Externalities of Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

1
Externalities of Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

• Gwen Holdgreiwe
• April 23, 2009
• Environmental Economics 331

2
Ocean Facts

• Salt water covers 71 of Earth
• 97 of all water on Earth is salt water
• contains 80 of all living matter
• Source of 60 Billion tons of food/year
• 2 Billion ppl. worldwide live w/in 100km of
  coastlines
• Algalita Marine Research Foundation experiment on
  North Pacific

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Global Pollution

• Sources municipal/industrial runoff or sloppy
  disposal by traveling ships
• Fishing vessels toss 340,000 tons of waste into
  the ocean
• Navies Cruise ships dump 1 million pounds / day
• Increased 10 a year for past 20 years

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Cost-Benefit Analysis

MC
Price
MB
Quantity

• Costs
• Greater threat than oil spills pesticides
• 100,000 marine animals die / year
• Debris on the beaches
• No organism can biodegrade plastic
• Deaths of sea turtles albatross birds

• Benefits
• Cheap cost of disposal
• Alternative to land pollution
• Eliminates cost of recycling

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Problems

• Governments have done little claim they need to
  focus on more important issues
• Underdeveloped countries dont have funds to
  enforce stricter anti-pollution laws

Dead Albatross bird whose lungs rib cage are
entirely filled with trash and plastic waste
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Solutions

• Some European nations have placed incinerators on
  their ships to burn all the wastes products
• The International Convention for the Prevention
  of Pollution from Ships forbids US dumping w/in
  320 km of coasts none at all in the Gulf of
  Mexico
• Chinese cities banned the use of foam lunch boxes
  
• Taiwan banned plastic bags and foam containers
• Total Recycling has developed optical technology
  to improve the manual sorting of mingled plastics
  to make recycling more efficient

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Works Cited

• Anderson, David A. Environmental Economics and
  Natural Resource Management. Kentucky Pensive
  Press, 2006.
• Hill, Marquita K. Understanding Environmental
  Pollution. New York Cambridge University Press,
  2004.
• Reed, Lawrence. Recycling is Often Wasteful.
  Garbage and Waste. Ed. Cozic, Charles P. San
  Diego Greenhaven Press Inc., 1997.
• Samuelson, Paul A. and William D. Nordhaus.
  Economics. New York McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2005.
• Starr, Roger. The Effectiveness of Recycling is
  Exaggerated. Garbage and Waste. Ed. Cozic,
  Charles P. San Diego Greenhaven Press Inc.,
  1997.
• Steger, Will and Jon Bowermaster. Saving the
  Earth A Citizens Guide to Environmental
  Action. New York Byron Preiss Visual
  Publications Inc., 1990.
• Steuteville, Robert. Technology is Improving
  Plastics Recycling. Garbage and Waste. Ed.
  Cozic, Charles P. San Diego Greenhaven Press
  Inc., 1997.
• Tammemagi, Hans. The Waste Crisis Landfills,
  Incinerators, and the Search for a Sustainable
  Future. New York Oxford University Press, 1999.