Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Chinese ship given permission ‘to dump toxic waste’ in SA waters

Nothing to see here: Just a Chinese ship dumping its toxic waste in our waters – after gaining permission from the SA government to do so.

by Tom Head | 26-01-2022


The toxic waste is being dumped between St. Helena and South Africa – Photo: Flickr / Helena Vizner

There is fury amongst opposition politicians this week, after it emerged that a Chinese ship was given government permission to dump its toxic waste off the west coast of South Africa.

CHINESE SHIP ‘ALLOWED TO DUMP TOXIC WASTE’ IN SOUTH AFRICAN WATERS

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has officially signed-off on an emergency permit, which would allow the NS Qingdao to dump its reactive cargo between Mzansi and St. Helena Bay.

The ship, which initially turned up at Durban Port while leaking ‘toxic fumes’ last October, was then directed towards the open seas, in order to get rid of its chemical load. Sodium Metabisulphite, Magnesium Nitrate Hexahydrate, and Caustic Calcined Magnesite have all been sent to the bottom of the ocean.

OPPOSITION MPS FUME OVER TOXIC DUMPING

The ANC government has insisted that there’s no other option available, and defended their decision by arguing that the toxic waste is too far away to harm anything: It’s being disposed of some 250km from the nearest landmass, and will eventually settle some three kilometres under the surface.

Two DA MPs aren’t satisfied with this explanation, however. Chris Hunsinger and Dave Bryant have both asked the department to present itself to Parliament, and explain why they agreed to this dangerous dumping:

• “The DA has noted with concern reports of a large Chinese bulk carrier, the NS Qingdao, that has apparently been given the go-ahead by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to dump at least 1 500 tons of toxic chemicals into the ocean off the fragile St Helena Bay coastline.”
  
  “There are serious concerns as to how the dumped waste will interact with the powerful Benguela current, which could carry it into areas where it may pose a risk to other marine life and humans. The Department must come clean on how this vessel was granted carte blanche to dump large volume of chemicals in SA waters.”
  
  Chris Hunsinger and Dave Bryant

‘NOTHING ILLEGAL’ ABOUT CHINESE SHIP OPERATION

The SA Maritime Safety Authority doesn’t have any particular issue with the permissions granted to the Chinese ship, and stressed that the decision to dump the cargo remains perfectly legal.

• “The vessel is currently anchored off St Helena Bay and an emergency dumping permit has been obtained from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to dump the reacting cargo at sea. Approximately 1 500 tonnes of cargo will be dumped 250km from the closest point to land and in excess of 3 000m of water.”
  
  “The dumping is expected to be concluded on 25 March 2022. To date, more than 1 000 tonnes of the cargo has been taken out of the vessel and it is expected that the remaining hotspots will be removed and dumped by 15 March 2022.”
  
  SAMSA statement

[Lisbeth]

Why don't they do that at home in Chinese waters? Because they don't want their seas to be polluted and their fish and sea mammals being poisoned.

250 km is nothing in an ocean. It can easily arrive on the coasts of the SA mainland How stupid to allow a thing like that. Not much thinking has been used

[Lisbeth]

South Africa authorizes dumping at sea of cargo that turned volatile

Much more here

[Lisbeth]

South Africa adopts marine plastic pollution treaty ahead of UN environmental meeting


(Photo: Unsplash / Naja Bertolt)

By Onke Ngcuka | 17 Feb 2022

Plastic waste is a blight on the environment and the planet’s oceans, taking a heavy toll on marine life. Now, South Africa has taken steps to ensure waste along the plastic lifecycle is being addressed.
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Marine litter and plastic pollution are among South Africa’s negotiating mandates as the country heads to the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya, at the end of February.

Cabinet adopted a draft resolution on plastic pollution in light of the detrimental effect the fossil fuel byproduct poses to the country and continent’s environment. In essence, the draft resolution is a call for a legally binding global agreement on plastics.

It seeks to address the waste management of plastic, the circular approach of the material while recognising its effects on marine life, and the fact that plastic pollution is a transboundary issue.

About 14 million tonnes of plastic finds its way into marine ecosystems every year, flowing into lakes, rivers and seas. Often this plastic is ingested by marine animals. At times, the microplastics eaten by fish and other creatures are in turn eaten by humans, posing a health risk to them as well.

Originally sponsored by Rwanda and Peru, the treaty seeks to address the compounds and additives used in plastic, promote the reduction of plastic waste, raise awareness and behavioural change about plastic pollution, and create the structures to measure progress and reporting.

“A legally binding treaty should also consider the entire lifecycle of plastic. Governments must rein in on these industries with stricter regulations and the removal of all fossil fuels subsidies. Taking action against plastic pollution at its origin will help to address the growing climate crisis, too,” said Nhlanhla Sibisi, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.

Almost 80,000 tonnes of plastic leak into the oceans and rivers of South Africa each year, making up 3% of the plastic waste generated in the country every year. About 2,371 thousand tonnes of plastic waste is generated in South Africa per annum. From that, 70% is collected, but just 14% of it (including imported waste) is recycled.

“The agreement would tackle plastic pollution across the full lifecycle of plastics, from preventive measures in the upstream part of the lifecycle, to downstream ones addressing waste management, in order to prevent plastic pollution in the marine and other environments and to support the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the draft treaty states.

Addressing an online meeting with national stakeholders and the media, the Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, said marine and land pollution were not mutually exclusive.

“What we understand is that you can’t tackle marine litter without looking at how that lands up in rivers, water systems and ultimately washes into our oceans. What we understand is that 80% of the plastic that ends up in our oceans comes from land-based sources.

“It means that if you want to deal effectively with marine plastic pollution, you can’t deal with it effectively only by focusing on the pollution in the sea itself,” Creecy said.

Last year, a leaked draft document showed that South Africa would not be joining the treaty ahead of the Ministerial Conference in September last year, with the department saying no decision had been taken on the treaty at the time.

Creecy said getting a draft treaty on marine pollution had been investigated from 2014, adding it had taken up to now to get all the relevant international and national stakeholders to agree that the evidence was valid.

“What you would understand is that there are different interest groups [in South Africa], across the globe and in regional environments. It would have taken the UN time where everybody agrees that this is a serious problem and it needs to be tackled with the seriousness of an internationally binding legal agreement,” the minister said.

At UNEA, South Africa will request special needs and circumstances of the African continent on the plastic pollution treaty. In addition, the country will express the need for additional finance for technology transfer necessary to implement the treaty and support developing countries.

Other themes that will be discussed at the assembly include nature-based solutions and biodiversity, chemicals and minerals, green recovery and circular economy and organisational and administrative matters.

“We definitely hope that our progressive position to support this is able to translate into national action that demonstrates how South Africa can reduce the impact of plastic by adopting zero-waste systems aimed at stopping plastic at the production phase.

“If we want to address the issue, then we need to ensure that we focus on prevention rather than cure,” said Niven Reddy, campaign research and technical support manager at GroundWork.

The assembly will take place from 28 February to 2 March. DM/OBP

[Richprins]

Endless!

[Lisbeth]

Mini plastic has been found even in the glaciers at the North pole

[Lisbeth]

Ban on single-use plastic is not yet on the table in SA, says Creecy

By Onke Ngcuka | 04 Mar 2022

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment will be persuading the plastics industry to regulate their plastic use as opposed to banning the fossil fuel byproduct that has been at the centre of detrimental environmental degradation.
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A single-use plastic ban is not on the cards in South Africa yet, Barabra Creecy, minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) told Daily Maverick as she raised concerns about law enforcement over the ban.

“We may not be using a ban. But that doesn’t mean that [plastic producers] have the latitude to do nothing,” Creecy said.

“I’m a great fan of carrots. But, of course, if you don’t like carrots, you might need a stick. We are seeing a shift and quite a significant shift [in plastic use and production]. And I think that what we will have to measure is whether there’s a consistent shift,” the minister said in answering whether a ban was on the cards.

Creecy’s stance and concern come a day after the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (Unea-5) adopted the first legally-binding draft treaty to end plastic pollution throughout the lifecycle of the material.

“The thing I’ve always been worried about is whether we would be able to enforce a ban. We have a few complexities with law enforcement in South Africa. I would rather do a lot of work to persuade a range of sectors to take [single-use plastic products] off their value chains completely,” Creecy said in Nairobi at Unea-5.

The persuasion methods Creecy referred to include the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations, which ensure that plastic producers take financial responsibility for the waste associated with the lifecycle of the material.

Other measures include ensuring producers make use of recyclable materials in bottling and packaging, producing 100% recycled plastic bags by 2027 and encouraging retailers and fast-food sectors to do away with single-use plastics.


(Photo: Unsplash / Tanvi Sharma)

The DFFE also started a “Source to Sea” pilot programme in KwaZulu-Natal that tackles plastic pollution upstream of rivers that house informal settlements. Increased public awareness around plastic waste, clean-ups in areas such as taxi ranks, and regular sponsored beach clean-ups are also part of the pilot programme, Creecy told Daily Maverick.

About 2,371 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated in South Africa every year, with 3%, or about 80,000 tonnes of plastic leaking into the country’s oceans and rivers each year. From that, 70% is collected, but just 14% of it (including imported waste) is recycled.

Creecy said while the plastics industry had supported the draft treaty that South Africa has also adopted with the support of the Cabinet, the plastic producers shifted the blame for plastic leakage to poor waste management by municipalities. About 40% of plastic waste is mismanaged, with two of nine provinces responsible for 50% of plastic leakage.



“They [the plastics industry] obviously feel that the industry gets a bad name… So they’re saying they’re not responsible for the leakage into the environment and that the responsibility for environmental leakage lies with municipalities… they definitely have a point there,” the minister said.

Plastics SA, the industry body representing the South Africa industry, said in a statement that they supported the treaty and acknowledged the urgent need to address plastic pollution. The industry body added that they did not believe addressing plastic pollution would be achieved by regulating plastic products or production.

“We believe that a global agreement could be used as an opportunity to accelerate the progress that we have already made in this regard. By building a stronger than ever foundation for effective waste management, we can ensure that used plastics are kept in the economy (recovered and recycled) and out of the environment,” Plastics SA Executive Director Anton Hanekom said.

South Africa’s plastic circular economy – using existing materials to reproduce new products and keeping the material in the economy – is in its infancy, with Creecy saying that the EPR is meant to promote the economy.



“If we’re going to have our own circular economy, then our own plastic waste must be the input for that circular economy,” the minister said, adding that plastic bag and recycling standards should not be met by importing waste.

She added, “In the long term… we will have to relook at plastic waste imports… Putting effort into developing our own supply of plastic waste for our own recycling is where we’ve got to be looking going forward.” DM/OBP

Daily Maverick’s presence in Nairobi was made possible by the United Nations Environment Programme.

[Lisbeth]

Our tyres are poisoning rivers and killing aquatic life, studies show



By Tony Carnie | 29 Mar 2022

Synthetic chemical compounds commonly added to ‘rubber’ tyres are getting into waterways, killing several types of fish and smaller forms of aquatic life, recent scientific studies reveal.
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I had to screech to a halt on the busy M1 highway near Pretoria recently after my trailer started shaking and juddering like a wild bronco.

To cut a long story short, the tyres on my infrequently used Venter trailer had started to peel apart, even though they had looked pretty good before the trip from Durban the previous day.

Waiting for them to be replaced at the closest tyre shop, a fellow customer remarked that “rubber” tyres are not what they used to be – and are now largely made from synthetic polymers (plastic).

Industry surveys show that more than half of global “rubber” products are derived from plastics, with about 70% used to make tyres for trucks, cars and other vehicles.

The big shift to increasingly plastic-based tyres began at the onset of World War 2, when the US and its allies were losing strategic rubber supplies from East Asia. With government sponsorship, a consortium of five tyre, oil and rubber corporations launched a massive research programme, based in Akron, Ohio, to develop general-purpose synthetic rubber.

It is debatable whether the continued use of synthetic rubber tyres has been a good thing from the perspective of cost or longevity. From an environmental perspective, however, recent scientific studies show that some of the synthetic chemical compounds commonly added to “rubber” tyres are getting into rivers, where they can kill several types of fish as well as smaller forms of aquatic life.

The latest study, published earlier this month by Canadian researchers, demonstrates that 6PPD-quinone, a chemical breakdown product of certain vehicle tyres, starts to kill trout within hours of being washed into rivers and other freshwater bodies.

The study authors, led by Dr Markus Brinkmann of the University of Saskatchewan, said synthetic ingredients such as 6PPD are added to tyres so they can be safely driven for a long time.

But as the treads wear down and pieces flake off over time, tiny tyre particles scatter across roads. There, they react with oxidants such as ozone in the air, converting 6PPD to 6PPD-quinone, which washes into waterways along with larger tyre particles in stormwater runoff.

The Canadian researchers exposed young brook trout, rainbow trout, Arctic char and white sturgeon to varying levels of 6PPD-quinone. They found that contaminants – even in small concentrations, such as those regularly found in surface waters after stormwater runoff events – were fatal to brook and rainbow trout.

However, none of the Arctic char and white sturgeon died after four days of exposure to a high level of the contaminant. In 2021, this substance was also linked to major die-offs of coho salmon along the US West Coast.

In the American study, Jenifer K McIntyre of Washington State University and fellow researchers said there had been regular fish kills tied to stormwater runoff, but the identity of the causative poison or poisons had not been known until research scientist Zhenyu Tian isolated 6PPD-quinone as the most likely culprit.

It remains unclear whether South African aquatic scientists have launched similar research projects to detect 6PPD-quinone in local rivers. However, further evidence of the potentially global extent of this form of chemical pollution from tyres emerged earlier in 2022 when a group of Australian scientists found 6PPD-quinone and other tyre-derived chemicals in stormwater samples next to a busy motorway in Brisbane.

Plastic pollution from tyre particles and dust may also seem insignificant compared with other sources of plastic, but a study by Pieter Jan Kole of the Open University of the Netherlands suggests it is “a stealthy source” of microplastics that deserves much more serious attention by regulators across the world.

Kole and his fellow researchers also did some very complex sums that suggest that tyre pollution could make up as much as 10% of the global plastics burden ending up in the ocean every year. He said this was because, when the “rubber” hits the road, shear forces and intense temperature can make the tyre surface so hot that volatile chemicals evaporate and tiny particles start to break away.

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Studies suggest that up to 8,900 tonnes of wear-and-tear tyre particles are released into the environment in the Netherlands alone each year. In Germany, tyres were calculated to generate about 125,000 tonnes a year, whereas the US produces more than 1.5-million tonnes a year.

On a global scale, this pollution source adds up to about 5.9-million tonnes a year – enough to fill 31 of the world’s largest container ships.

Put another way, Kole’s study suggests that emissions from tyre wear and tear into the oceans produce somewhere between 5% and 10% of the global loading of the ocean with plastics and could have an impact on both marine life and the people who eat seafood.

“This makes wear and tear from tyres at least as important as plastic bottles, bags and fibres released from clothing during washing,” says Kole.

“These numbers underline that tyre wear and tear deserves a higher place on the political agenda and that emission reduction of tyre wear and tear should be given higher priority than it currently receives.”

Norwegian researcher Claudia Halsband has raised similar concerns, observing that tyres now contain a broad range of additives including fillers (carbon black, clays, silicas, calcium carbonate), stabiliser systems (antioxidants, antiozonants, waxes), cross-linking agents (sulphur, accelerators, activators) and secondary components such as pigments, oils, resins and short fibres.

Chemical classes associated with synthetic car tyres also include polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalates, sulfenamides, guanidines, thiazoles, thiuams, dithiocarbamates, phenolics, phenylenediamines and heavy metals – many of which can have an environmental impact and pose risks to human health.

At a broader level, the synthetic tyre problem is just one of the many emerging indications that plastic products are not as benign as many of us imagine them to be.

It also underlines the importance of recent efforts by the United National Environment Assembly in Nairobi to start crafting a new legally binding treaty to deal with the largely invisible dimensions of plastic pollution. DM168

[Richprins]