Inconvenient Truth	Convenient Truth
There's an amount of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean that spans an area twice the size of the United States.	4% of this plastic is located just under the ocean surface. Scientists should develop ways to track this plastic more easily. Existing companies—such as Liverpool Water Witch (building debris removal vessels) and Envosmart (extracting oil from plastic)—should construct a boat together which cleans up the water surface and sustains itself with fuel it extracted from the dredged plastic. Governments could come to a joint agreement to make this operation financially possible. UNEP could play a role in this as secretariat. For example, each plastic-producing country pays a percentage of the clean-up campaign. This percentage equals its share in the global production of plastic. Governments can pass these costs to those that earn from the production and sale of plastic: the plastics industry, plastic producers, and merchants. 96% of the plastic in the ocean consists of such small particles that they have become part of the water column—cleaning this is a biochemical problem. Therein lies a job for the biochemists: is it possible to develop something like a 'plastics magnet' that can be dredged through the seas? That might be the biggest challenge of the whole plastic waste problem.
Persistent Organic Pollutants attach themselves to plastic in the ocean (including to micro particles). These toxins end up in the food-chain via the plastic that fish eat.	Cleaning up the plastic and stopping the poisoning of marine life has already been discussed above. But in the unforeseen event in the future when more plastic finds its way to the sea, there is also a solution: Scientists should develop a type of plastic with a property that does not attract toxins.
20% of the plastic in the ocean originates from ships—plastic that has fallen overboard, become detached, or deliberately dumped.	This is a matter of cooperation between governments and the shipping industry. Apparently the existing laws are not enough. Ships should be required to fasten their cargo better. Not a single ship should be allowed to set sail without somebody being responsible for all the cargo that is on board and for that which ends up in the sea. Monitoring should be stricter to make sure that a ship arrives with the same cargo it set sail with. Penalties for dumping waste should be much higher, so that nobody can say: 'Oh, what does it matter ...'
80% of the waste in the oceans originates from land.	We, ourselves can take measures to prevent waste from lying about. Governments should ban all single-use plastic: plastic bags, disposable cups, junk food packaging, and so on. Governments should take the initiative with recycling projects for plastic (domestic and company waste). Waste should be collected and recycled. Scientists working on food packaging should look for alternative types of plastic that are really degradable in the environment. They should even disintegrate in water, and they should not harm the environment. Also, the plastics industry should only produce products that are recyclable after use. That means only real recyclable plastic should be used, and that products comply with the 'design to disassemble' principle.
Much research on the effects of plastic (and plastic waste) on the health of the environment and man is being funded by the plastics industry. Studies have shown that the research funded by the plastics industry presents a distorted view. For example, Professor Vom Saal of the University of Missouri examined 218 different studies on the effects of the Bisphenol A softener contained in polycarbonate (plastic that is, among other things, used for baby bottles). In 93% of the independent studies it was revealed that this softener has harmful effects on health. 100% of the studies funded by the plastics industry showed that this substance was harmless ... To demonstrate this thesis, an article has just been published in the German Raum und Zeit which includes the subtitle: 'dallying with the chemical industry—the European Union stretches the limits for the dangerous Bisphenol A.' More than 150 independent studies have shown that Bisphenol A, among other things, leads to brain damage, sexual deformation and infertility in boys and men, hyperactivity and aggression, and causes higher chances of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. When somebody has cancer, Bisphenol A protects the cancer cells, making it more difficult to eliminate the cancer. Also, babies who drink hot milk (or any other hot liquid) from a polycarbonate bottle take in Bisphenol A. However, the research which showed that nothing was going on, and on which the European Union based its decision, was funded by the chemical industry. Even worse, it seems the eu didn't even have a look at the complete study, but drew their conclusion from an interim version.	There are independent scientists. No legislation should be based on research funded by parties involved. All guidelines and legislation drawn up on the basis of such research should be scrutinized in full light.
At least 87,000 different kinds of chemicals are processed in the making of plastic, most of which are highly toxic for the environment and for ourselves.	For all toxic chemicals non-toxic alternatives are available. Independent scientists should examine which of the chemicals used in plastic have harmful effects on our health and the environment. Independent scientists can then examine which non-toxic alternatives are available for the harmful chemicals, and then with these alternatives, what type of plastic can be developed. For all the toxic plastic already on the market, chemical 'repair techniques' should be developed. These techniques should render harmful substances into harmless end-products. Merchants should refuse to sell plastic products that contain toxins. Governments can compel plastic producers to identify which substances were used in the processing of plastic and what the damaging effects the various substances have on man and the environment. Governments should make sure that all toxic chemical agents are banned, including those contained in plastic. As a start, in the European Union, REACH legislation should also apply to polymers.