measures to set up a sanitary land filling site at Puttalam shortly,” he said.
CEA has established 10 plastic recycling centres at various places in the country and handed it over to local authorities and private sector companies to facilitate the recycling process and the CEA has also taken measures to filter out the plastic wastes before entering into the ocean and the Marine Pollution Prevention Authority together with Waste management Authority.
“We have already established a net in the Dehiwala Canal to filter out the plastic debris, “he said.
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