You know...when will people get it?

[Maestro]

We just continue to be a throw-away society and to a certain extent I am guilty of this as well, but I try to recycle as much as I can. However as a whole we humans just don't get it. We throw away and expect that it will just disappear. Now we have Texas sized trash heaps floating at sea. This is disgusting. It just angers me. We are the worst things that have ever happened to this Earth. I understand that plastics are very important to modern life, but let's be more careful how we dispose of it. An efficient recycling program should be one of the primary responsibilities of all governments.

Plastic Trash Vortex Menaces Pacific Sealife: Study
by Deborah Zabarenko


Old toothbrushes, beach toys and used condoms are part of a vast vortex of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, threatening sea creatures that get tangled in it, eat it or ride on it, a new report says.


The contents of the 'Yellow Thing' after a trawl in the high seas of the Central North Pacific Ocean, October 30, 2006. The environmental group Greenpeace is highlighting the threat plastic poses to the world's oceans. Old toothbrushes, beach toys and used condoms are part of a vast vortex of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, threatening sea creatures that get tangled in it, eat it or ride on it, a new report says. (Alex Hofford/Greenpeace/Handout - UNITED STATES/Reuters)
Because plastic doesn't break down the way organic material does, ocean currents and tides have carried it thousands of miles (kms) to an area between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, according to the study by the international environmental group Greenpeace.

This swirling vortex, which can grow to be about the size of Texas, is not far from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, designated as a protected U.S. national monument in June by President George W. Bush.

The Greenpeace report, "Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans" said at least 267 species -- including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish -- are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.

Some 80 percent of this debris comes from land and 20 percent from the oceans, the report said, with four main sources: tourism, sewage, fishing and waste from ships and boats.

The new report comes days after the journal Science projected that Earth's stocks of fish and seafood would collapse by 2048 if trends in overfishing and pollution continue.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Institute of Medicine said the benefits of eating fish outweigh the risks of toxins detected in the animals.

More here.

[YankeyMCC]

1. Reduce, reuse, recycle

I reuse plastics as much as possible, and recycle all the plastic my town will accept in the recycling pick-up.

You're right, we can't just ban plastic but we can certainly reduce how much is produce and follow some of the examples being set in the EU like requiring manufactures to have to consider and provide for End of Life of their products. (I'm not sure if the latest EU corporate reclamation rules cover plastic)

[Maestro]

2. I just can't believe the size of that trash vortex...

the size of Texas at times! Recycling programs, plastics recovery systems, clean water initiatives all need to be part of any government's domestic policy. Then any country that has cruise liners in their home ports need to enforce these same guidelines on the cruise liners so they don't dump trash, sewage, etc... into the ocean.