plastic plastic everywhere….

 

Image from greatgarbagepatch.org

Did you know that apart from a small amount that’s been incinerated, every piece of plastic that’s ever been made still exists? And there has been a lot of plastic made, much of it used for a short time and then discarded. Instead of biodegrading, like an apple core, plastic only breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.

And where does that plastic go? The answer would seem to be almost anywhere you can think of, including the ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an area of garbage in the Pacific Ocean formed by converging oceanic currents. The debris is mostly 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. Recent research estimates it to be approximately twice the size of Texas.

More in later posts relating to plastic, but I thought the Garbage Patch deserved a post all on its own.

Here’s a video about the Garbage Patch – if you’re interested in learning more, just do a search, there’s a lot out there.

Related Links: http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/

 

This entry was posted on August 10, 2011 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Tagged: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.



4 Responses to “plastic plastic everywhere….”

  1. fb_avatar  Rik Says:
    August 11th, 2011 at 10:31 am    

    I clicked like on the Facebook link, but I can’t think of many things that I like less. This is really disturbing.

  2.   julia Says:
    August 11th, 2011 at 3:55 pm    

    It’s a compelling and revolting study.

  3.   Jim Ross Says:
    August 11th, 2011 at 5:19 pm    

    This is nothing new. It has been an issue for many years. One cause of these debris are containers and cargo lost from ships during storms. Regardless of the source, it makes you think about how you handle spent plastic items in your life. I think sickening is the only way to describe much of that footage but in some way, we all contribute to it.

  4.   Jim Ross Says:
    August 11th, 2011 at 5:24 pm    

    PS. We have the technology to clean up oil spills. Why can’t we find an effective way to deal with this issue?