I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while. Recently a lot of people on Facebook posted photos about this issue, so I figured it was a good time to build on the inertia.
Please reshare this post on Facebook so we can spread the awareness of this problem.
After arriving in Huanchaco 4 months ago I noticed that every day the ocean would wash up enormous amounts of plastic garbage onto the beach. Every day local workers would show up to clean the tourist beach, but the north and south remained littered with debris. It was clear to me that this waste was coming from out at sea, but why? And where was the source?
After doing some research I discovered that our Pacific Ocean is in serious trouble. The problem was much worse than I could have possibly imagined. That got me wondering how many other people know about this? So here is what I found when I looked under the covers…
There is a “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean and it is growing at an alarming rate. Maybe you heard it was the size of Texas? Yes, it was at one point. But now scientists believe it covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, and is still growing.
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.
Charles Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the “North Pacific gyre” – a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it.
He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. “Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by,” he said in an interview. “How could we have fouled such a huge area?”
Mr Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. Back then he warned that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade. It’s far exceeded that prediction.
Most debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, making it impossible to detect by aircraft or satellite. Instead, the size of the patch is determined by sampling.
The “soup” is actually two linked areas, on either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches.
The Garbage Patch formed gradually as a result of marine pollution gathered by oceanic currents. The gyre’s rotational pattern draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean. As material is captured in the currents, wind-driven surface currents gradually move floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region.
So what are the sources of pollutants:
In a nutshell, we are the source.
About 20% of the junk is thrown off ships or oil platforms. Ship-generated pollution is a source of concern, since a typical 3,000-passenger cruise ship produces over eight tons of waste weekly, a major amount of which ends up in the patch.
The other 80% of the garbage comes from land-based sources.
Rivers carry garbage out to sea, which then makes its way into the patch. Currents carry debris from the west coast of North America to the gyre in about six years, and debris from the east coast of Asia in a year or less.
Pollutants range in size from abandoned fishing nets to micro-pellets used in abrasive cleaners and includes everything from footballs to kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags. Plastic cans, bottles, toys, bags, cups, balls… you get the picture.
You name it, and it’s in there…
The biggest problem is our addiction to plastic.
According to National Geographic, more than 200 million tones of plastic are produced each year, of which about 10% ends up in the oceans. And once plastic is made, it NEVER breaks down.
All of this plastic in the ocean is having a devastating effect on Marine life.
This statistic is grim—for marine animals, of course, but even more so for humans. Why? Because just like the marine life, we’re now ingesting plastic toxins constantly.
Plastic has made it’s way into the food chain.
All sea creatures, from the largest to the microscopic organisms, are, at one point or another, swallowing the seawater soup instilled with toxic chemicals from plastic decomposition. The world population is eating fish that have eaten other fish, which have eaten toxin-saturated plastics. In essence, humans are eating their own waste.
Facts:
267 marine species are affected by plastic garbage already.
All sea creatures are threatened by floating plastic, from whales down to zooplankton.
We are the last in the food chain, and we are definitely experiencing the consequences of our actions.
You could take your blood serum to a lab right now, and they’d find at least 100 industrial chemicals (INSIDE OF YOU) that did not exist in 1950.
If that doesn’t deeply disturb you, then you have your head buried in the plastic.
What we can do:
As sad as it is, this is such a monstrous problem that it will be very hard to stop and reverse the damage. Our world is addicted to plastic. But here is what you can do to try and help.
1) Although recycling makes only a small impact, everyone should do it, period. And more importantly, we need to push for and support more robust recycling programs, because right now they are pathetic.
2) Stop using plastic. That’s the only way we can eliminate all the toxic products that harm the animals and us human beings. This is clearly easier said than done. Not using plastic is currently impossible, but each person CAN reduce plastic use.
To make the biggest impact, minimize your consumption of bottled water, bottled soda, and plastic bags.
3) The BIGGEST thing we can do to help this problem is make the transition to biodegradable plastics. Biodegradable plastics will decompose in natural aerobic (composting) and anaerobic (landfill) environments.
The biggest challenge here will be getting the plastic companies like Dupont to transition to biodegradable plastics. That is about as challenging as trying to get the oil companies to pursue clean fuel alternatives.
As with many of the problems of our day, this one seems hopeless. I hate to leave a blog post in a pessimistic light, but to be honest with you, I am losing faith that enough people will evolve the consciousness required to fix these problems fast enough to make a difference.
Let’s hope I’m wrong.
TREE
Some interesting links:
- http://www.plasticoceans.net/
- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090820-plastic-decomposes-oceans-seas.html
- http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/pollution/trash-vortex
Some good videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5y1W5xduiE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7rNYzSH-BA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta8HaHP_9rE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrAShtolieg&feature=related
Thanks son…great information.
Sr
get rid of those bottled waters bud. Get a filter. love you
Whats filter made out of?
Its not so much the water bottles i mean i agree we should go back to glass bottles already have enough plastic world. it the fact’s of recycling and waste management. plus in the first place we shouldn’t create a non bio degradable product that cant be reused recycled. plus the sad thing is no ones gonna read any of this or really cares because its go go go NASCAR MY Folk’s GO GO GO GREEN GREEN GREEN
that is just so depressing. what the hell is wrong with humans?
Thanks Tree. Mikey has been educating me about this for some time now. I agree, even a small action is an important one.
agreed. we all need to take action. sooner the better! hope you are doing well up there. Thinking of you,
Citation needed.
Oh my gawd! Gross! I had no idea the magnitude. Thanks for a very imformative and eye-opening piece. Good work, Tree.
I know I know!!! what a horrific problem. I remember a couple of years ago we were on a ferry crossing in Cambodia and as the locals finished their lunch…. which was in sytrofoam containers, they just tossed them over into the river… it actually made me physically ache and we tried to convince some of them to not dump them in such a manner but it is so ingrained in their way of thinking we had no success. Hopefully by getting the word out there we can help reduce such waste and try to ebb this ever growing problem.
yeap, we’ve got to change the culture, both within the population as well as our corporate culture, specifically what they value.
Thank you thank you. Building awareness is the first and most important step. EVERY thing we do makes a difference – every plastic bottle recycled, every time we chose to carry our own grocery bag instead of using plastic ones, each time we share information with others – it is all part of a solution to save our entire planet. I’d like to add political action to the list. Finding ways to influence congress and corporations and public opinion is vital. Standing up for our planet in letters, posts, campaigns and protests – and in videos the way you just have – is our best hope to facilitate change.
I honor you. You try to make a difference in an uninformed and uncaring world.
Great post. A buddy of mine couldn’t have kids.. I was kidding him about years he drank sun baked water from nalgene bottles.
you’re probably not far off bud…
Nicely done. Are you familiar with Curtis Ebbesmeyer’s book “Flotsametrics and the Floating World”? A bit biography, history, oceanography. A little discouraging regarding solutions. His hope is through educating future generations to care enough to make better decisions. Thanks
I haven’t heard about Curtis, but I will check it out for sure. Thanks for the recommendation Cindy!
Tree, this couldn’t be more aptly timed…I am horrified by the reliance on plastics in our society…and have been wanting to take local action to do what I can. Thanks. Hope all’s well on the road!
Alyce
Thank you for raising awareness. May we find a solution!
Some plastics never break down, they just break up into smaller bits – which get into the food chain – and into us.
EVERYTHING we use should be recycled, There should be a fine for throwing anything away. I grew up in a steel mill town. The idea of throwing away steel or aluminum – burying it – is repulsive to me because I know what it takes to make it.
Packaging – Why aren’t food containers (in particular) uniform and reuseable ? Why don’t cans come with screw on lids ?
This is so important. I’ve been fascinated (or mortified) by the ocean gyre for a while now and have said no to as much plastic as I can.
Thank you for posting this, as much as I want to look away….it needs to be faced. I need to figure out how to help!
me toooooooo! no plastic!!!!
Guys, I think it’s great to promote reduced usage, but our only hope is to pressure companies to change to biodegradable plastics. Everything we touch every day is made of plastic, so we can’t solve the problem by reduction. We have to change the system. Food for thought. TREE
roto boats made of bio-degradable PE..yeah right!
dude you should get yourself a FB page…just sayin’ 
I was happy to hear Maui has banned plastic bags…and am now determined to implement this ban locally! Thank you for spreading the word!
go fight win!
Awareness needs to increase. Recycling is great but uses energy. Re-using is much better. How about when you go to eat inside a fast food restaurant and order, say a Big Mac. Thirty seconds later, boom, your burger is done and is placed inside a protective carton. You then walk fifteen feet, sit down and have the inconvenience of taking the burger out of the box. Lifespan of box = roughly one minute….then is tossed in garbage. What a waste! Why did that burger need so much protection for one minute? I’m pretty sure we have the technology to create edible wrappers.
OMG
Thanks for sharing this. I knew about it, and the amount of garbage that is piling up around the earth is disturbing to me. It’s one of the most challenging things for me about travel – I have a difficult time finding places that recycle. I was starting to give up hope, but this post will help me to recommit to doing better. I know that at least I can cut down on my plastic bag usage (and I get melancholy every time I have to throw away a yogurt container or something like that.)
What solutions have you found for recycling while you travel?
Rachel, recycling in Central and South America is extremely limited, so we focus most of our efforts on reducing use of plastic. It’s very frustrating.
Yuck, that makes me so sad, and sick. At home we are really good but when we travel we find it more challenging to not use plastic. We are headed to Mexico next week and will use bottled water. Since you two are on the road traveling to areas where the water is questionable maybe you have some suggestions on other alternatives.
Since the water in most of these countries is not safe to drink, bottled water is often the only option. Buy the biggest containers you can and pour them down into a reusable bottle. You could also invest in a steri pen. That will allow you to drink out of the tap. Google it.
love you guys
you got to be kidding me. that is insane! why isn’t that on the news every night? or ANY night?
It’s been on the news for years.
60 minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/06/eveningnews/main591770.shtml
Hard to believe there’s people who don’t know about this.
thanks for the link!
I like Matt Baker’s idea of edible wrappers, considering it is about 30 seconds before tossing the wrapper. We could also be like nature and make biodegradeable wrappers (like the banana or the orange). And don’t get me started about those BOMB PROOF, IMPOSSIBLE TO OPEN massively huge plastic containers they have for phones, toys, and all sorts of contraptions that people buy – what a waste! The wrapper costs more than the item inside, and you just chuck it and ruin the environment! Bring on the biodegradeable plastic, or engineer a bacteria that eats plastic instead of engineering stuff to kill ourselves …
Well I was happy before I read this.
Now I am awake.
Thank you for being who you are an doing what you do.
Funny you should mention….We’re creating a mobile app and website that is trying to tackle just this. Where’s all the plastic in our oceans coming from? Us, our homes, our cars, our garbage cans turned over by raccoons. So, how ’bout if we address our stuff in the first place by reducing, reusing, fixing, repurposing, even before recycling. Our mobile app will connect you and your stuff with great options for keeping it out of landfills so we stop producing more products made out of plastic in the first place. If you’re interested in learning more, please come and support us (and spread the word) at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/464119894/cora-transform-your-trash-to-treasure
Thanks.
Wow! I just checked out your project. What a great idea! This kind of thinking is exactly what we need. GO TEAM CORA!!!
great information. thank you for writing about this. it is sad that its come to this.
Thank you Tree for this post!I This is so important and people do have their heads buried in the plastic. I know all of this, but you put you did a great job of pulling alot of infomation together in a very understandable manner. I will repost to Facebook/
Muchas gracias!
Good job Tree,
I think that time is critical in with this issue. We need to go straight to the Companies capable and lobby for a major change in the composition of plastics.
It seems such an uphill battle, since everything is about money and change. Something the big companies avoid like pulling teeth. Like they say “it’s gonna take a village”
One of my own personal challenges is there are so many things depleting the planet which do I tackle??
Have you heard the question…. “How does one eat an elephant” One bite at a time. The one positive is anything I do I feel better than doing nothing!! Thanks for being an agent of awareness.
thnks willy. yes, I agree, the change has to come from the plastic companies.
well written and scary as hell. I will pass it on. Thnk you
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-beach-pollution-20120128,0,2261593.story
thats fucking heavy ,,,i stop my boat to pick up or graff trash bags all the time,,,, pray for the sea
how about surfing in the south bay bro, plastic in the line up. it sucks.
Pray for the world, it’s not just the sea that has mountains of trash…..
That’s fucked! I read somewhere that most of the plastic is so small it’s hard to see but once you get close it’s all tiny pieces of plastic everywhere! So fucked up what we do to our beautiful oceans and all the animals and creatures that live in them
As an ocean lover, this breaks my heart. Very cool that you cover these kinds of topics, will definitely pass this one along. Thanks Tree!
no worries. I’m sure you guys saw the beach in Huanchaco, plus plenty of others. It’s super depressing.
Great research and article!!! I’d like your permission to lift your post in it’s entirety and repost it to my blog and my Facebook account. I will, of course, give reference to your blog. This message needs to get out.
Thanks so much–Pat
Hi Paty,
go for it. Whatever helps spread the word. Thanks so much.
Horrible..I was in the Navy for 5 years on a ship with several hundred guys and we bagged up all the trash and just threw it over the side several times a day..it just killed me. Imagine that times thousands of ships on the water..
Yep, they outed bags here in the LBC….they should just do that everywhere already!
hey guys, just saw this new post. OMG, that is sad, scary, pitiful, lame,… so many things. Thanks for posting about it
truly amazing. I see it’s been shared on Facebook over 400 times. good work guys. keep at it, you are spreading awareness. Sam
Thanks for the effort putting this together. I just saw this article about how much trash is washing up on Mexican beaches. Wow.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-beach-pollution-20120128,0,2261593.story
THANKS BRO,
Yeah it sickens me that were so Danm careless with our trash. It’s not that hard to walk our happy ass to a trash can and throw our shit away. I’ll be sitting in the line- up and paddle out of my way to stuff either a plastic bag, or what ever debre is floating around in my wetsuit. We need to seriously do something about this. AAAAAAARRRRRRRUUUUUGGGGGGGGHAAAAA…. That’s enough out of me I need to try and.get my blood pressure back down now… Haha.
Just get some of the China fishing vessels with the huge nets, idle through and start making a dent, its, mainly their crap anyways.
here are some interesting facts pertaining to your comment…
1) The man who discovered the garbage patch has noted, “Trying to clean up the Pacific gyre would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went”. Regardless, scientists and activists are looking at ways to clean it up, but unless the flow of garbage is stopped at the source, cleanup is only a temporary solution.
2) Most of the trash in the Pacific comes from the Americas, not Asia.
3) With just 5 percent of the global population, the USA generates 30 percent of the world’s trash.
4) The U.S. leads the world in garbage per capita at 4.6 pounds per day. Australia is a distant second at 2.7 pounds per day. Chinese only produce 0.7 pounds per person per day.
5) America’s biggest trade export to China is “Scrap and Trash.” According to data provided by the U.S. International Trade Commission, Chinese imports of U.S. trash surged by 916 percent over the 2000-2008 period
food for thought…
I learned about this 4-5yrs ago. It is why I stopped buying plastic bottles, plastic bags and other non-biodegradable items. It is actually really easy to get rid of those things in your life. However, it is really hard to never buy anything that comes wrapped in plastic. At least here in the USA that is.
good work crew. thanks for reporting
The thing about our current environmental policies is that if the crap doesn’t surface in Malibu, Santa Monica or La Jolla, it doesn’t count.
The only real way to change this is to find a way to make recycling profitable (and I don’t mean passing a law to make it ‘profitable’). In our not so distant past Cokes and milk came in glass which was returned to the bottler, cleaned and re-used. The reason for the change to throw-aways is DOLLARS plain and simple.
How much plastic is contained in (or used in the production of) the products that we use to be more responsible? The reusable shopping bag that you carry to the grocery, the filter that you use on your home faucet, even long lasting items like salt shakers and kitchen utensils. Someday it will all end up in the vortex.
I understand that it would be dangerous to sea life to harvest the vortex but not harvesting it is dangerous too. A serious study should be done to see what the costs and returns would be to harvest a trawler full of trash and recycle it. I realize that there will be plant and animal life mixed in and a certain amount of sea water that will end up in the hold (they are mostly containers after all). But on the plus side, it’s all just sitting there waiting to be harvested, it’s not going anywhere.
We need to pitch this article to National Geographic and Blue Legacy http://www.alexandracousteau.org/
This is the fourth time I’ve read this post and I refuse to give up. There must be a way.
Yes, we must not give up! We have to educate enough people to create change. An article in either of those places would be amazing exposure. So is Facebook. This post was shared on FB over 700 times on the main page and 500 times on this comments page. That means it entered the newsfeed of 1200. The average number of friends on facebook is 200ish. So that means this had an exposure of 240,000 people. Pretty amazing.
TREE
Que horror…..
Gracias parcero…
Thank you. Seeing folks read this who wouldn’t ordinarily is heartening. I read this week that Curitiba recycles a huge (like 70?) percent of their trash.
I say no to plastic. Even bio plastic will send unwanted chemicals into the soup that is the ocean. We should see a return to glass. And the end of wrapping every square inch of new product shipments in plastic, even the new wood one buys at Lowe’s.
Thank you, Tree! I’d like to hug you!
Yes. you understand the issue wonderfully.. refillable glass is the solution.. a global standard on refillables that get used dozens of times before finally being recycled
Nice post, but please reassess your opinion that ” biodegradable” plastics are the solution.. this is plastics industry propaganda, these plastics will lead to a plastic pollution epidemic, with people believing it’s ok to litter them. They don’t degrade adequately in the natural environment and still pose entanglement and ingestion risks to wildlife. These plastics also allow a continuation of wasteful and polluting disposable design.
The true solution lies in abandoning disposable and moving to reusable systems. Germany’s refillable bottling system is a prime example.. zero plastic pollution and minimal carbon footprint.
I heard about this some time ago and it is appalling what we are doing to our oceans not to mention lakes and rivers. I did not know where to start and glad to see other people now know about it – thank you Tree. There must be something we can do not just recycling which is great and plastic are an issue but what about large salvage operations to clean up what is there already. I know it cost money and lots of it. There must be a person or persons out there with money who is looking to help. If enough people got together and started a group or organization maybe things could slowly happen. I’m sure this will take years but at starting is the key not just talking. I agree this should be in the media all the time, out of sight out of mind (TV, education, schools, universities, magazines like McLeans etc, etc.). I agree with Dixson’s comment. I’m on board with this.
Tree has gone to much trouble to set out these very negative facts.
The best way to reward Tree is to action these two requests from me:
1] Take on board Tree’s very important message and dispose of your rubbish safely.
2] Forward this data and message to our politicians, world leaders, industrialists, our boat operators, and all of our other water users, the former being the most important target, after all, we vote them in to act in the best interests of all of us.
We need more people like Tree.
Tree, along with others spreading awareness of this terrible “yet reversible” state of affairs, should be congratulated!
Thank you for u guys for sharing this!
Thank you for u guys sharing this!
Would Pin this if it had a Pin button! Everyone needs to see this!
We all need to pray about this.
great website! had to make a magazine article about garbage patches… Was of great help!!
and we must definitely sread the info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is cool