ENVIRONMENTAL DANGERS

Oceans - Highly toxic dioxins resulting from industrial processes (i.e., cleaning of isotanks, steel containers and barrels) are being found in high concentrations in sea life. It’s still a common practice to dump metal drums with dangerous and toxic wastes in the oceans, where they eventually break down, releasing the toxic contents into the marine food supply.

The global conservation organization WWF reports that dioxin levels of up to 172 times the tolerable daily intake were found in marketed fish meat in Japan. This can trigger cognitive disorders, immune suppression and endometriosis, among other side effects, in humans or animals.

Land - Industrial solid waste comprises 57% of the solid waste produced in the U.S., which breaks down to two components: process waste and packaging waste. If not reduced, recycled or reused, packaging waste ends up in landfills. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. has 3,091 active landfills and more than 10,000 mature municipal landfills.

Landfill liners are just one-tenth of an inch thick. Most landfills are typically located next to large bodies of water (i.e., rivers, lakes, bays, etc.).All landfills will eventually fail and leak leachate into ground and surface water. Plastics are not inert.
– Pollution Prevention Assistance Division

“…82% of surveyed landfill cells had leaks while 41% had a leak area of more than one square foot.”
– Leak Location Services, Inc.

Air- Ocean cargo ships are responsible for transporting 90% of world trade, which has doubled in 25 years. Global merchant fleets number 70,000 ships and use approximately 200m tons of fuel per year. This number is expected to grow to 350m tons per year by 2020.

“Annual emissions from shipping range between 600 and 800m tons of CO2, or up to 5% of the global total. This is nearly double Britain’s total emissions and more than all African countries combined,” according to researchers at the Institute for Physics and Atmosphere and Wessling, Germany.