Plastic soup the size of the US found in the Pacific

[Black Yaris]

http://www.oskarlewis.com/weblog/archives/5473

here is a brief snip-it

A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world’s largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

[rg570lvr]

WTF, is that for real?

[Malaya1221]

nice, keep throwing them plastics!

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by rg570lvr

WTF, is that for real?

Unfortunately, yes. It was first reported a little over a year ago. The plastics are said to come from all over the Pacific but that California is thought to be the largest contributor.

For what it is worth my wife and I just returned from our local and organic food coop where they offer lots of "bulk" liquids as well as solids. Reusing our containers and bags we brought the following bulk items home:

Shampoo
Conditioner
Lotion
Dish soap
Laundry soap
Olive oil
Eggs
Maple syrup
Pancake mix
Lentil beans
Leeks
Spinach
Mushrooms
Spaghetti pasta
Farafelle pasta
Earl Grey tea
Chai tea

All of that and the few packaged items we bought were brought home in our reusable cloth bags. Once cosumed any reusable packaging will indeed be reused and all other packaging will be recycled locally.

These are small steps that anyone can take to greatly reduce the amount of plastics and other waste in general that they introduce into the stream. Avoiding bottled water and soda is another. The less you waste the less chance there is for the remaining waste to end up somewhere horrible like the middle of the Pacific, or the local landfill.

[ChinoCharles]

It still amazes me how many people don't know about stuff like this. Good post.

[DFA]

I brought this matter up just today in my environmental engineering class. I guess I was wrong, since I recalled it being as big as the UK.

This really needs to get out more.

[m911gt]

great post, very interesting. thanks Joe

[Black Yaris]

my thought is, why not scoop it up little by little and take it to a recycling facility..... that would benefit everyone, just widdle away at it till it is gone

[MadMax]

That's bullshit! It is environmentalist propaganda!

For one, no one would be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a boat that small! Two, the Pacific moves is too damn dynamic for that much shit to accumlate in one place!

If anything, that is probably some river in China or somewhere else in Asia. But this story is as bogus as the Condom Reef called out on Snopes. It won't be long before this one will be on there as well!

Cheers! M2

[nsmitchell]

Originally Posted by Black Yaris

my thought is, why not scoop it up little by little and take it to a recycling facility..... that would benefit everyone, just widdle away at it till it is gone

Exactly my thought. It would be a full time job and could make smoeone very rich. Especially if you could crush/melt the plastic into ingots for easy removal from your ship and wouldn't take up as much space. Japan and China go through crazy amounts of plastic.

[nsmitchell]

Originally Posted by MadMax

That's bullshit! It is environmentalist propaganda!

For one, no one would be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a boat that small! Two, the Pacific moves is too damn dynamic for that much shit to accumlate in one place!

If anything, that is probably some river in China or somewhere else in Asia. But this story is as bogus as the Condom Reef called out on Snopes. It won't be long before this one will be on there as well!

Cheers! M2

Tokyo Harbor once resembled that mess. Now it's much cleaner.

[ChinoCharles]

Originally Posted by MadMax

That's bullshit! It is environmentalist propaganda!

For one, no one would be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a boat that small! Two, the Pacific moves is too damn dynamic for that much shit to accumlate in one place!

If anything, that is probably some river in China or somewhere else in Asia. But this story is as bogus as the Condom Reef called out on Snopes. It won't be long before this one will be on there as well!

Cheers! M2

Right.

It is actually called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," and no, it isn't bullshit or propaganda or anything else you'd like to call it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_P..._Garbage_Patch

[Shroomster]

I don't doubt that something like this exists but I'm calling b/s on the location of it....

- look at the top right of the picture is that coastline or rock embankments?

- look at the name of the boat then down a few inches and to the left there is a LIVE water plant of some sort sticking up through the debris

- what is with the rope that stretches across the picture in front of the boat?

- and like Mad Max said a boat that size isn't going to be out in the middle of the pacific 500 miles away from land...unless there are a lot of little islands inhabited out there...this pic is obviously just to represent the scale of the size....that or it really is just a hoax to get people to wake up

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by MadMax

For one, no one would be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a boat that small!

Wrong. I spent a fair amount of time at sea in the Pacific and there are places out there that only swell above a foot or so when it storms. I've even seen a patch of water in the middle of the ocean so still and smooth on a low hanging overcast day that it looked like we were moving on a mirror.

On a related note I was once disciplined for confronting a working party that was jettisoning the ship's trash overboard. This was not an isolated incident.

Originally Posted by MadMax

Two, the Pacific moves is too damn dynamic for that much shit to accumlate in one place!

See above. Another example of how things get stuck can be found in most streams, rivers and even water parks. All it takes is cross currents or back currents meeting to produce eddies. The Pacific is chock full of differing currents.



As for your idea that it is propaganda I disagree. This has been seen and reported on by many people and groups in the environmental circles that I trust for solid information, though when I first learned of it a year ago it was estimated to be the size of Texas. You are certainly welcome to take the Ostrich approach while the rest of us figure out a way to clean it up, which is no easy task as it can't currently be monetized and no one will accept any responsibility for it.

[ChinoCharles]

Who cares if the pic is BS? Maybe the pic was taken from a lake to represent the idea of the patch. When you go to a business web site and they use a stock photo of some random dude in a suit, do you call BS?

I love you guys and all, but seriously, just shut up and nod your head and say "yeah, that is disgusting" instead of trying to repudiate the obvious.

[darthbauer]

Could you imagine falling into this crap?

[Shroomster]

Originally Posted by ChinoCharles

Who cares if the pic is BS? Maybe the pic was taken from a lake to represent the idea of the patch. When you go to a business web site and they use a stock photo of some random dude in a suit, do you call BS?

I love you guys and all, but seriously, just shut up and nod your head and say "yeah, that is disgusting" instead of trying to repudiate the obvious.

hey come on charles I never once said the problem was bs don't get upset.

[ChinoCharles]

I'm sorry man... I'm just sayin'.