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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>‘Plastic
Soup:’ Photos and Q&A with author of new book documenting plastic
pollution and solutions<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>by<span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#292B2C'> </span></span><a
href="https://news.mongabay.com/by/mike-gaworecki/"><span style='color:black;
text-decoration:none'>Mike Gaworecki</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#292B2C'> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>3
April 2019</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/plastic-soup-photos-and-qa-with-author-of-new-book-documenting-plastic-pollution-and-solutions/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Earth’s oceans are
drowning in plastic. Humans created<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/more-plastic-than-fish-in-the-sea-by-2050-warns-ellen-macarthur"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#45AAE8'>311 million metric tons</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>of the stuff in 2014, and it is
expected that we’ll be making four times as much by 2050 — yet only
about 5 percent of plastic is currently recycled. It’s been estimated that
<a
href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/EllenMacArthurFoundation_TheNewPlasticsEconomy_Pages.pdf"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#45AAE8'>8 million metric tons</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>of the plastic that goes to waste is
dumped into our oceans every year — which is equivalent to a full garbage
truck of plastic being dumped into the oceans every minute.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>In a
series of stunning photos and informative graphics, new book<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://s.bl-1.com/h/czXZoH0S?url=http://www.islandpress.org/book/plastic-soup"
target="_blank"><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#45AAE8;
text-decoration:none'>Plastic Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution</span></em></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>documents the plastic pollution crisis
engulfing Earth’s seas, the impacts of that pollution on wildlife and
people, and initiatives that have been created to tackle the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><img
border=0 width=450 height=638 id="Imagen_x0020_1"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01D500DA.43514DD0"
alt="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/03122621/Abbing-r02-06.jpg"></span><span
style='font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Plastic
Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution is out April 4 via Island Press. Image
courtesy of Island Press.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";
color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Microplastics have been found
in the guts of<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/plastics-found-in-dolphins-seals-and-whales-in-uk-waters/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#45AAE8'>marine mammals</span></a>, <a
href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/tiny-bits-of-ocean-plastic-threaten-the-survival-of-sea-turtle-hatchlings/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#45AAE8'>sea turtle hatchlings</span></a>,
and<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/research-finds-humans-across-the-globe-have-microplastics-in-their-stool/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#45AAE8'>humans</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>around the globe, and plastic water
bottles and snack-food packaging have even been<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/the-plastic-crisis-sinks-to-a-new-low-in-the-deep-sea/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#45AAE8'>found in the deepest parts of the
oceans</span></a>, at depths of nearly 11,000 meters or 36,100 feet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Plastic
Soup looks at a variety of sources of plastic pollution and the harm it causes,
from the microplastics in cosmetics that so frequently leak into fragile
ecosystems to the impacts of balloon releases on wildlife. But the book is also
intended as a message of hope, highlighting a number of projects that have been
created and actions people can take to help reduce plastic waste.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>The
book, set to be published tomorrow by Island Press, was written by Michiel
Roscam Abbing, a political scientist who reports on the latest scientific
research around plastics for the <a href="http://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#45AAE8'>Plastic Soup Foundation</span></a>.
Mongabay spoke with Abbing via email to get a sneak peek at what’s in the
book, including a handful of its most compelling images and graphics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><strong><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Mongabay:
How did you come up with the idea for Plastic Soup?</span></strong><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Michiel
Roscam Abbing: Since 2011 I have worked for the Plastic Soup Foundation, a
Dutch NGO dedicated to fighting plastic pollution. We cover all kinds of
plastic soup news items on<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/" target="_blank"><span
style='color:#45AAE8'>plasticsoupfoundation.org</span></a>. We started to think
about a book on the topic a few years ago. With the assistance of the Dutch
publishing house LIAS we developed the idea of an atlas to visually show that
plastic soup is a global problem manifesting itself in many different ways.
Some of the questions we set out to answer include: What are the causes and
sources of plastic soup? And what are the solutions to get plastic soup off the
map?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><strong><span style='font-size:
12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Were you trying to
catalog the plastic pollution problem comprehensively? Or just highlighting the
problem by examining some of the chief sources of plastic pollution and their
impact?</span></strong><span style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>The
goal of<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Plastic Soup</span></em><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>is to show that the plastic soup is
not only about waste that can be cleaned up. There are many sources and effects
of plastic soup — and also many possible solutions. I tried indeed to
approach the issue in a comprehensive way, easy for any reader to understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><strong><span style='font-size:
12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>What are some of the
more egregious sources and/or impacts of plastic pollution that you discovered
in the course of writing the book?</span></strong><span style='font-size:12.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>One is
that the long-term impact of microplastics in soil can have all kinds of
negative effects on terrestrial ecosystems with even greater impact than at
sea. Another is that we breathe microplastics continuously without
understanding if there might be negative consequences for our health in the
long run.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><em><b><span style='font-size:
12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Plastic Soup</span></b></em><span
class=apple-converted-space><b><span style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#292B2C'> </span></b></span><strong><span style='font-size:12.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>also documents some efforts to
reduce the amount of plastic waste we create and dump into the environment.
What were some of the more inspiring projects you found?</span></strong><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>One of
the inspiring new techniques that stands out to me is natural branding, a
technique in which lasers are used to mark vegetables and fruit in lieu of
plastic stickers. Plastic-free supermarkets are also popping up here and there
and are showing the big chains the way to follow. Other people show us how to
live with zero waste.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><strong><span style='font-size:
12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>What are some of the top
recommendations made in the book for how people can reduce their use of
plastics? Is there anything folks can do to help clean up existing plastic
pollution?</span></strong><span style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Try to
live without plastic for a while, as promoted by Plastic Free July, an
Australian initiative that developed a useful toolbox to do so. Also try, for
example, to combine your daily jogging or walk the dog with cleaning up the
street litter you encounter along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><img
border=0 width=768 height=379 id="Imagen_x0020_9"
src="cid:image002.jpg@01D500DA.43514DD0"
alt="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/03122803/9-copy.2-Graphic.jpg"></span><span
style='font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>What
can you do to counteract pollution by plastic, and what has the most effect? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Graphic
courtesy of the Plastic Soup Foundation.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><strong><span style='font-size:
12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Once it’s out in the
world, what do you hope a book like this can accomplish?</span></strong><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>I hope
that<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span style='font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'>Plastic Soup</span></em><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>will contribute to raising awareness
about this environmental issue and make it clear that cleaning up the mess and
preventing further pollution is everybody’s responsibility —
including companies and authorities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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