Written by Corinne Newman
We have talked at length about the ways that humans end up physically consuming plastics and the adverse effects that it causes. Now let’s shift our focus to a group that has no part to play in the creation of plastics but is harmed arguably the most by the accidental ingestion of plastics. Animals of all kinds—land and marine, carnivores and herbivores, as big as elephants and as small as baby turtles— are affected by the infestation of plastics in the environment.
Animals often eat large plastic waste that is littered in their habitat, not just incidentally ingesting small microplastics. Obviously, unlike humans, they can’t always tell the difference between plastic and food. Often, they mistake plastics for real food. The health issues that arise from the heavy consumption of these large plastics are immense. From causing damage to the animals’ intestines as they pass through, to its toxic chemicals. The largest concern is the way it can’t be broken down by the animal’s stomach, resulting in a buildup of plastic that takes up space. Leaving less room in the animal’s stomach to eat real food, which can lead to malnutrition and starvation.
A highly publicized example of this is the case of an elephant’s death in Periyar, India. Along a path that many Sabarimala pilgrims take to a shrine every year, the body of a wild elephant was found. Upon inspection, it was found that the elephant had died due to its heavy consumption of plastic left by the very people traveling to the shrine. It was found that the elephant had died of internal bleeding and organ failure caused by the plastic waste it mistook as food in its heavily wooded home. The death of this elephant was a wake-up call for the temples of the area. A new rule has been put in place to counteract plastic waste. Inside the temple, there is a ban on plastic carrying bags. The temple leaders hope this will discourage travelers from carrying any through the woods, but they also acknowledge that following this rule is a struggle for the temple itself. Because of how prominent plastic packaging has become, it’s difficult to get supplies that they need for the rituals inside the temple without bending the rules. But hopefully, by starting to create a demand for plastic-free packaging, there will be more reintroduced into the market. (If you want to read more about this story, you can find it here in Natural Geographic, To honor an elephant, Indian temples are going plastic-free.)
Plastics have invaded the water system so much that it is estimated that 86% of sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of all marine mammal species in general have been found to have plastic fragments inside of them (to read this study, you can find it here, The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review). Sea turtles in particular have a difficult time avoiding the consumption of plastics. For most sea turtles, their diet primarily consists of jellyfish. To the point that their throats have evolved to have hundreds of sharp teeth-like structures in order to suck in jellyfish and prevent them from escaping. But an issue arises when there is a plastic bag floating in the water. Its movement and shape look an awful lot like a jellyfish to a sea turtle’s mind. And those specialized throats then prevent the sea turtle from being able to spit the plastic back up.
This information might seem dire, but it’s important not to let it overwhelm you. It is horrible, but it doesn’t have to stay like this. Moving forward, we as a collective can create a call to action and start to reverse these effects by lessening plastic waste and cleaning up the environment.