The Impact of Marine Pollution Due to Plastic Waste
The sea is one part of the ecosystems which is the last reservoir for water waste generated by human daily activities, it comes from household waste, agricultural waste, factory waste, and waste from other human activities. Actually, marine ecosystems is a kind of life in the sea that must be preserved to maintain the balance of the ecosystem and become a source of human needs. If the sustainability of the sea is polluted by waste products from disposal of human activities, then damage to the marine ecosystem will no longer be avoided.
Indonesia is an archipelago surrounded by the sea. Therefore, if the seas around Indonesia are polluted by waste from human activities, it will have a bad impact on the oceans in a global context and it is almost impossible to collecti garbage consisting of plastic waste pieces that sink or float on the surface of sea water. Moreover, Indonesia is the second largest waste contributor after China. It is around 8 million tons of human waste flows into the oceans every year in the world which causes the problem become even more serious.
Plastic waste cannot be decomposed easily, especially if it is in seawater. Disposing of plastic waste into the sea can be overcome in many ways, one method which is often done by several people is burning plastic waste. However, burning plastic waste is also considered not recommended health, because plastic contains several dangerous ingredients when it is burned, it cause an air pollution and it becomes even more dangerous when the dangerous content is inhaled by humans directly, it will cause various kinds of diseases for humans. If the garbage is not burned, the next method is dispose it to a landfill. But the truth condition is that people prefer to throw it into landfills or dispose it into rivers that lead to the sea rather than reuse it, even though there are a lot of waste which is very useful if it is reused. In fact, the community also knows that if the landfill is dumped continuously, then over time the landfill will be full and cannot accommodate new piles of garbage. This is a very worrying problem because when the landfill is full, people will throw it to other places such as rivers leading to the sea and this will pollute the sustainability of the marine ecosystem.
The preservation of marine ecosystems where are affected by plastic waste can damage marine life such as coral reefs. Coral reefs that buried by plastic waste cannot grow properly, and even worse, they can die. This situation should not be allowed because coral reefs are a shelter for sea creatures. If a lot of coral reefs are covered by plastic waste, sea creatures cannot take a shelter, which causes a lot of sea creatures species become extinct and an it will imbalance the marine ecosystem.
Not only coral reefs, other sea animals such as dolphins, turtles, shrimp, lobsters, as well as other marine animals will also be polluted. Sea animals often cannot distinguish between plastic waste and their food, so that sea animals perceive plastic waste as food and consume it accidentally, actually if the plastic waste is eaten by sea animals, the chemical substances contained in plastic waste cannot be digested and poisoning which can result of sea animals death. When sea animals die, the animal carcasses will decompose but plastic waste that has been eaten by marine animals will not decompose and may poison other sea animals, this chain reaction can cause decrease the sustainability of sea animals even become extinct.
Polluted sea water not only affects the marine ecosystem, but humans can also be affected by it. Human needs water to fulfill their daily needs. So, if the sea water is polluted it can disrupt human activity and even cause various kinds of diseases because if the water is polluted, there must be bacteria or substances which are harmful to human. Moreover, if fish has been contaminated by garbage it means the fish contains harmful bacteria, when the fish is consumed by humans it will be dangerous because human’s need for nutrition in the seafood form will not be fully fulfilled.
The handling of waste pollution in the preservation of marine ecosystems is very important. Not only does it make the marine environment clean and sustainable it can also have a good impact on all human life. The sea that is protected from waste pollution can have lots of beneficial, one of these beneficial is in the tourism sector, such as diving into the sea, seeing marine fish cultivation, and also carrying out tourism activities in coastal areas, observing the beauty of the sea starting from seeing the beauty of coral reefs or seeing the beauty other sea creatures.
As human, we must care about the environment, by carrying out activities that can reduce the amount of waste in the ocean. Disposing of garbage in the right place is not enough to reduce waste in the sea because there will be sustainable impacts in the future. Use items that are environmentally friendly as using items that are easily biodegradable rather than plastics, and there are many more ways to preserve the environment and marine ecosystems.
The 3R concept (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle) is a concept that often used in human activities to overcome the problem of waste which can pollute the environment. Reuse means reusable items that have been used, such as items made of cardboard, paper, and so on. Reduce is reducing the use of single-use plastics and replacing them with items that are more environmentally friendly than plastic materials. Then the last one is Recycle, which is recycling items that are already used or unused, such as recycling items made of plastic so that these items can be useful and reused for other purposes more even recycled items can be a source of economic income for people who are able to make good things of it. So that if these activities are carried out, the waste will be reduced and will not cause pollution to the environment, especially pollution that occurs in the sea. Preserving the marine ecosystem means preserving the sustainability of the sea for the future and achieving sustainable development.
Marine preservation must be preserved and protected, because the problem of waste and pollution to the environment is our responsibility as human and must be handled together in the context of sustainable development for the future marine ecosystem as a source of people's lives specially in Indonesia.
