Professor Ed Hill, executive director of the National Oceanography Centre, said it was time to change the attitude of what goes on below the surface as “out of sight, out of mind” and have more of a “Mission to Planet Ocean” approach.
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Plastic Waste In The Oceans Could Treble Within The Next Decade – Huffington Post
12 million tonnes of our rubbish is dumped in the ocean every year
Click here to view the original article with videos.
The amount of waste plastic in the oceans could treble in the next 10 years unless urgent action is taken to curb the problem, a report has warned.
It’s estimated that a frankly staggering 12 million tonnes of plastic rubbish is dumped into the oceans every single year.
Plastic waste, along with global warming and industrial pollution present the largest dangers to our oceans warns the Foresight Future of the Sea Report for the Government.
The scientists behind the report warned of the danger of the oceans being “out of sight, out of mind”, with more known about the surface of Mars and the Moon than the deep sea bed.
Every year 12 MILLION tonnes of plastic waste enters our oceans.
We must tackle plastic pollution, and a deposit return scheme is a great way of doing so.
RT and sign to help #EndOceanPlastics
>>> https://t.co/dm4CITSYuj pic.twitter.com/64EssWhAnb— Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) March 17, 2018
He said: “When people get to see what is in the ocean, and the Blue Planet series and so on have helped people to visualise it, and then I think their reaction is twofold, one is complete wonder at what is there, and in other cases complete horror at what we’re potentially doing to it.
“It’s this sense of the unexplored world on our own planet, but also it’s important to us, we know less about the bottom of the sea than the moon or Mars, but nothing lives on the moon or Mars, but things live in our ocean and they’re vitally important to us.”
Plastic pollution, which is set to treble between 2015 and 2025 without intervention, has a physical presence in the oceans, and can accumulate on the coasts or in particular areas of the sea.
The spread of plastic pollution in our oceans has gotten so bad that in September last year scientists actually found lumps of polystyrene near the North Pole.
The ocean and its health is hugely important to the UK, with 95% of the country’s international trade travelling by sea, the internet carried by subsea cables, and oceans storing carbon dioxide and heat and producing oxygen and food.
But there are also opportunities for the UK to cash in the global “ocean economy” – which is set to double to 3 trillion US dollars (£2 trillion) by 2030 – in areas where the country is a world leader, such as offshore wind.
PowerHouse Energy #PHE CEO on The Future of Plastic
Keith Allaun, the Chief Executive Officer of PowerHouse Energy Group plc (AIM: PHE), the UK technology company pioneering hydrogen production from waste plastic and used tyres, was invited to contribute to a special edition insert in the most recent New Scientist Magazine. The insert, titled “The Future Of Plastic” was headlined by Sir David Attenborough and brought together thought-leaders in policy and industry to articulate how we might address the current challenges plastic is presenting to our planet, and specifically, our oceans.
The issue was released in conjunction with World Oceans Day on June 8th, 2018.
The potential for the Company’s DMG© System to harness the energy contained in plastic waste by converting it to clean hydrogen was highlighted in the article as a mechanism to reduce the impact of plastics on our oceans. PowerHouse plants are small, modular, and economical, and can be located where plastics are collected.
The decision by China in early 2018 to stop accepting recyclable plastics from the UK, coupled with the challenges faced in recycling soiled or mixed plastics economically, has left tonnes of plastics piling up around the country. Allaun believes that PowerHouse can be an integral part of the system that helps eliminate plastic waste, and helps revive our oceans, in an environmentally responsible, and economically efficient, manner.
“Waste and non-recyclable plastics need not be wasted or pollute our planet,” said Allaun. “Our DMG© process extracts a clean source of energy from waste plastics – hydrogen. The use of hydrogen, in lieu of fossil fuels, will eliminate a substantial CO2 burden to our oceans and our atmosphere.”
“A single lorry of waste plastic can generate enough hydrogen to provide over 60,000 miles of emission-free motoring, and concurrently power 1500 homes. PowerHouse makes a friend of waste plastic, not an enemy.”
The Future of Plastics can be seen in the June 8th 2018 edition of New Scientist Magazine or viewed on the web at the following URL:
http://www.globalcause.co.uk/plastic
The Company’s article can be viewed at:
http://www.globalcause.co.uk/fuel-for-thought-how-to-transform-waste-plastic
For more information, contact:
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PowerHouse Energy Group plc |
Tel: +44 (0) 203 368 6399 |
About PowerHouse Energy
PowerHouse Energy Group plc is the developer of DMG©, the Distributed Modular, Gasification System which allows for the distributed eradication of waste, the generation of distributed electricity, and the production of distributed hydrogen with the world’s first small, modular, hydrogen from waste process (HfW).
The Company is focused on technologies to enable efficient energy recovery from municipal and industrial waste streams that would otherwise be directed to landfills and incinerators; or from renewable and alternative fuels such as biomass, tyres, and plastics for power generation, or the production of high-quality hydrogen as a fuel for transport. DMG© allows for easy, economical, deployment and scaling of an environmentally sound solution to the growing challenges of waste eradication, landfill diversion, electrical demand, and distributed hydrogen production.
PowerHouse is quoted on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM Market under the ticker symbol: PHE. The Company is incorporated in the United Kingdom.
For more information see www.powerhouseenergy.net