Many cities are banning plastic shopping bags or passing laws forcing stores to charge for the bags. Plastic bags are a major contributor to the plastic marine debris situation in the oceans when the bags are washed to sea by rivers and runoff after rains.
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The Pacific isn’t the only ocean collecting plastic trash
A swirling 'soup' of tiny pieces of plastic has been found in the Atlantic Ocean, and something similar may be present in other ocean areas as well.
By Kristen Chick | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor/ June 18, 2009 edition
When Sylvia Earle began diving in 1952, the ocean was pristine. These days, things are different.
“For the past 30 years I have never been on a dive anytime, anywhere, from the surface to 2-1/2 miles deep, without seeing a piece of trash,” says the renowned oceanographer and former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “There’s life from the surface to the greatest depths – and there’s also trash from the surface to the greatest depths.”
Dr. Earle’s experience illustrates the rising tide of plastic accumulating in the world’s oceans.
And while the Pacific Ocean has garnered much attention for what some call the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” – a vast expanse of floating plastic deposited in the middle of the ocean by circulating currents – the problem doesn’t stop there.
New research shows that plastic has collected in a region of the Atlantic as well, held hostage by converging currents, called gyres, to form a swirling “plastic soup.” And those fragments of plastic could also be present at the other three large gyres in the world’s oceans, says Kara Lavender Law, a member of the oceanography faculty at the Sea Education Association (SEA) in Woods Hole, Mass., which conducted the study.
Because the plastic has broken down into tiny pieces, it is virtually impossible to recover, meaning that it has essentially become a permanent part of the ecosystem. The full impact of its presence there – what happens if fish and other marine animals eat the plastic, which attracts toxins that could enter the food chain – is still unclear.
“It’s a serious environmental problem from a lot of standpoints,” Dr. Law says. “There are impacts on the ecosystem from seabirds, fish, and turtles, down to microscopic plankton.”
The possible effect on humans is “a huge open question,” she adds. “If a marine organism were to ingest a contaminated plastic article, it could move up the food chain. But that is far from proven.”
The data collected by SEA, from 22 years of sailing through the North Atlantic and Caribbean, show a high concentration of plastic fragments centered about 30 degrees north latitude (in the western North Atlantic), says Law. That aligns with the ocean’s circular current pattern.
But don’t call this region the garbage patch of the Atlantic. Law, who has sailed through the plastic accumulation in the Pacific gyre as well, says the term “plastic soup” is more accurate for both areas. “There’s no large patch, no solid mass of material,” she says.
Marcus Eriksen, director of education at Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, Calif., agrees.
The idea of a garbage “patch” or “island” twice the size of Texas, a favorite term in the media for the now-infamous spot in the Pacific, feeds misconceptions, he says. “It’s much worse. If it were an island, we could go get it. But we can’t,” because it’s a “thin soup of plastic fragments.”
The plastic floating in the ocean comes mostly from land. Dumping plastic at sea has been prohibited by an international convention since 1988, but about 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean flows from rivers, is washed out from storm drains or sewage overflows, or is blown out to sea from shore by the wind.
According to the UN Environment Program, the world produces 225 million tons of plastic every year.
Law says that analyses of the density of the plastics picked up in SEA’s research show that much of it potentially comes from consumer items made of polyethylene and polypropylene plastics, which includes plastic shopping bags, milk jugs, detergent bottles, and other items “common in our everyday lives.”
Those post-consumer products eventually break down into small pieces – most of the fragments caught in SEA’s plankton nets are about the size of a pencil eraser. Fish, birds, and sea mammals can mistake those tiny pieces for food and eat them. Fish and birds caught in regions with high plastic concentrations have been found to have numerous bits of plastic in their stomachs.
One of the puzzling aspects of SEA’s study is that it does not show an increase in concentration of plastics during the 22 years of sampling.
“That’s one of the main questions we’re trying to answer with the data set,” says Law. “I believe the evidence shows there has to be more going into the ocean. The question is, why don’t we see an increase in this region where we collect.”
It’s possible that the plastics have broken down into such small pieces that they pass through the plankton nets, she says, or that bacteria or organisms growing on the pieces could cause them to sink. And some of the trash could escape to other areas of the ocean on wayward currents.
When it comes to stemming the tide of plastic waste, there is no easy answer. Most experts agree that cleaning up the tiny pieces already swirling in ocean currents thousands of miles from land is impossible. Instead, the focus should be on prevention.
Law says that education is key. It’s important to raise awareness of what happens to the plastic that millions of people throw away every day. “There’s a perception that if you put it in a recycle bin, it will end up being recycled, but it’s not clear that’s always the case.”
Perhaps, experts speculate, the real reason that so much plastic ends up at sea is because so much of it is designed to be used once, then tossed.
Dr. Eriksen says ending the throwaway design of plastics is essential to combating ocean pollution.
“I’m not against plastic, I’m just against the way we abuse the material,” he says. “Knowing the environmental consequences of it, we have to rethink the responsible use of it.”
Erickson also advocates economic incentives for plastic recovery – such as giving plastic products a return value in recycling centers – and “extended producer responsibility,” in which manufacturers are responsible for the life cycle of their products. That would force producers to build the cost of recovery or recycling into the cost of the product.
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Comments
2. kelly j.gawlick | 06.19.09
everything you people do to create awareness is great, thank you. i have a company that sells many products made from recycled plastic milkjugs and no one seems to understand what i am doing and trying to better the world for our children. one chair keeps approx. 650 milk jugs out of the waste stream. every little bit helps. thanks again kelly
3. A Jones | 06.19.09
Has anyone considered a filtering vacuum to use much like the booms and vacuum system used on oil spills to collect this floatsam?
4. Jean E. Barker | 06.19.09
For years I have wondered about plastic and how we humans can live without it when there is much less oil. Education is crucial to helping people use less, use cloth bags for groceries, learn what in our homes is made from oil products.
Find alternative natural products.
5. Carolyn Hopper | 06.22.09
There is work being done now to look at the trash gyre in the Pacific Ocean that is the size of Texas and how it might be cleaned up. If Bill were to do a search for Marine Debris and Trash Gyre he would find the information on the size and scope of the problem. There is the will to figure out how to clean it up. The how will not be easy.
In the meantime we call all reduce many uses of plastic such as plastic grocery bags and the water bottles everyone now seems to need. Earth Island Journal had an article about the trash gyre in its last issue. Oceana and the Blue Island Institute also have information about plastic in the ocean.
Even if we could clean up all the trash gyres what is to be done about the plastic flowing into the oceans every day?
6. Doug Woodring | 06.25.09
Great article and comments. You might want to follow our mission this summer, Project Kaisei, as we do have the will, and we are going out to do all kinds of things, ranging from science studies, to net/capture testing, filming, social awareness and new media outreach, visuals, satellite imagery testing, education, and more. We look forward to your support! It is a big task, and this is chapter one, but we have already raised a large amount of awareness in parts of Asia.
Thanks
Doug
7. Mark | 06.26.09
Develop bacteria that can only survive in sea water that can break down those specific plastics. You wouldn’t have to physically remove the debris then. As long as boats aren’t made out of plastic shopping bags it should be safe.
8. Brock Henderson | 06.26.09
I find it amusing that some posters suggest to vacuum, develop chemical or biological agents, etc to deal with our plastic problems. However, these methods do not address to root cause of our problem. North Americans lazy and wasteful habits.
Ban all petroleum-based non-biodegradeable bags,
ban all plastic packaging that cannot be recycled,
recycle all other plastic,
heavily charge for garbage by the bag,
compost all food waste,
increase funding to improve city water systems,
and legislate that businesses are responsible for the disposal/recycling of end product.
9. Jan Lundberg , petroleum industry analyst | 06.27.09
In the article and comments so far there is no suggestion to shut down the source. Petroleum’s toxic and climate-changing nature, responsible for more than plastic, needs to be dealt with more strongly than attempts to educate and muddling toward legislation that may lack teeth. So let’s boycott petroleum to save the planet (and save money). This approach has the side-benefit of preparing for ultimate petrocollapse.
We also need to recognize that we’re dominated by an ecocidal, materialistic culture that condones and rewards waste and greed. Until we reject the present system and build an alternative, the plastic plague will grow along with climate distortion.
10. Doug - Texas | 06.27.09
While many suggestions to dealing with the plastic problem affecting our plant may be viable and needed, little is said regarding funding needed to solve this problem. There is a growing need to fund research to deal with the current issues we are facing today and future issues if alternatives are not found. Lets not place yet another bandaid on a problem requiring major surgery, its our only planet. In short, its time to take action, “Go Green and Blue” and put your money where your mouth is…
I’ve donated to a worthy group working to identify and solve this problem, will you do the same?
Just a thought!!!
Doug - from Texas
11. marc Daquila | 06.28.09
What would be interesting to test the hypothesis that even visible evidence can be denied, is to confront political and business leaders of undisputed evidence of the existence of plastic in the ocean, then evidence of plastic in the stomachs of dead sea life, and then evidence that it is washing out to sea from our own shores and see who is going to go on the record denying it. Once consensus is achieved, see if our leaders can act unilaterally instead of pointing to “everybody else is doing it” and “it will harm our economy, especially now”. What is so unique about this problem is it can’t be denied, there are steps that can be taken without “getting permission” and it may rank above that of global warming. Is it possible that we have reached a point that we have killed ourselves already and therefor its not worth doing anything?
12. Sarah Anne | 06.29.09
I am an activist in Jacksonville, Florida. We have been working on cleaning tributaries, rivers, and the beach. In the past year we have been working on one creek (McCoys Creek) and so far we have removed TEN Tons of trash from that creek! Most of it is plastic and cigarette butts! We weigh it and inventory what we remove. At least we are preventing that from going into the river, then the ocean. The sad thing is it starts to break down and we can’t remove some of it, because it just disintegrates in our hand.
I encourage everyone to pick up trash and cigarette butts when you see them, they are very toxic to our water.
13. lance | 09.03.09
Thank you all that put forth effort to do that which most people consider “beneath them”. I personally feel most happy when giving back to the world to ensure our children will be able to enjoy that which we have. I hope to see some of you out and about simply enjoying the outdoors and maybe even doing a little good in the process. It is up to those of us that have the strength, confidence and humility to show others that the planet we live on requires as much, if not more care than our vehicles, homes, possessions and last but not least, family and friends. So kudos to you all.
Cigarette butts picked-up to date: 10,000 and counting
note: i am not certain that they are better-off in a landfill polluting the ground water and soil than going into the rivers and oceans, but we have to try to do something right?
14. Honeybrook | 09.07.09
I’m thankful for all that’s being done. Having read this article I’m a bit more aware of trash around me.
15. John Boruff | 09.29.09
There are organic based plastics that bio-degrade that should be used in containers like the sandwich containers from convenience gas stations. There are only 11 States in the USA that currently require a deposit on drink containers. It should be required nationaly, all 50 states. I live in a 5 cent deposit state and still they are thrown away in droves. Make it 10 cents. I fill my canoe with trash every time I float my local rivers. It’s disgusting how uncaring people are.
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1. bill | 06.19.09
It is defeatist to claim that plastic particles (of whatever size) cannot be removed from the ocean. There are physical methods, energy efficient that would collect plastics. Possibly there are chemical or biological solutions as well. What is lacking is the will.