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Question :
Will oxo-biodegradable plastics leave harmful to the ocean?
Answer:
There have been many reports over the past 20 years of plastic wastes floating in the ocean currents and of consequent damage to sea mammals that ingest them by mistake as food. In other reports, mammals have become entangled in some forms of packaging and in particular by netting from fishing vessels. These plastics have not been identified but are made by the traditional procedures of the polymer industries.
In spite of the Marpol regulations which prohibit the dumping of waste plastics in the sea, considerable quantities of durable detritus continue to be washed up on the seashores, even in remote areas where there is no almost no habitation. In a recent survey on the Isle of Skye in Northwest Scotland, it was found that almost all of the detritus came from shipping and in particular from the fishing industry in the form of durable nets, ropes, oil containers and even plastic engine covers. None of these were oxo-biodegradable. If they had been they would not be there at all. (www.biodeg.org)
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