Big rise in North Pacific plastic waste

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

9 May 2012 Last updated at 01:01 GMT

Big rise in North Pacific plastic waste

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean has increased a hundred fold over the past 40 years.

Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography documented the big rise when they trawled the waters off California.

They were able to compare their plastic "catch" with previous data for the region.

The group reports its findings in the journal Biology Letters.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17991993

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. I just spent a good amount of time Googling this.

The Pacific trash vortex was mentioned in passing on a show I was watching this evening. It is amazing that a trash heap twice the size of Texas is floating around out there.

[mopinko]

2. i just don't get it.

the trawlers out there that scrape the ocean bottom clean can't clean this up?

[Nihil]

3. "Size is important"

Most of the plastic in the gyre is small particles.

To "catch" those particles you would need a very fine net indeed
but not only would you strip all life out of the area in the process,
you'd have an instant "clogging" effect requiring you to do more
of a bailing operation than a trawling one.

Yes, vessels could "strain" the largest elements out of the gyre
but that wouldn't fix the problem - just make it less visible and
so less of an issue for plastic users ...

It needs to be addressed at source: stop producing such quantities
of waste and stop making it available to uncaring consumers who just
dump it according to whim.

[mopinko]

4. isn't a lot of it a result of cruise ships dumping trash?

and isn't that prohibited now? (meaning- less common, not gone)
at least if the big stuff is gone, that stops the process of big chunks turning into little chunks.

[ellisonz]

5. I've read it's from all over the Pacific Rim.

Ocean currents are pretty damn powerful.