Whales dying in agony with 40 kilograms of plastic in their stomachs, seals getting entangled in fishing nets and huge garbage patches in the ocean: the effects of plastic waste in the oceans are unmistakable.

Environmental organizations have been warning of the dramatic proportions for a long time and speak of a global plastic crisis.

Katja Gelinsky

Business correspondent in Berlin

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A study commissioned by the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) on the effects of plastic waste on species and ecosystems in the ocean has now come to the conclusion that by 2050 the concentration of plastic waste in the world's oceans is likely to quadruple.

According to the study carried out by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven, the amount of microplastics would even double if plastic pollution were stopped today.

Plastic particles are getting smaller and smaller

It is estimated that between 86 and 150 million tons of plastic waste are currently floating around in the sea.

"The permeation of the ocean with plastic is irreversible," says Heike Vesper, head of the marine conservation department at WWF Germany.

Because the garbage in the ocean decomposes into micro- and nanoplastics, plastic can hardly be retrieved from the sea.

In a worst-case scenario, marine areas two and a half times the size of Greenland could exceed ecologically risky microplastic concentration thresholds by the end of this century.

According to the study, the amount of microplastics in the sea threatens to increase fiftyfold by then.

For this purpose, the AWI evaluated 2592 studies that were carried out between the 1960s and 2019.

According to the study, almost 90 percent of the marine animal species examined are affected by the effects of plastics, for example through chemical softeners in the blood.

Not only has plastic entered the marine food chain, but it is also seriously affecting the productivity of important ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangroves.

The Mediterranean Sea, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are particularly affected.

More recycling

Plastic also swims in the North and Baltic Seas.

Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) has declared the protection of resources through the circular economy to be a core task of her ministry.

On the one hand, she wants to reduce plastic waste in Germany and, on the other hand, recycle the rest in high quality.

Good progress has already been made, says a ministry spokesman for the FAZ. In 2020, all quota targets were met or exceeded on average by the dual systems.

The requirements were tightened again at the beginning of the year.

Now 63 percent of the plastic packaging would have to be recycled in the dual system.

According to the spokesman, the ministry is currently evaluating the packaging law and examining instruments to avoid single-use packaging.

Lemke has promised to work at European level for higher recycling rates and uniform standards for recycled plastic.

In the coalition agreement, the federal government also supports an EU-wide ban on microplastics in cosmetics and detergents.

At the international level, Lemke wants to continue efforts to reach a binding agreement to combat marine litter.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, Germany played a central role in the preparatory work for such an agreement.

At the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi at the end of February, this path will be decidedly continued.

The WWF calls for such a global treaty to “deal with all phases of the plastic life cycle and end plastic pollution of the oceans by 2030”.

Fighting the causes of plastic pollution in the bud is much more effective than eliminating the consequences afterwards, says Vesper.

"If governments, industry and society act together now, they can still contain the plastic crisis."