World Oceans Day 2024

Our planet Earth, the “Blue Planet”. With over 70% of its surface being covered by oceans and sea’s it stands to reason to take care of it. And yet, despite this large number it appears that our species is disregarding and taking advantage of their ubiquitous nature, with predictions of plastic pollution in these areas sharply increasing in recent years, and expectations of this number doubling by 2030. 

Not only should more attention be brought to the forefront when discussing the wellbeing of our home, but the benefits, and as such subsequent risks should be introduced and discusses more openly. That is exactly what this blog post will attempt to do on the 8th of June, World Oceans Day.

Maybe majority of people don’t care, or don’t think that they would be affected, however, oceans are more than just water or a way to make profit. Oceans are a key part in the good of our planet, the ecosystem, animal lives, and our lives as well, irrespective of our proximity to water. Be it the oxygen that ends up being released into the atmosphere due to the various organisms living within the oceans, the nutrition from various seafoods, medicine, minerals, renewable energy, all of these and more are reliant on the wellbeing of our oceans, and yet we still find ourselves seeing the conditions worsen. And it is not simply oceans, the entire planet is covered by an interconnected system of streams, lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans, and as such, how we treat these can have an effect on not just us but other people living thousands of miles away. The Baltic Sea is a part of the same system of water as the Malacca Strait.

Coastal countries, or ones with intricate river system would naturally be more affected and by extension the people living there as well than ones that are landlocked. A good example would be Vietnam, a long strip of land located on the Eastern Indochina Peninsula, with the Red River Delta and Mekong Delta in the northern and southern tips of the country respectively. Not only is it one of the countries most struggling with the effects of pollution due to its geographical location, but they are also an active actor in the pollution process.

Most of the plastics polluting our oceans are not dumped directly in the water, instead, marine plastics end up making it to their final destination deriving from land-based sources, more specifically, us humans. At least 3 out of 5 of the plastics being thrown away, and 94% of the solid plastics found on the country’s beaches are single-use plastics, that is, plastic bags, bottles, or food containers, with massive “garbage patches”, islands of plastic waste floating in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, with one in the Pacific Ocean (one that Vietnam specifically has access to) being larger than the second largest state within the U.S., Texas.

However, the responsibility is not entirely on the shoulders of the Vietnamese government, and Vietnamese people. It is no secret that European countries have been actively exporting plastic waste due to a “lack of capacity, technology, or financial resources to treat waste locally”. As much as 50% of the plastic from European countries is being shipped outside the region with no accountability regarding how it is dealt with at the end of it’s lifecycle, be it recycling or dumping. In many cases, the countries receiving this waste are ones in the global south, with the major destinations for these exports being China (until the waste import ban of 2018), Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In the case of Vietnam, in 2019 only 9 to 33% of imported plastic waste was recycled, not all of it even meeting international sustainability criteria, and mismanaging and dumping of plastic waste into the Oceans being an alternative, and not uncommon strategy. And yet, they are actively trying to fix this, with a goal of reducing marine plastic litter by 50% in 2025 and 75% in 2030. Utilising and implementing various programs such as the “Boat to Shore” program in the central province of Binh Dinh where fishermen are cleaning up the waters by collecting plastic waste and bringing it to shore to prevent it from polluting the water. This program has had successful outcomes and in the future the plans are to train all of the fishermen in ocean plastic waste management and reduction by 2030.

Projects such as these, as they grow, will not only have beneficial effects on the physical appearance, or the biodiversity within the waters, it will also additionally help those of us that live on land. From the plastic breaking down into microplastics, to the chemical components ingested by animals, ones that either via food chain or directly ingested by us humans make it inside our bodies. Chemical components used in plastics or the production of plastics such as lead, cadmium, and mercury have been linked to cancers, birth defects, immune system problems, and childhood developmental issues, and various other toxic plastics commonly used in packaging have been linked to interfere with human hormonal functions. The scary part, it is difficult, if not outright impossible to gauge and determine just how much these affect our bodies due to a severe lack of subjects unexposed to plastic contamination. All we know, is that reducing plastic production and usage, and focusing on reusing, recycling properly, and improving the circularity of plastics are key to everyone’s wellbeing.

It should be noted that the European Parliament has approved stricter requirements for plastic waste shipments outside of Europe as of February 2024. This limits the list of countries that can receive plastic waste to those from within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). However, even if countries like Vietnam are not on that list, and as such would not import waste from Europe, it does not stop them from importing the massive amounts of waste from other countries such as Japan (41.9% of imported plastic waste in 2019) or it does not stop other countries in the OECD from taking on the role of importing plastic waste from Europe. Though, it should be noted that for more countries within the Southeast Asian region (including Vietnam) are gradually blocking plastic waste imports.

With that being said, it becomes evident just how interconnected this entire issue is, and while it is easy to blame others around us, including the various big corporations pumping plastic into the environment, polluting our planet, and wrapping most things in plastic that we buy, there are some things we as consumers and inhabitants of this planet can do. Choosing to avoid products packaged in plastic when the choice exists; not just recycling but reusing plastic products, be it bottles or bags and giving them a second life; as well as simply not littering. Not only would these help create a cleaner and healthier environment to live in, it would also make living healthier, we are, after all, living on the same planet, and we don’t have another one.