Türkiye'nin Çevre Politikaları Kapsamında Mikroplastik Kirlilik Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

Abstract

Plastics that are present as much as to encircle the world four times per year can take more than 1000 years to decompose in the nature. According to the statistics of World Economic Form, eight millions ton of plastics on average spread to ocean waters every year and, as this goes on it is assumed that the quantity of plastics in seas and oceans will exceed the number of sea creatures in 2050. The damage caused by plastics is analyzed on terrestrial, atmospheric and aquatic habitats and environmental policies on a global and local scale to prevent it are made. The effects of plastics are not limited with the visible part. In fact, microplastics, the size of which is defined as between 0.1-5000 micra by European Food Safety Authority compose the nonobservable part of the pollution. Accumulated plastics break up into small fragments, then they turn into microplastics. On the other hand, according to a research conducted by Greenpeace in 2018, microplastics were found in seven of the eight samples taken from the Antarctic Ocean which is described as virgin-fields. As it is seen in the referenced study, microplastic pollution has penetrated even to the untouched habitats and it continues to do. In the present study, precautions taken to decrease the quantity of microplastics in Turkey were evaluated in the scope of environmental policy. Harmful effects of the mentioned pollutant on human health, which was proved to exist by scientific studies and the formation areas are still being studied, thus, it is thought that tackling the issue from the point of environmental policy field will contribute not only to the policy makers and academic area but also to the literature, Stating the urgency of including the present pollution into the environmental policy field and highlighting the criticality of the pollutant for Turkey are the aims of the study The extent of the pollution and the investigation is limited with Turkey. As a data collection method, interviewing method which one of the qualitative research study method techniques was used. Additionally, technical report of the related institutions and organizations were analyzed by conducting literature survey. The study was concluded with the evaluation of the findings and by offering suggestions about the pollutions.