It was predicted in 1988, discovered in 1997, and has been making news headlines ever since, yet many of us still don’t know about it.
Scientists around the world have studied the issue yet we still haven’t found a solution to it. It’s the subject of all kinds of awareness campaigns, yet we haven’t changed our behaviour enough to make it stop. The phenomenon of plastic islands forming in our oceans continues unabated to this day.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, about twice the size of Texas, is one of them. Scientists tell us there is so much plastic swirling around and entering our oceans today that even if we cleaned up the mess we’ve got now, we can expect the formation of plastic islands to continue for another 20 years.
On the surface, this watery containment of our misplaced plastic waste might seem like a good thing, but there’s more to this than meets the eye.
First of all, this collection of plastic is more of a soupy mess than it is a plastic island. Plastic bottles, bottle tops, bags, containers, toys, car parts and other garbage photo-degrade and turn into confetti-like or smaller plastic chunks and particles. Unfortunately, fish and birds mistake these toxic bits and pieces for food. Not only problematic for the animals eating them, they are also putting toxins into our food chain. Because these particles are so small, they are pretty much impossible for us to collect in a safe way for marine life. Our throw-away society has created a marine disaster of epic proportions.
It’s not a pretty picture. There is more than one of these soupy plastic areas forming around the world due to the ocean currents swirling around our planet. You can see an interactive graphic showing their location on the Internet. You can find videos of them on YouTube. The whole phenomenon is absolutely staggering.
Even more staggering, at least to me, is the fact there is no concerted worldwide effort to clean up these floating dumps. Any economist will tell you we live in a global economy now. Waste from the 2011 Fukishima nuclear plant disaster in Japan is now arriving on the shores of British Columbia, including Haida Gwaii, the “Galapagos of the North.” If air pollution in China being carried on the jet stream to California doesn’t prove we’re all in this world together, then I don’t know what does.
I believe a global remedy to this problem that nobody owns is within reach. All it would take is every plastic-producing country to dedicate some resources to help rescue our planet from this predicament. Perhaps some kind of military technology could help us identify hot spots where this plastic garbage is entering the ocean from the land. Putting a halt to massive plastic points of entry into the ocean is a big step in the right direction, no?
Or what about a series of worldwide marine garbage collecting events? Or military exercises at sea which included recovering this floating garbage? Volunteers and non-profit groups could sail away on trash collecting expeditions. Corporate tankers could be good corporate citizens and go out once a year to collect a load of plastic trash, the non-soupy kind that is, and haul it to a plastic recycling facility. Maybe an entrepreneur will see the value in a 20-year supply of free, recoverable plastic? Maybe the futuristic idea of forming inhabitable islands made of plastic won’t be so far fetched after all? We might even consider charging a small fee on plastic goods, akin to our tire and electronic recycling fees, to help pay for plastic recovery, recycling and research.
Dealing appropriately with our plastic garbage on land also goes a long way to our success in diminishing these floating garbage dumps. This includes putting those annoying plastic stickers on fruit into the garbage instead of tossing them on the ground where they will eventually be swept into a storm sewer leading to a river leading to an ocean. Annual community river cleanups are a great way to help reduce our plastic island predicament, too.
Understanding how our actions are connected globally and together cleaning up our global oceanic plastic garbage dumps — now that’s in our best interest.
For more in your best interest, follow Sheelagh on Twitter @sheesays.
