Mission Microplastics 2019: the impact of plastic pollution in rivers

Brut America

They spent 6 months on Europe’s largest rivers to study plastic pollution. They’re the Mission Microplastics 2019, led by Fondation Tara Océan.  They’ve just come back from their expedition. This is what they found out.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to the Microplastics 2019 mission, it's been six months since we left the Orient,

00:14we did the nine largest rivers in Europe and we are back in the Orient today after

00:19six months of expedition and with the idea of working on plastics, are they present

00:25in our rivers?

00:26We know that 80% of the plastics come from the rivers, now we have to understand

00:29their composition better and that we see the impact that it will have on biodiversity.

00:33So here we are on the mythical Tara boat which has made expeditions around the world

00:46and we are going to go to the back of the boat where the sampling takes place.

00:49So this is one of the tools that we used mostly during this expedition,

00:55it is a net, this net in fact before we used it for zooplankton, small animals,

01:00and we realized that this net was more and more filled with plastics.

01:03So we adapted it a little bit, we put floaters on it, like that it arrives on the surface

01:07and we will collect all the plastics that are on the surface.

01:09So we work both in the oceans and we will gradually go up the rivers to a big

01:14city to see the influence of the city, we will make samples below and above the city

01:19with these nets.

01:20So the first conclusion that we will have is that whatever the types of rivers that

01:23we have sampled, we have found plastic everywhere.

01:25100% of the rivers that we have sampled are contaminated by plastics.

01:29The second aspect is that we realized that they were very small plastics that are smaller

01:33than the size of a grain and that we know that it will unfortunately impact the entire

01:39food chain.

01:40And the third aspect is that we realized that these plastics were a bit like

01:43sponges and that in addition to the ingestion, it released pollutants into the animals

01:48and that is the whole objective of the mission, it is to see the impact that it will have

01:51on biodiversity in general.

01:53So once we have the samples, we bring them back inside the boat and that's where we're

02:03going to sort the plastics with the tweezers and is there any plastic this time Valérie?

02:09All the missions, in fact, we systematically found plastic.

02:12There are quite a few, so I was selecting them.

02:16So here I just got a sample from a net and so I put part of the sample in this

02:23collector and so I'm going to look and sort the different types of plastic.

02:27So here, for example, I have one, so I'm going to sterilize my tweezers because what

02:32is important is not to contaminate a sample with another and then I'm going to take my

02:40piece of plastic that I'm going to put in my tube and this tube, as you can see, I

02:46put a label on it with a barcode to be able to identify it and follow this sample all

02:52along its life.

02:53We're going to send these pieces of plastic to a laboratory, it will already allow us

02:58to see what type of microorganisms are fixed on the different plastics.

03:03These microplastics are real rafts, okay, and so there can be microorganisms and in particular

03:07pathogenic microorganisms.

03:08It can, when it is ingested, make a fish sick, which will make another sick, I'm talking

03:14about fish, but it can be something else, that's it, and suddenly spread like that.

03:19So it's important to know what type of microorganisms are on the different types of plastics.

03:24And also know the nature of the plastics, it will allow us to know where the pollution

03:30comes from.

03:31Is it preferentially, does it come from the packaging, can it come from the construction,

03:36can it come, that's it.

03:38Depending on the different types of plastics that we find, we will be able to more or less

03:42go back to the source of the pollution.

03:50How many reels are there?

03:52How many reels are there?

03:54It smells like the end of the expedition, we were super excited, but we did our job

04:24so the result is super positive

04:40Good game kids, thank you for being here, it's great

04:501, 2, 3

04:55No, no, no, no

04:59The challenge is that we find plastic everywhere, we put it everywhere, in the air, in the water, in the rivers, in the ocean of course

05:05and we have to stop that, and everything is good to stop it

05:07and I hear on the right and on the left that the advice is not to banish it, that it's not the solution, but it's a solution

05:14and we have to do it, and we have to be champions of Europe, France has to be the European champion of recycling in 5 years

05:20How do we do it? Today we are very far from it, we are one of the worst actors in Europe on this subject, we have to move, we have no choice

05:27There are a lot of solutions to improve our way of collecting, of valuing, it's everyone actually

05:34In our everyday life, we are like our children, we are consumers, we work in a company, we have a political role, we vote

05:42We all have a role to play, to try to reduce the consumption of plastic, to reduce our waste, to value it more

05:51and to explain the issue of not polluting our environment, because in the end it will be us who will be polluted, and that's a major problem

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