Plastic Is Still the Ocean's #1 Villain, with Dr. Judith Weis

Plastic keeps getting made, it never goes away, and almost none of it gets recycled. Dr. Judith Weis, Professor Emerita at Rutgers University Newark and Andrew's very first guest on this podcast more than 2,000 episodes ago, returns for her fourth appearance to talk about the second edition of her book, Marine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Judith walks through every major category of marine pollution: nutrients, metals, oil, pesticides, marine debris, pharmaceuticals, ocean acidification, and one category that surprises most people, biological pollution. She explains why microplastics earned a brand new chapter, why they're so hard to study when they're in every lab and every body, and what Canada's legal fight over listing plastic as toxic means for regulation.

There's good news too. Judith grew up near a Hudson River full of raw sewage. After the Clean Water Act and new treatment plants, New Yorkers now walk the waterfront, the water is swimmable in dry weather, and humpback whales feed in New York Harbor. Andrew and Judith ask what that comeback can and can't teach us about plastic, and what you can do today.

Takeaways:

• Every major type of marine pollution comes down to three questions: where it comes from, what it does, and what we can do about it.
• Judith calls plastic the number one villain in marine pollution today because production keeps rising and recycling doesn't work at scale.
• Microplastics are 5 mm or smaller, mostly invisible, and carry chemicals both inside them and stuck to their surfaces.
• They're so widespread that researchers struggle to find microplastic-free controls for experiments.
• Canada listed plastic manufactured items as toxic under CEPA, banned six single-use categories, and saw that listing upheld on appeal.
• Large tanker spills have become far less common, with double hulls part of the reason.
• Sewage treatment after the Clean Water Act transformed the Hudson River and New York Harbor, and whales are back.
• Pharmaceuticals and hormones pass through treatment plants and change fish behavior and biology.
• Invasive species count as biological pollution, and unlike chemicals, they reproduce.
• Beach cleanups, local environmental chapters, and cutting your own plastic use are practical places to start.

Buy the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/marine-pollution-9780197753811?cc=ca&lang=en&

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