It doesn’t happen every day, but often enough to raise suspicion of a pattern. And it doesn’t only happen in Spain: there are records in the Azores, Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, Portugal, France, Norway… It has been occurring since 2014 and the origin is clear today but not defined. But if while walking along one of the beaches of Western Europe the reader comes across an HP brand printer cartridge, be aware that you are holding a relic of a shipwreck.
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In the United Kingdom the possibility is more diverse. And perhaps, more fun. Besides HP cartridges, the bather may find Lego pieces. Many and very diverse, in a phenomenon that has been occurring since 1997. The origin of this finding is much more concrete, so much so that it is known what the maximum number of pieces that can be found is: a little over 4.7 million.
The origin of both spills are two sea storms that caused the ships transporting containers with these materials to lose part of their cargo at sea. Under normal conditions, it is normal for the cargo to sink, or to be at the mercy of the sea and never reach land. But in these two cases, that of the cartridges and that of Lego, the cargo loss occurred along the path of the North Atlantic currents, facilitating the travel of the cargo to various points on the European coast, with findings ranging from the first months after the accident to today.
The Lego finding is centered on the British Isles for a simple reason: the Tokio Express lost one of its 62 containers on February 13, 1997, about 20 nautical miles (about 32 km) from Land’s End, approximately vertically off Galicia. The HP one is much broader because the loss occurred approximately 1,500 km east of New York, in the North Atlantic, in January 2014. Despite exhaustive investigations such as those by Andrew Turner, Tracey Williams, and Tom Pitchford, published in April 2021 in the scientific journal Environmental Pollution, it has been impossible to locate the ship that was the source of the spill.
The fact that the HP cartridge spill has reached Spain can be certified by Patricia Reina and Fernando Gómez, from Living without plastic. On their journey along the coasts of Spain, and as part of their Beach Archaeology, they found “thirteen HP printer cartridges” that they were able to confirm belonged to the cargo loss of the unknown ship from 2014. Through studies and other activists, it is known that these same cartridges — since the volume of the spill is unknown, the number can be assumed but not known — “have reached other places, have reached Norway, the Azores Islands, the Canary Islands, and can be found on the Atlantic coast of the Peninsula.”
“Contamination or iron oxide encrustations” were observed in the inner foams of the cartridges
Although it may seem anecdotal and even somewhat amusing, the fact of rescuing a shipwrecked Lego piece, or a drifting cartridge, is proof of an environmental risk.
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This is pointed out by Patricia Reina and Fernando Gómez, and coincides with the study in Environmental Pollution. For the latter, the main risk is plastic degradation. “The cartridges were mainly made of polypropylene — they explain — and microscopic analysis showed intense weathering of their surface. These microplastics were also rich in titanium, coming from the additives of the plastic itself.” In the inner foams of the cartridges, “contamination or iron oxide encrustations” were also observed.
There is no evidence that these spills, or the Lego one, have caused specific ecological damage to a particular ecosystem. But they prove beyond doubt that degradation, microplastic generation, and the presence of potentially contaminating elements in these spills easily reach the sea. And from there to the marine food chain. And from there, also easily, to humans.
The same can be said of the lost Lego pieces. The recovered ones, states a study also led by Andrew Turner, showed “cracks, fractures, and mass loss.” The authors point out that, besides persisting intact for decades, “they can progressively break into fragments and microplastics.” By their mass, Lego pieces can remain in the marine environment between 100 and 1,300 years. If the cargo was lost in 1997, we would be talking about some Lego pieces still dancing to the waves in the year 3297.
And it is worth remembering, because although they are only printer cartridges or toy pieces, we are talking about a loss of about eight tons of plastic, in an estimated total weight sum of both spills. And that is no longer so amusing.
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