Plastics waste in urban litter does pose a serious and real

waste management problem. Unlike paper, plastics do not degrade in the outdoor

environment at a fast enough rate compared to that of littering. The result is a

serious aesthetic problem in highly populated urban areas in almost any part of
the world. Litter commonly encountered range from cellulose acetate filter tips

.from cigarettes44 to polystyrene foam cups, and polyethylene plastic bags

The situation is even worse in the case of the marine environment. Plastic

waste, primarily packaging-related waste, finds its way into the world's oceans

from fishing, commercial, and naval vessels. The ships’ waste dumped into the

ocean includes plastic waste. For instance, a large passenger liner or an aircraft

carrier may dispose of as many as several thousand plastic cups a day. Since the

U.S. ratification of MARPOL Annex V (and compliance by the U.S. Navy), this

practice has ceased. By 1999 naval surface ships were equipped with plastic waste

processors for onboard melting and compaction of food-contaminated and other

plastic waste. The compacted waste (a molded disk) is stored aboard the vessel

for disposal at port. This is a major achievement as it prevents at-sea disposal of

the 5.5 million pounds of plastic waste annually generated by the fleet. Fishing

.gear, however, is either routinely lost or are deliberately disposed of at sea

Commercial fishing nets such as trawls and midwater gill nets (usually made

of nylon, negatively buoyant in seawater) are large and are comprised of many

thousands of square meters of netting. Their loss or disposal at sea damages

the fishery due to “ghost fishing.” Gear made of polyolefin material (such as

with trawl webbing) remains afloat for a time until heavy encrustation by foulant

,macro invertebrates sink them. During this period, marine mammals, birds, fish
and turtles can be entangled or trapped by the discarded plastic waste,
particularly

in netting, strapping bands, and six-pack rings. Birds are even reported to feed on

resin pellets spilt during transportation of resin by sea and then suffer impaired

growth. Beach litter is also an important additional source of litter reaching the

sea; in fact, a large majority of the plastics polluting the world’s oceans include

.packaging materials that originate at beaches

.Littering is a behavioral problem as much as it is a technology-related issue

The standard approach of collection and recycling does not work well in the

marine environment. While some efforts are made to clean beaches of plastics

debris, the same is not feasible with plastics at sea. Technology can therefore
hope

to mitigate only a part of the problem. For example, the entrapment of animals

in six-pack rings at sea might be avoided by using enhanced photodegradable

six-pack rings made from (ethylene co-carbon monoxide) copolymer as opposed

to low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Degradable plastic bags

might be used at sea as these disintegrate rapidly, avoiding ingestion by turtles

But, the .)who apparently mistake the partially inflated bags for jelly fish (

enhanced-degradable polymer technology has not provided a generic answer to

all problems associated with marine plastic waste. The ingestion of plastic pellets

by birds or the introduction of micro fragments of plastics into the feed of filter

feeders at sea is not addressed by these technologies. The possibility of

concentration

of organic compounds in water in the plastic material via partitioning at sea, and
their possible introduction into the marine food chain via ingestion by
.organisms, have not been adequately addressed