Plastic 'toxic soup' bigger than US.

if we nuked it, which at first made me chuckle, then wouldnt we end up with one huge plastic piece, kinda like melting your lego men together (dont tell me you didnt).

maybe if we found the entrance to the hollow earth we could just dump it on them? and then everything would be perfect again no problems on earth whatsoever.

we could start charting prison inmate ships that go out and clean it up. kinda like chain gangs but more like on a ocean of trash than on the side of the highway.

great post op.

I have an idea,

Why not stick a few oil rigs/platforms at the site, turn them into recycling/reprocessing centers then convert the plastics and other detritus into something useful on the spot? No messing around dragging the stuff to land.

The oil companies should donate the platforms because it will give them a "We do our bit for the environment." statement to give to environmentalists. The shipping companies should be happy because business will boom through all the new trade created. And (tongue-in-cheek) governments and people would be happier because all the non-desirables could be put to work on them. Think this idea could kill-a-few-birds-with-one-stone.

Investors (time, energy and finance, welcome.

Edit: great post and flagged. not sure how to "Star."

[edit on 12/3/2008 by Rapacity]

I am so sick and tired of hearing about this huge plastic island. Hear and at other sites pictures and stories about it. The pictures couldn't capture the true depth of it.

How could someone get an estimate of sorts to recycle like mentioned above, or to send an empty super ship with some equipment to grab it?

We need a grass roots agree to help some government pay for it ourselves. Badger them into it is the only way it will get done. I would contribute.

peace

reply to post by phineasJwhoopie


Your comment of being 'sick and tired of hearing about this plastic island' is exactly the same type of comment i left my home country for.
Loads of people always complaining and never doing anything about it.

Get up and do something if you're that sick of it.

I had only heard about it the day i started this thread so it's kinda new news to me. So, being the way I am, I thought I'd share it and hopefully have it highlighted in some way.

I'm glad it has had an impact on you and others. I'm glad you're sick and tired of hearing about it.
Perhaps, finally, you'll stop complaining about it and carry out the actions you suggest that others should do.

Myself, i refuse plastic bags from shops. And I'm careful what i buy. I may need a certain item, but if I feel it's been 'over-packaged' I'll keep looking elsewhere for the same item.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
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.

I was thinking the exact same thing

Then Someone get started, Personally I dont know of any government that would listen to just one person... Its time to create a voice...Then let it be heard.

I've got an idea: How about the people who think something should be done about it now, before it's a problem, get out there and push it to shore so the people who want to wait until it's a problem will help them. Sound good?

We could nuke it and create a giant island, more land to live on. Sell it to the highest bidder for a large floating vacation island and use the money to assist the homeless living in the tent cities.

Who sales around the Pacific.

Everyone flies.

All big Illuminati companies have a transportation budgets to keep the
CIA run Airlines in business.

“Most of us know that if the oceans’ 'conveyor belt' system fails then we will more than likely get a new ice age.”—Extralien

That sounds like an allusion to an already old story about the Arctic ice melting and the cold water it turns into moving south, where it cools the North Atlantic and stops the Gulf Stream from taking the warm waters over to Europe, so that Europe will freeze to death. Some people think this makes no sense.

For example, that’s what Richard Seager, a weatherman at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Columbia U.) thinks. He published an article titled “Is the Gulf Stream Responsible For the Mild Winters in Europe?” in the ‘Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society’ five years ago.

His answer to the question is “no”. He claims that Europe would be warmer even if the Atlantic Ocean were like a completely stationary pond because in that case the prevailing winds would still push all the way over to Europe in winter the heat that is stored in the Atlantic during the summer. The heat carried by the Stream is responsible only for ten percent of the temperature difference between the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Actually, it’s a clash between different computer weather models, so nobody can be really sure about which is the best model….

Hundreds of volunteers are expected to take part in the 20th anniversary of a mass clean-up operation, on beaches along the entire Dorset coastline.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Too little, too late.
It's a pity that this does not happen more often.. and not just in the UK.

Why do things like this usually get left to the publics good will and kind generosity when our governments and businesses have an active part in the distribution of this rubbish in the first place?

More people are becoming aware of this and I'm glad about that.

well done to Kr0n1ck405 for bringing this to our attention again, though his thread is over on BTS section.

Wake up ! clean up !

It's easy.

Worlds rubbish dump

Check his thread.
Add to it.. make this issue as big as the 'war on terrorism'.

Great post Extra,

I also saw this awhile back. It's about time that it's back in the news.

Can you imagine seeing this crap while on board a ship that's plowing through it? Blows my mind.

I'm sure that there is no money set aside globally for this..right? Too busy caring for the people on land right? The ocean will heal itself, right?

It can't be that hard to harvest this if some company or government tried.

We dive to the bottom of the ocean's now.

We fly at super sonic speeds.

We go into space on a regular basis.

But no one can come up with a way to clean this up??

Bulls**t!!!

No one cares is the problem.

That is a very sad, but true answer to this.

i would just like to add that a lot of this garbage was contributed by our own US naval fleets... over the last few years they have put things in place to contain / burn / deal with their daily trash production.

but for MANY, MANY years each night at sunset, every ship underway tossed all their garbage over the sides of the ships. i personally watched many a black garbage bag go floating away into the horizon line...

we're probably now seeing a contributing element of this legacy trash float back to the surface...

when the oceans die, we die.

Looks like all this stuff is starting to get washed up even more.
And the government wont do a damn thing about it.
Yes it is to do with personal responsibility and the government is, or should, be held responsible, if not, accountable, along with these corporations who keep spewing these waste items onto the market. There has been recent calls for a reducton of packaging for products, but this may be too little, too late... but every little helps.

The amount of rubbish on the UK's beaches has reached its highest level ever, according to a survey.

The Marine Conservation Society found that litter has increased by 110% since 1994 to 2,195 pieces per kilometre.

The society said the rubbish can harm wildlife and wants the government to develop a "co-ordinated marine litter strategy" to tackle the problem.

But the government has dismissed the call for a new approach, saying it is an "issue of personal responsibility". volunteers removed in excess of 385,000 pieces of litter from more than 370 beaches last September.

On average they picked up two pieces of rubbish a metre.

news.bbc.co.uk...

The problem is not just on land, as fisherman Roger Knowell explains. He has been trawling off west Cornwall for 30 years.

He says in the last 10 years he has never seen so much rubbish in his catch.

This is confirmed as he hauls his nets onto the boat.
He adds: "We've found discarded fishing net, oil drums, paint cans, plastic boxes and occasionally we get a fridge or a TV.

This is why he is part of a new voluntary scheme to collect rubbish out at sea.

In the three years it has been running, in Scotland alone 150 tonnes have been fished out.

Ms Snowden explains: "Unfortunately when a net gets lost at sea it continues to fish, everything from basking sharks, seal, and dolphins. It's very wide ranging."

Up to 250 dead dolphins are washed up every year across Britain - the majority on the Cornish coast.

Each one is a visible reminder of how rubbish is affecting the coastline.

news.bbc.co.uk...

This is horrible. It's too far gone to clean up by conventional means.

Why couldn't a bacteria or some type of microorganism be developed that would eat and safely digest these plastics?


[edit on 15-4-2009 by phrankie79]

A variety of techniques are used to collect and remove marine (or riverine) debris by concerned jurisdictions or volunteer organizations. Besides collection by hand, Some cities operate special Beach cleaner machines that collect trash deposited by the sea along the coast line. Other places (e.g. Baltimore) arrange for picking debris while it is still floating; such activities are often undertaken regularly where floating debris are perceived to pose danger to navigation. For example, the US Army Corps of Engineers reports removing 90 tons of "drifting material" from San Francisco Bay shipping lanes etc. every month. The Corps has been doing this work since 1942, when a seaplane carrying Admiral Nimitz collided with a piece of floating debris and sank, resulting in the death of its pilot.

Elsewhere, various kinds of "trash traps" are installed on small rivers flowing into the sea, to capture waterborne debris before it reaches the sea. For example, South Australia's Adelaide operates a number of such traps, known as "trash racks" or "gross pollutant traps" on the Torrens River, which flows (during the wet season) into Gulf Saint Vincent.

from wiki

There is no reason that big ship could not recycle plastic trash in the water. If big ship can catch fish, clean them, gut them and flash freeze them on the same ship, it would surely be possible to do so with plastic. The main problem is that it is not profitable to do so. As long as there are no financial incentive to clean the oceans of plastic won't see it happen. If only a fraction of what is spent on the so-called ''war-on-terror'' would be spent cleaning our planet, it would be a huge step foward.

Well, it looks like someone is trying to do something about this problem.

What strikes me as a bit odd is the way the BBC has reported it to be bigger than Texas whilst others have previously stated the mess is bigger than the US.
So what is it.. Is it a problem that is already way too far out of control and is only now a 'cause for concern' or is it a minor issue that needs to be investigated?

The second of two research ships bound for a huge "island" of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean leaves San Francisco today.
Ocean currents have pushed the refuse together in an area estimated to be larger than the State of Texas.
The expedition, named Project Kaisei, will study the impact of the waste on marine life.
Ultimately the organisers hope to clear the plastic and recycle it for use as fuel and new products.

news.bbc.co.uk...

I hope the two ships investigating this come back with some news that needs to wake people up.. We all know this needs to be dealt with.. I am surprised it has taken this long to send a ship out there..