The world’s oceans have been seen as convenient garbage dumps; places that appeared to be able to take a limitless amount of garbage. But no longer is our trash out of sight and out of mind.
“around 100 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year of which about 10 percent ends up in the sea. About 20 percent of this is from ships and platforms, the rest from land.”
According to Greenpeace “around 100 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year of which about 10 percent ends up in the sea. About 20 percent of this is from ships and platforms, the rest from land.” The United Nations Environment Program tells us that “the scale of contamination of the marine environment by plastic debris is vast,” and the effect on wildlife is significant; seabirds, seals, turtles, whales, sea lions and fish all become entangled in our garbage and suffer painful and prolonged deaths.
But now another crisis has come to light. The problem with plastic, explains the World Wildlife Fund is that “plastic bags don’t biodegrade – they photo-degrade and break down into smaller and more toxic particles on a molecular level to contaminate both water and soil”. Plankton appears to be taking on vast amounts of tiny pieces of plastic and passing these toxins through the entire ocean food chain. Greenpeace says “the plastics can act as a sort of ‘chemical sponge’, they can concentrate many of the most damaging of the pollutants found in the world’s oceans: the persistent organic pollutants”. So any creature that happens to eat these pieces of plastic garbage will also be eating the toxins.
World biggest garbage dump - plastic in the Ocean
This plastic waste is now gathering in toxic waste islands and floating around the ocean in giant collections known as Great Garbage Patches. The GreatGarbagePatch.Org says that “plastic waste accumulates in swirling seas of debris, where plastic to sea life ratios are 6:1”. The largest of these massive collections of trash is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which has been confirmed as almost the size of Texas and holding about 3.5 million tons of garbage. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is floating halfway between San Francisco and Hawaii where the currents are weak.
“plastic bags don’t biodegrade – they photo-degrade and break down into smaller and more toxic particles on a molecular level to contaminate both water and soil”.
The race is now on to work how just how to manage the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and how to stop it growing bigger. There are some small things you can do to help:
Stop using plastic shopping bags.
Make sure you recycle all your plastic waste or take it to the garbage dump.
Join in one of your local garbage clean-up days.
Support Greenpeace’s proposal for a global network of marine reserves coving 40 percent of the world’s oceans.
Keep Our Oceans Beautiful!
Green Tip:
Reduce the amount of plastic garbage you produce.
Stop drinking bottled water; filter your own.
Don’t release balloons or allow plastic bags to fly away - animals try to eat these items.
Please learn more about global warming, and the decline of the forests. Teach your children and others about the importance of reducing waste, pollution and greenhouse gases.
Thank you for taking the time to read about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Stop using plastic shopping bags. 
