Plastic 'toxic soup' bigger than US.

According to one sailor, there is an ocean filled with our plastic waste that exceeds the size of the continental United States.

Described as being twice the size of the US, the 'Great Pacific garbage patch' was discovered by Charles Moore, an oceanographer in 1997.
After sailing for day after day and seeing nothing but plastic floating on the surface, estimates of over 100 million tonnes of plastic in the seas are now emerging.

there is about 100 million tons of debris floating, drifting, and swirling in the Pacific Ocean approximately 500 miles off the coast of California, stretching past the Hawaiian Islands, and extending almost to Japan.

Translucent, it lies just below the surface of the ocean and is undetected by satellite photography. The only way it can be seen is by ships sailing through it.

Plastics as old as 50 years have been recovered from the ocean. Approximately one-fifth of the plastic soup comes from trash discarded from ships and oil platforms. The remaining four-fifths come from land. It is estimated that plastic makes up 90% of all refuse floating in the ocean and the UN Environment Programme estimated recently that each square mile of ocean water contains 46,000 pieces of floating garbage.

www.naturalnews.com...

This plastic soup will of course break down in time and end up in the food chain. I can only imagine what effects this will and is having on us right now.
I dread to think of the amount of ocean going wildlife that has been killed by our disposal methods and our 'advancements'.

Like a lot of other things we take for granted, the overall outcome of using new materials and technologies is not fully tested and theorised before it is let loose onto the markets for public use. Plastic was a revolution for lots of people, yet it is now becoming one of our most hated products.

The same type of thing came from asbestos. Great for buildings and ships and many other uses, yet completely hazardous to all living things.

The greatest problem is having the time to do a full scale investigation into all new products.

Asbestos must be disposed of properly.. where?
In the ground by all accounts. The seas seem to be the right place for plastics it would appear.

Either way, we are seriously damaging any future for this planet, its wildlife and ourselves.

This is very bad for the environment as some of this plastic starts to break down to the molecular level it starts to get into the food chain.PCB are not good for anyone or anything.As of yet I have not been able to find a photo or video of the "Great Pacific Garbage Dump" the only photos I could find were of rivers with trash.
I don't have Google Earth....maybe someone could look there and see if it shows up.

I didn't read the article.

[edit on 11-3-2008 by Karlhungis]

If there is as much debris as they claim and if it is mostly recyclible plastics, then there must be some profitible way to harvest this material.

There's actually quite a lot of reports on this on the net.

This one ask Why is the worlds largest landfill in the Pacific ocean?.

and if it's pictures you want, then i've found a few showing the impact a bit clearer.

www.treehugger.com...


www.johnbutlertrio.com...


There's a rather "in-depth" (excuse the pun) report on this site;
www.cdnn.info...

And on a recycling note...

" The highest point in Ohio is "Mount Rumpke," which is actually a mountain of trash at the Rumpke sanitary landfill!"

www.greentechnolog.com...


crusader2007-youngblood.blogspot.com...

Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas
On Midway Atoll, 40% of albatross chicks die, their bellies full of trash.
Swirling masses of drifting debris pollute remote beaches and snare wildlife.
KENNETH R WEISS / Los Angeles Times 2aug2006

www.mindfully.org...

If all that's not enough, then how about something closer to 'home'??
Reality bites...

Could We Handle Real Reality on TV?

blogs.salon.com...

I saw this on the Today Show awhile back. They said the logistics of cleaning it up are impossible.

Another black eye for the planet.

Peace

Good post, I posted something on this a while ago...didn't get much interest then, but glad to see this issue still in the news.

Related link:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

well if its floating trashing, why is it so impossible? its just improbable, an honestly isnt something we can just shrug off, this is a issue we will have to face now or later, i thik we should start thinking now......

why not fish it out, take it to the recycling centers, i mean, we could fill the roads with this stuff, or make fence posts, tires, soles for our shoes, list can go on,

Not to mention the jobs it would create......

reply to post by Trance Optic


I think the reason they said it was impossible was because the amount of trash they could physically remove in a certain amount of time would be replaced by new trash. So basically they would get nowhere. Maybe they could keep it from growing any larger, but that's about it.

Peace

Originally posted by Dr Love
reply to post by Trance Optic

 

I think the reason they said it was impossible was because the amount of trash they could physically remove in a certain amount of time would be replaced by new trash. So basically they would get nowhere. Maybe they could keep it from growing any larger, but that's about it.

It might be impossible to clean it up completely, but if a profitable means of harvesting the flotsam could be found, it would at least fuel an industry and put these materials back into the recycling chain.

Almost everything that humans do on this planet it impossible, when you really think about it.

We fly about in gigantic machines, extract oil with deep sea drilling platforms, bounce signals off man-made satellites that can tell where we are to within a few meters, visit the moon, send robots to Mars, turn sewage into drinking water, etc.

the world governments responsible for the trash should build a nuclear powered super tanker class floating recycling center that could travel into the floating trash pit, suck in sea water and trash and using on onboard automated recycling process condense and fuse the trash into high density "plasti-trash" cubes. Once cube storage is full the tanker goes to the off/onshore processing center where the cubes are melted and extracted for the various chemical components where they are separated and then reprocessed into raw material sheets or blocks etc for resale.

can't we just have any ships that happen to sail through those areas cast a net and at least fill up that net once? it wouldn't be much added cargo and it could be disposed of a little bit at a time. it would take a while, but i wold argue that it's better than nothing.

Ships have a reason why they're out there whether it be fishing, shipping, etc.. Time and space is money out of somebody's pocket. Not to mention the possible health risks involved for the crews. Think about the size of the continental US. It's mind-boggling!

Peace

yes we can do all the above...... I like the idea of using what we already have to help harvest the trash.... it already floats.... just ball it up an attach another line could have the preverbal mother duck an her ducklins all the way to the shore, cept it would be trash lol

we get some funds together an buy a shirping boat fellahs!

lol brime shrimp, shrimp casarole, shrimp tablecloth, shrimp underwear, shrimp deodorant..............

Just think of all those 10 dollar sprite bottles.....

10 cent times the size of the USA....... Money money mooooooonnnnney!

lets not stop there either we could become trash money fool!
bout to turn your trashbags into lapdances Whoooooo Hooooo!

[edit on 11-3-2008 by Trance Optic]

Let's say that instead of plastic, there was a huge oil deposit of oil leaking oil onto the surface of the water and that oil slick was twice the size of CONUS.

I think someone would be out there sopping up all that oil and making preparations for extracting the oil from the underground deposit.

Something can be done and even if it's not financially self-sustaining, the difference could be made up by the responsible nations of the world.

reply to post by Dr Love


Perhaps it's more of a black eye for humanity and what we're making of this place.


Peace.

It is not surprising by any means, its a shame that most of us in the west live in a complete facade.
Since the world is run by greedy, corrupt men who are intellectually challenged individuals then it is no surprise what a state we are in.

reply to post by an0maly33

Originally posted by an0maly33
"can't we just have any ships that happen to sail through those areas cast a net and at least fill up that net once? it wouldn't be much added cargo and it could be disposed of a little bit at a time. it would take a while, but i wold argue that it's better than nothing."

After reading some of the articles apparently ships do not regularly pass through this region.


[edit on 11-3-2008 by 2 cents]

[edit on 11-3-2008 by 2 cents]

I like the idea of the nuclear powered recycling ship. That would make an excellent research project here on ATS. A feasibility study, a business plan, an environmental impact report on the garbage patch, and some sweet renderings. I'll go get my markers.

Originally posted by an0maly33
can't we just have any ships that happen to sail through those areas cast a net and at least fill up that net once? it wouldn't be much added cargo and it could be disposed of a little bit at a time. it would take a while, but i wold argue that it's better than nothing.

Ya, then what do you do with trash, we don't have enough landfills to dispose in for the amount of population, we are way over populated and reaching high numbers. Things will get more expensive life will get much harder as demand go up and resources getting less.

We need to start thinking out side of the box. We need more land... not enough on this earth, we're killing it. We need to start exploring space (public wise) and start colonizing other planets, or we're destroy this earth fairly soon!