Mikroplastik stoppen - Meerestiere retten! - washo.ch

Stop microplastics - save marine animals!

This online petition needs your support:

www.mikroplastik-stoppen.ch

The amount of newly produced plastic is increasing - currently we are at about 400 million tons per year worldwide. Logically, the plastic pollution of the oceans has also reached an unimaginable dimension: Every year, 9-14 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans worldwide. The material is so popular because of its robustness and durability. The downside: Science assumes that every plastic product that has ever ended up in nature instead of in waste disposal is still there!

It is estimated that it takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to decompose in the ocean, and 600 years for a synthetic fishing line. Whereby "decompose" only means the reduction to micro- (< 5mm) and nanoplastics (< 0.001mm). However, this is anything but a solution to the problem. On the contrary, microplastics can injure and poison small marine animals because they are pollutant magnets. So when ingested by animals, microplastics can also be a toxic cocktail.

Plastic waste pollutes all marine life, large and small: as macro waste, it is deadly traps or indigestible food for larger marine animals, covering ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs; as micro plastic, it affects the base of the food chain, phyto- and zooplankton, and enters various organisms through the food chain. Also to us. For example, a person in Europe ingests about 11,000 microplastic particles per year by eating shellfish.

What many underestimate is that landlocked countries are also involved in plastic pollution of the oceans. Switzerland alone carries several tons of microplastics into the Mediterranean and the North Sea every year via the Rhone and Rhine rivers, because local wastewater treatment plants filter a great deal, but not everything, out of the wastewater. Even if other countries contribute significantly more to pollution, Switzerland should take responsibility for its actions - for our local environment and the sea. That is why the Swiss marine conservation organization KYMA sea conservation & research has launched the online petition www.mikroplastik-stoppen.ch, calling for the regulation of various sources of microplastics. The petition is only running for a short time - so be sure to join and sign now!