 Miner returns to his little corrugated metal house along a precipice cliff laden with single-use plastic trash at La Rinconada gold mine complex at over 5,400 m (over 17,700 ft) in Peru and the highest permanent settlement in the world. No corner of the planet, no matter how remote is free from plastic. In 2019, researchers found microplastic in Arctic ice in greater concentration than in the surrounding Arctic Ocean waters. Earlier this year, explorers found plastic in the Marianas Trench in the Pacific, the deepest place on the planet. ©James Whitlow Delano |
 Surrounded by single-use plastic: plastic diapers and other plastic packaging. The convenience of plastic has pushed out other bio-degradable materials like cotton in a store in Tokyo. Japan According to a 2018 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report, current global recycling rates are thought to be 14 - 18%. The remainder of plastic waste is either incinerated (24%), or disposed of in landfill or the natural environment (58 - 62%). ©James Whitlow Delano |
 Plastic, washed up on a Malaysian beach, rests at the high tide line. Bottles were found from China and Vietnam on this beach. Marang, Terengganu, Malaysia Six of the top ten contributors to ocean plastics surround the South China Sea. Malaysia is one of them and it is reflected in the tons of plastic washing up on its shores. ©James Whitlow Delano |
 Plastic, water hyacinth and garbage completely obscure the Estero de Vitas River carrying all of it down to Manila Bay, a few kilometers away, and then into the South China Sea. Tondo, Manila, Philippines. Six of the top 10 contributors to ocean plastic are the nations surrounding the South China Sea. The Philippines is the world’s third largest contributor to ocean plastic behind China and Indonesia. As dramatic as floating plastic is, Erik van Sebille, at Utrecht University in the Netherlands found in 2015 that 95% - 99% of all plastic in the ocean is not on the surface anymore. It is submerged microplastic, the highest concentration between 200m to 600m (650 ft – 1970 ft), and/or eaten by marine life. 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by mass is made up of “ghost” fishing nets. ©James Whitlow Delano |
 Fresh strawberries packed in plastic at a Tokyo supermarket. Japan Single-use plastics are used to package fruits to preserve ripeness. Not all plastic is the same and not all plastic is recyclable. For example, celophane wrap is polyvinyl choride (PVC), recycle #3. It is less common to recycle PVC than PET bottles recycle #1. ©James Whitlow Delano |
 Children light a toxic fire in the Parolas slum in Tondo. Across the Pasig River is another sprawling slum, Baseco slum. In fact, according to The Straits Times Philippines correspondent, Raul Dancel, one in four of Metro Manila's 12 million residents lives in a slum. Their living environment is contaminated with sewage from when the tide is high, and plastic that comes to rest along the waterfront. Tondo, Manila, Philippines. ©James Whitlow Delano |
 Two stray dogs face off in contaminated water seeping in from a landfill dump laced with plastic bags, textiles and sheeting that has come to resemble and mingle with fabrics. This water, and plastic, will find its way into Buckingham Canal that will finally deliver the plastic and toxins into the Bay of Bengal. The microplastics and toxins will be consumed by the fish that are caught and bound for market. Chennai, India Roughly 60% of clothing worldwide is made from synthetic fibers – plastic. 56% of the fibers in clothes in India are synthetic - plastic. The Indian government doubled the import tariffs on 196 synthetic fibers from 10% to 20% in 2017 but still there was a 62% year on year growth in synthetic fibers imports. ©James Whitlow Delano |
 Truck full of recyclable plastics bound for workshops in the slums of Tondo to be sorted and recycled. Manila, Philippines According to a 2018 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report, current global recycling rates are thought to be 14 - 18%. The remainder of plastic waste is either incinerated (24%), or disposed of in landfill or the natural environment (58 - 62%). United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) study concluded that 81% of the Philippines plastic is mismanaged compare to a 0% rating for Japan and the United States. ©James Whitlow Delano |
James Whitlow Delano
SWALLOWED UP BY PLASTIC
The Consequences of Convenience
A visit to a home center in Tokyo, where I live, is to fully immerse in the spectrum of plastics – carbon-fiber this, Teflon that, shelves full of plastic artificial turf, plastic faux-wood floors, shiny-plastic rice cookers and coffee makers; plastic plants in plastic pots – shampoo, soap, skin lotions and make-up packaged in every color of the plastic rainbow.
Even 60% of our clothes are made from synthetic fibers – plastic. Aisle upon aisle of cheap, polyester, Lycra and acrylic clothing – spanning all age categories from cradle to grave – hanging in neat rows of racks.
Finally, consumers wait patiently in lines, pushing plastic shopping carts, preparing to pile their purchases onto a plastic conveyor belt, to be scanned by a clerk into a plastic-encased cash register, paid for with a plastic credit card, before stuffing it all into single-use plastic bags to be carried home.
Now after decades of overuse of single-use plastic, the planet is literally drowning in the plastic we’ve thrown away. By 2017, the world had produced a grand total of 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic, one tonne for every person on the planet. Most of it – 6.3 billion metric tonnes – can be found in landfill sites but another 8 million metric tonnes of plastic enters our oceans each year because roughly 2 billion people live within 48 km (30 miles) of the sea.
Plastic is literally in every corner of the planet. In 2019, researchers found microplastic in Arctic ice in greater concentrations than in the surrounding Arctic Ocean waters – the same year, explorers found plastic in the Marianas Trench in the Pacific, the deepest place on the planet. 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by mass is made up of plastic “ghost” fishing nets, lost by fishermen.
Zooplankton, minute organisms that form the very foundation of the marine food chain, are consuming microplastic, and microfibers from synthetic (plastic) clothing – mistaking them for food, because, unlike most other materials, it does not biodegrade. Plastic breaks into smaller and smaller pieces – of plastic. They eat less nutrient-rich food while absorbing toxins from the plastic. These toxins are passed up the food chain by predators. Those toxins accumulate, most affecting those at the top of that fish-consuming chain like sharks, toothed-whales, seals, seabirds and us. 90% of seabirds are eating plastic according to an Australian study in 2015. Some seabirds have been found with so much plastic in stuck in their stomachs that there was no room left for food. Slowly they starve.
This series explores the environmental plague of plastic waste that bears down hardest on the developing world, but the challenge of plastic waste disposal spares no country.
James Whitlow Delano
SPECS
Number of works: 40 color photographs
Size: 50×60 cm
Type of prints: digital prints
James Whitlow Delano is a Japan-based documentary storyteller. He has been a professional photographer since 1987 and has lived in Asia for over 20 years. His work has been published on international magazines like National Geographic, Geo Magazine, The New York Times, it has been exhibited around the world and led to four award-winning monograph photo books, including Empire: Impression from China and Black Tsunami: Japan 2011.
His projects have been cited with the Alfred Eisenstadt Award (from Columbia University and Life Magazine), Leica’s Oskar Barnack, Picture of the Year International, NPPA Best Photojuornalism, PDN and others.
In 2015 he founded EverydayClimateChange (ECC) Instagram feed, where photographers from six continents document Climate Change all over the world.
Delano is grantee for Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.