Dr C James Hospedales,

MB BS, MSc, FF­PH

Earth­Medic and Earth­Nurse Foun­da­tion for Plan­e­tary Health ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor

As the world ob­serves World En­vi­ron­ment Day 2025 on June 5, it’s time to high­light the grow­ing emer­gency of plas­tics; time to #Beat­Plas­ticPol­lu­tion. Host­ed this year by the Re­pub­lic of Ko­rea, the glob­al cam­paign is ral­ly­ing peo­ple and gov­ern­ments to ad­dress a ma­jor en­vi­ron­men­tal threat of our time—plas­tic waste. If we open our eyes in T&T, we see plas­tics every­where, in every­thing! Plas­tic bot­tles and waste clog­ging drains and rivers, wors­en­ing cli­mate change-in­duced floods and spoil­ing our favourite beach­es and riv­er limes.

Plas­tic cri­sis

Plas­tics don’t oc­cur nat­u­ral­ly. Na­ture does not have the ca­pac­i­ty yet to break down plas­tic eas­i­ly, un­like a ba­nana, say. Every year, an es­ti­mat­ed 11 mil­lion tonnes of plas­tic waste leaks in­to wa­ter­ways, chok­ing drains, rivers, and the ocean. Mi­croplas­tics—tiny frag­ments re­sult­ing from break­ing up larg­er plas­tics—are now in the soil, air, wa­ter, and even the food we eat. The es­ti­mat­ed en­vi­ron­men­tal cost is shock­ing: US$300-US$600 bil­lion/year.

En­vi­ron­men­tal im­pact: From soil to sea

Plas­tic pol­lu­tion is killing life on Earth. Ma­rine an­i­mals like tur­tles eat plas­tic de­bris, mis­tak­ing it for food, lead­ing to star­va­tion, poi­son­ing, and death. Coral reefs are be­ing smoth­ered by plas­tic waste. Burn­ing plas­tic re­leas­es very tox­ic fumes in­to the air which can harm hu­mans and wildlife. Plas­tic par­ti­cles con­t­a­m­i­nate fresh­wa­ter sources, mak­ing wa­ter un­safe for drink­ing and ir­ri­ga­tion. Mi­croplas­tics al­ter soil struc­ture and fer­til­i­ty, neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ing crop yields and food se­cu­ri­ty.

This cri­sis is not just en­vi­ron­men­tal—it con­cerns you, me and our fam­i­lies. Plas­tic pol­lu­tion is now a wide­spread pub­lic health emer­gency.

Health harms:

A hid­den epi­dem­ic

Stud­ies re­veal that mi­croplas­tics are present in al­most every hu­man or­gan: blood, brains, lungs, and pla­cen­tas (the or­gan con­nect­ing a ba­by in the womb to its moth­er). These par­ti­cles can car­ry tox­ic chem­i­cals and dis­rupt bi­o­log­i­cal process­es.

Mi­croplas­tics even get in­to men’s penis­es and tes­ti­cles! Ex­po­sure to plas­tic-re­lat­ed chem­i­cals has been linked to re­duced sperm qual­i­ty and ovar­i­an dys­func­tion, which may af­fect fer­til­i­ty. Male sperm counts world­wide have halved in the last 50 years, more so since 2000 when plas­tic use great­ly ac­cel­er­at­ed.

Mi­croplas­tics can cross in­to the brain, po­ten­tial­ly con­tribut­ing to men­tal dis­or­ders like de­men­tia. Cer­tain plas­tic ad­di­tives, like ph­tha­lates and bisphe­nol A, are known to cause can­cer and heart dis­ease. En­docrine-dis­rupt­ing chem­i­cals in plas­tics in­ter­fere with hor­mone reg­u­la­tion, in­creas­ing the risk of obe­si­ty and di­a­betes. Plas­tics can mim­ic or block hor­mones, lead­ing to re­pro­duc­tive is­sues and thy­roid dys­func­tion.

These health risks are not con­fined to in­dus­tri­al zones or pol­lut­ed cities—they are glob­al, af­fect­ing peo­ple of all ages and coun­tries.

Glob­al treaty:

A pos­si­ble ray of hope

Oil and gas are the raw ma­te­ri­als used to make plas­tics. In 2022, the UN launched ne­go­ti­a­tions for a legal­ly bind­ing glob­al treaty to end plas­tic pol­lu­tion. This treaty aims to ad­dress the life cy­cle of plas­tics—from pro­duc­tion to dis­pos­al and re­cy­cling.

How­ev­er, progress has been slow. The Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties process, which gov­erns in­ter­na­tion­al en­vi­ron­men­tal agree­ments, is be­ing un­der­mined by the in­flu­ence of oil and gas com­pa­nies. These in­dus­tries, which sup­ply the raw ma­te­ri­als for plas­tic pro­duc­tion, lob­by to weak­en reg­u­la­tions and de­lay ac­tion—as they do for ac­tion to ad­dress cli­mate change.

This un­due in­flu­ence threat­ens to de­rail mean­ing­ful progress. As cit­i­zens, we must de­mand trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty in these ne­go­ti­a­tions.

What can we do?

While sys­temic change is es­sen­tial, in­di­vid­ual and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tions re­main pow­er­ful tools. Here are prac­ti­cal steps every­one can take:

Stop/re­duce us­ing plas­tic bot­tled wa­ter; use a wa­ter jug with an ac­ti­vat­ed char­coal fil­ter and drink­ing glass­es in­stead. Don’t store plas­tic bot­tled wa­ter in the sun, as this great­ly in­creas­es plas­tic break­down and the leach­ing of harm­ful chem­i­cals and mi­croplas­tics in­to the wa­ter.

Say no to plas­tic bags, straws, cut­lery, and pack­ag­ing. Switch to reusable al­ter­na­tives made of cloth, met­al, or glass.

Choose com­pa­nies that use sus­tain­able pack­ag­ing and eth­i­cal pro­duc­tion meth­ods. Take your own con­tain­ers to buy take-out or your own re-us­able bags to the gro­cery store.

Join or start lo­cal ini­tia­tives to clean rivers, beach­es, and neigh­bour­hoods. Walk with your own re-use­able wa­ter bot­tle to fetes, meet­ings and limes, start a trend—be part of the so­lu­tion not the prob­lem!

Put plas­tic bot­tles and bags in­to re­cy­cling bins and not the drain or riv­er!

Write to your elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Sup­port bans on sin­gle-use plas­tics and de­mand in­vest­ment in waste man­age­ment in­fra­struc­ture.

Talk to your friends, fam­i­ly, and schools about the dan­gers of plas­tic pol­lu­tion. Share re­sources and suc­cess sto­ries to in­spire ac­tion.

A turn­ing point

World En­vi­ron­ment Day 2025 is an ur­gent call to ac­tion. The plas­tic cri­sis is solv­able, but on­ly if we act col­lec­tive­ly. As the UN cam­paign re­minds us, “Plas­tic pol­lu­tion is one of the most fix­able en­vi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges of our time.”

Let this be the year we turn the tide. Let this be the year we #Beat­Plas­ticPol­lu­tion.

The fore­go­ing was a week­ly col­umn by Earth­Medic and Earth­Nurse NGO to help in­form and equip read­ers to face the cli­mate and health cri­sis.