Why the plastic crisis is personal
Skipper Emily Penn explains how we all have a part to play in solving ocean plastics
Simple climate action at home // I S S U E 7 // P L A S T I C S
Our disposable plastic habit isn’t inevitable
By Michael J. Coren
Plastics are resilient, and their emissions even more so. By 2050, this ubiquitous feature of modern life is expected to consume 20% of the world’s “carbon budget” — the maximum emissions to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C.
We can’t recycle our way out of the problem. No single strategy will significantly cut plastic’s carbon footprint, reports Nature Climate Change. To cut emissions to a safe level, we need to swap out petroleum for plant sources, boost recycling, use renewable power for manufacturing, and reduce the demand that fuels growth. All four strategies need to be implemented “at an unprecedented scale and pace” to hit emissions targets.
Disposable plastic appears inevitable and unavoidable because it is cheaper for industry — not always for us, and certainly not for the environment. We pay for this apparent convenience in myriad ways, from higher taxes for trash to the rising costs of climate change itself. Different and better ways to do things (such as Apeel’s use of natural films to prevent food waste, rather than use plastic) become possible when we imagine and demand alternatives.
Here’s where we all come in. First, we need to see the problem and accept that things can change. Secondly, we need to challenge what we think of as inevitable or unavoidable. This week we’re talking to Emily Penn, who’s leading women-only sailing crews around the world studying the plastic pollution crisis first hand. She experienced how personal the problem is when she sailed through a soup of plastic debris in the middle of the Pacific. A discarded toothbrush, a tampon applicator, a bottle top — billions of micro actions caused this crisis, she says, and billions of micro actions can help to fix it.
If you’ve been doing our challenge this month, take 90 seconds to send us your results (and try our plastic-reduction tips here). Email us your questions, photos of your progress, or tales of your experiments with a lower carbon life. We’ll share results next week.
‘You have to remember the love you have for what you want to fix’
Emily Penn abandoned a career as an architect to enable pioneering research on ocean plastics. And she’s taking women with her, one eye-opening ocean journey at a time
By Jemima Kiss
It’s hard to appreciate the scale of the ocean plastics problem until you see it first hand, says Emily Penn. Reading about plastic pollution doesn’t come close to the feeling of being 3,000 miles from land in some of the world’s most remote oceans — and having a plastic toothbrush drift past. And then a bottle top. And then a cigarette lighter.
“When you see it and feel it, it becomes a lot more real,” she explains. “You can look across the water and it seems empty apart from a few pieces of plastic. But then you trawl the water and pull up hundreds of pieces that were too small to see. You realize there are hundreds of pieces per inch.”
Emily Penn discussing a microplastic sample. Photo: Sperry
Penn’s mission started in 2007 when she travelled to Shanghai to see a model for a zero-carbon city. She felt it wouldn’t be right to fly, so instead traveled for six weeks by train, camel and horse through Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China. “I fell in love with traveling slowly around our planet,” she says. “I felt like I’d be missing out if I took a plane because I wanted to experience the changes in culture, climate and people I met along the way.”
When she graduated the following year and was offered work in Australia, Penn avoided flying by joining the crew of Earthrace, a unique bio-diesel powerboat. The six months she spent onboard changed her life: she saw plastic floating in the ocean day after day, remote beaches covered in plastic, and dead seabirds with stomachs full of plastic. The crew spent time with island communities, witnessing local people battling against rising oceans, eating reef fish exposed to toxic chemicals and nuclear waste, and struggling to compete with commercial fishing vessels. By the time Emily arrived in Australia, she decided not to take the job and to focus on fighting plastic pollution instead.
How does she avoid feeling overwhelmed by the problem? “You have to remember the love you have for what you want to fix,” says Penn. “When you’re out on the ocean and you see something as personal as a toothbrush, you realize how personal this problem is.
“I think about it like voting. You always feel that your one vote won’t make a difference, but if nobody voted then we wouldn’t change anything. It’s just the same with plastics. It was billions of micro actions that have caused the problem, and it’s billions of micro actions that can solve it.”
Penn now leads eXXpedition, a multi-disciplinary, women-only crew that sails the world gathering research data and documenting plastic pollution. Founded by Penn in 2014, the project selects a diverse range of women for each mission and has included scientists, a truck driver, a teacher and a tattoo artist — all-women teams that are a statement against the underrepresentation of women in sailing and scientific research.
Aarathi Arumugam and Katrin Scholz-Barth working on board. Photo: Nomad Mnemonics & eXXpedition
The project has had to pause during the pandemic, but has so far taken 180 women to sea. Working with the University of Georgia and the University of Plymouth, eXXpedition is contributing to long-term projects studying how plastic is sinking to the ocean floor, and identifying the main sources of plastic pollution. If they can work out where plastics and micro plastics are coming from, we know who to target to change the system.
“From looking at fragments, analyzing polymer types and ocean currents, our suspicion is that most of this plastic is from disposable food packaging,” says Penn. “There are also unseen culprits, like tire dust coming from our cars every time we drive, and microfibers from our clothes every time we put the washing machine on.”
Rather than creating floating islands of plastic, the pollution is more like a soup. “Many pieces are smaller than your little fingernail,” she says. “These pieces are breaking down physically, but not chemically. They’re just getting smaller, and sinking — and getting much, much harder to clean up.”
The public is now demanding action on plastics, pushing companies to overhaul their practices, Penn says. “When we started, we were banging on people’s doors to get their attention. Now people are banging on our door asking how they can help.” Penn has advised Adidas, Corona and the software firm SAP. Since 2017 she has worked closely with Sky, the UK broadcaster and internet provider, that has pledged to remove single-use plastics from its business by the end of 2020. That has meant cleaning up its supply chain, on-site food businesses, and finding a solution for its sponsorship of soccer matches where 40,000 pints are served in plastic cups during every 15-minute interval. When Sky couldn’t find solutions, it set up a £25m innovations fund that includes partnerships with National Geographic and Imperial College London.
Plastic waste on a beach on Green Island, Antigua during Leg 3 of eXXpedition Round the World. Photo: Kristen Weiss & eXXpedition
Everyone has a different role to play in tackling the crisis. In June 2020, Penn launched the Shift app, which details hundreds of proven solutions for individuals and businesses. “There’s no one solution, but that’s a positive thing — there are hundreds of answers,” she says. “We need people from all walks of life, all sectors, and all cultures to work together. Start with your own expertise or area of influence, and find the solution that makes sense for you.”
Dynamic women with sturdy sea legs can apply to join the eXXpedition crew when the ship returns to sea after the pandemic.
Halloween: More than one billion tons of pumpkin is thrown away in the US every year. Try these recipes instead: pumpkin chips, pumpkin pie, pumpkin dal and roasted pumpkin seeds.
Journalists! We want your pitches. Email editors@hothouse.solutions for a full brief
Got two minutes? Tell us how to make Hothouse better!
Hothouse is a weekly climate action newsletter written and edited by Jemima Kiss, Mike Coren and Jim Giles. We rely on readers to support us, and everything we publish is free to read.
