Almost 4 tons of plastic rain down on Paris per month – 29/05/2023 – Environment

During the five days of negotiations for a global treaty on plastics, in Paris, 200 kilos of plastic should rain on the French capital. It was a stroke of luck because anyone visiting the most touristic city in Europe next Monday will witness, in a single day, a rain of 128 kilos of plastic, say researchers.

The monthly average of the French capital is almost 4 tons (3,975 kilos) of plastic falling from the skies onto the Eiffel Tower and everything else that is out in the open.

The calculations are from The Plastic Forecast, or plastic forecast, an Australian project that combines weather forecasting with information about the dynamics of plastic microparticles dispersed in the atmosphere to alert people that the problem of plastic waste is closer than you think.

“It’s more than a weather forecast linking rain to plastic. It’s a daily reminder that plastic production is bringing the planet to a tipping point, threatening our health and that of our children,” he says. Australian oceanographer Tony Worby, CEO of the Minderoo Foundation ocean project, a philanthropic entity in Australia that produces research on the issue of plastic pollution and which funded the project.

Launched during the meeting of representatives of 175 countries in the French capital, the project was born aimed exclusively at the city of the meeting, but should be expanded to other cities in the world in the coming months.

Worby, former director of atmosphere and oceans at the Australian National Research Agency, said the Plastic Forecast is an attempt to raise awareness of the plastic problem in a new way.

“We’ve all seen many images of plastic on beaches and in the oceans, or even inside animals. And, somehow, we’ve become accustomed to these images, we’ve become numb to them. The project was a way to bring issue closer to people, make it something personal”, he explains.

As plastic is a product that is difficult to degrade, it breaks down into microparticles when discarded. But microparticles can also be intentionally produced, as in the case of the small spheres contained in exfoliating products, and then discarded.

Microparticles are those smaller than 5 mm, but they can be or become much smaller than that. These plastic microparticles are so tiny that they go everywhere, accumulate inside shellfish and crustaceans and are consumed by humans.

Microplastics have already been found in the bloodstream and lungs of living people. This is because these particles are very light and are suspended in the air.

“The air we breathe every day is full of plastic microparticles. And anyone walking around Paris on a sunny day doesn’t think about that. When it rains, the water drags this plastic to the ground, literally making plastic rain”, says Worby.

He points to the growing number of studies devoted to the impact of these microplastics on human health and also the chemicals used to manufacture these plastics. “There is a growing body of scientific evidence pointing to effects on the hormone system in humans,” he says.

While the numbers used as the basis for Plastic Forecast calculations are predominantly fiber-shaped microparticles, more recent studies are finding more types and shapes of smaller plastic particles. Therefore, states the project’s website, it is very likely that the actual amount of plastic being deposited with each rainfall is much higher than estimates.

The oceanographer assesses that the non-specialized public’s awareness of the problem of plastics in the oceans is recent, but suffers from a visibility problem.

“We’ve had plastic pollution in the oceans for decades, because we’re used to discarding everything in the seas. But it’s a typical case of something that, if you don’t see it on a daily basis, you don’t treat it as a problem,” he says.

“Today we know that it is not possible to have a healthy planet if we do not have healthy oceans because they play a crucial role in the air we breathe, in rainfall patterns and, for many, they are an important source of food”, he explains.

Worby assesses that changing this scenario requires, above all, reducing the amount of plastic produced, which means facing the interests of large corporations.

“We also need alternatives to plastic that are more recyclable or reusable so that we can create a circular economy. We will have to redesign the plastics that we really need so that they have a long life and are reused”, he suggests.

“We will need to change the entire chain of this material and, for all of that, strict regulation by governments will be necessary”, he adds, who does not see “a silver bullet for the issue”.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}