Great Pacific Garbage Patch, floating 'island' of trash in ocean, is now twice the size of Texas

[techbeck]

The Pacific Ocean is being treated like a giant dumpster -- and it's starting to look like one, too. A "floating" island of trash dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) now stretches 600,000 square miles, according to a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports.

 

It's more than twice the size of Texas (three times the size of France), and it's growing every day.

 

Environmentalists expressed concern in October 2016 after a team of researchers from The Ocean Cleanup Foundation surveyed the vortex of trash piling up between California and Hawaii, spotting chunks of plastic glued together measuring more than a yard.

 

"[It's a] ticking time bomb because the big stuff will crumble down to micro-plastics over the next few decades if we don’t act," Boyan Slat, founder of Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit that helps remove pollution from the world's oceans, told Newser at the time.

 

The size of the trash pile has nearly doubled in size since then, containing at least 79,000 tons of plastic -- "a figure four to sixteen times higher than previously reported," Scientific Reports said.

 

More....

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/03/22/great-pacific-garbage-patch-floating-island-trash-in-ocean-is-now-twice-size-texas.html

[FloatingFatMan]

Well, seeing as it's conveniently massing in one spot, it should be pretty easy to clean it up!

 

[DocM]

The Ocean Conservancy says only 5 countries are responsible for 60% of the plastic in the oceans,

 

China

Indonesia

Philippines

Thailand

Vietnam

 

and only 5% is on the surface. The other 95% is on the bottom or at mid-levels, making it near impossible to clean up.

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

Governments won't force companies to use eco-safe products cos they're in the corporations' pockets so this kind of refuse will continue to be pumped out. The only way to stop it is to actually boycott companies into action.

[exotoxic]

Researchers gathered 1.2 million samples during a multi-vessel expedition in October 2017, exactly one year after their previous test. 

Instead of messing about collecting samples year on year saying it's getting worse (captain obvious), get some funds together and send ships out to actually pick the stuff up.

 

[Joshie]

I look forward to the next thing any of us hears about this being another article about how big it's gotten in 5-10 years.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

37 minutes ago, DocM said:

The Ocean Conservancy says only 5 countries are responsible for 60% of the plastic in the oceans,

 

China

Indonesia

Philippines

Thailand

Vietnam

 

and only 5% is on the surface. The other 95% is on the bottom or at mid-levels, making it near impossible to clean up.

Are you suggesting nobody should attempt to clean it up? And it may or may not be 5 countries responsible for creating it, but everybody is affected by it. It should be in everybody's interest to clean it up. Not a case of "you made the mess, you clean it up".

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

7 minutes ago, Joshie said:

I look forward to the next thing any of us hears about this being another article about how big it's gotten in 5-10 years.

...or that it's gained sentience and is attacking.

[DocM]

2 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Are you suggesting nobody should attempt to clean it up? 

Of course not! Where the frack did you get that from? All I said is the subsurface plastics are going to be near impossible to clean up. Think about it.

2 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Andit may or may not be 5 countries responsible for creating it, but everybody is affected by it. It should be in everybody's interest to clean it up. Not a case of "you made the mess, you clean it up".

Of course, but they are the low hanging fruit since they are responsible for 60%. Look up the report and you'll see it's because a municipal service common to us, garbage collection, is dismal. 

[Melfster]

I was just reading 40% of garbage is related to fishery industries and large chunk is from the 2011 Tsunami in Japan.

[FloatingFatMan]

13 hours ago, DocM said:

The Ocean Conservancy says only 5 countries are responsible for 60% of the plastic in the oceans,

 

China

Indonesia

Philippines

Thailand

Vietnam

 

and only 5% is on the surface. The other 95% is on the bottom or at mid-levels, making it near impossible to clean up.

Who the hell cares? Just clean up what's there and quit pointing fingers...  

[DocM]

1 hour ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Who the hell cares? Just clean up what's there and quit pointing fingers...  

 

Only to have them re-pollute it as fast as it's cleaned, which is unproductive. Stasis is not the best option. The plastic inflow needs to be slowed or stopped as well as drastically  increasing the outflow via cleanup.

 

 

[FloatingFatMan]

33 minutes ago, DocM said:

 

Only to have them re-pollute it as fast as it's cleaned, which is unproductive. Stasis is not the best option. The plastic inflow needs to be slowed or stopped as well as drastically  increasing the outflow.

 

 

So?  Cleaning it up is better than just leaving it there to grow and doesn't preclude addressing the source in any way, shape or form.  THIS is exactly the sort of thing the UN should be addressing.

 

[DConnell Member]

On 3/23/2018 at 1:18 PM, PsYcHoKiLLa said:

...or that it's gained sentience and is attacking.

[techbeck]

No one wants to clean up pollution so it is really difficult to get funding for things like this.   And it is not just one countries responsibility making it even harder to clean up and fund.  If no on wants to take responsibility of find the project, good luck.

[seta-san]

Tariffs on offending countries

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