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rubbish' . |
Imagine the
size of France - around 700,000 square kilometres.
Now imagine every milli-inch of France piled high with
trash: bottle caps, cigarettes, cigarette lighters,
tampon applicators, plastic nets, discarded flip flops,
Frisbees, soda bottles, milk jugs, diapers, six-pack
rings, busted tennis rackets, empty pens, shampoo
bottles, squeeze bottles, you name it.
Now take that image, double it, and plunk into the
water. That’s what is floating around the eastern corner
of a 10-million-square-mile oval known as the North
Pacific subtropical gyre.
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Gyres of the world - .. .
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Nicknamed the
“Eastern Garbage Patch,” this buoyant stew of toxic
pollution—most of which is plastic—is only one of five
such garbage heaps caught in the swirling high-pressure
currents characteristic of gyres. The others reside in
the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the
Indian Ocean. And each year, perhaps unwittingly, each
one of us adds to plastic to the heap.
The effects of these garbage heaps, as well as the
smaller, free-floating pollution, has a devastating
effect on marine life and human life.
Birds mistake small colorful pieces of plastic for food
and ingest them. One washed-ashore seabird was found to
have 1,603 pieces of plastic in his stomach. Fish,
sharks, and turtles die, entangled in discarded ropes
and nets. Sea turtles’ shells are deformed by
suffocating plastic bands they can’t remove. humpback
whales drag plastic nets that both cut into their flesh
and impair their hunting.
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Turtle caught by plastic ring - many years
ago - .. .
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The list goes on.
Already, over a million seabirds, one thousand marine
mammals, and innumerable fish die in the North Pacific
each year due to swallowing our trash or drowning in it.
If this isn’t enough to elicit action, how about the
effects this pollution is having on people? Scientists
have linked obesity, infertility, and depression with
the entry of these pollutants into the food chain. The
majority of the trash invading our oceans is plastic.
With the exception of the small amount of plastic that’s
been incinerated—producing some of the most toxic gases
imaginable—every ounce of plastic ever made is still on
our planet. It is too tough to biodegrade. Instead, its
chemicals are leaching into our oceans and we in turn
are drinking, eating, and absorbing them through our
skin every day.
In marine environments, these chemicals have had a
startling effect on the endocrine system of birds and
fish, sometimes resulting in female sex organs on male
species. The corresponding effects on humans have only
begun to manifest, but many scientists believe that by
mimicking the female hormone estrogen, these chemicals
are the root of the current upswing in obesity, the
decline in birth rates, and the increase in cancer and
diabetes. These chemicals are especially dangerous in
the systems of newborns, whose brains, immune systems,
and gonads are still developing. Just because these
toxins do not cause instant and ferocious reactions,
does not mean they are safe.
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Turtle caught in plastic - .. .
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Plastic makes it
into our oceans in a variety of ways. About twenty
percent of it comes from goods lost from boats: i.e.
accidental loss of fishing tackle and other recreational
gear, massive shipping containers carrying millions of
plastic items washed overboard during severe storms;
litter from pleasure boats, or illegal dumping of
unwanted goods. Beachgoers’ debris is also a
contributor. The other eighty percent is swept in from
land.
Just as fertilizers,
detergents, and pesticides find their way into our
waters, so too are plastic items washing into our blue
oceans. A discarded bottle cap or an empty sandwich bag
thoughtlessly left along the side of the road will
eventually be blown or kicked or washed into a storm
drain, and thus into the ocean.
Not all plastic floats. In fact, nearly half of it sinks
to the bottom of the ocean where there it brings death
and destruction to the bottom of the ocean floor.
Additionally, plastic is made from petrochemicals; so
every disposable toothbrush we buy or plastic bag we do
not reuse adds to our already crippling dependence on
oil.
Plastic came into being in 1865 with the best of
intentions as it was meant to save the elephants! A
scientist named John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid, the
first plastic product given a trade name, as a synthetic
replacement for ivory billiard balls. After that came
rayon, Teflon, polypropylene, and the list goes on.
Certainly, plastic has made it easier to live the “easy”
life. No need to carry cash or write a check or hang on
to razor. Plastic has been of invaluable service in the
medical and scientific world. But do we need quite so
much of it? For instance, the US Environmental
Protection Agency estimates that between 500 billion and
a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each
year. And where do those used bags end up? Often as a
raincoat for some hapless seabird or a necklace for
a sea otter, and these are the lucky ones who don’t
mistake the bags for food.
Much about plastic can be misleading. Of
the seven types of plastic available only three --PET, HDPE and PS
--are considered “easy” to recycle.
The vast majority of municipal recycling centres don’t
even accept the other types which include such heavily
used plastics as wrapping films, dry cleaning bags,
sandwich bags, grocery bags, baby bottle nipples,
medical tubing, shower curtains and Tupperware.
According to Algalita’s website, of those plastics
collected, less than three percent actually end up
recycled. Reheating temperatures run too low to burn off
contaminants, plus it’s often cheaper to produce virgin
plastic than to recycle it. So most of the plastic our
recycling companies are so diligently collecting ends up
in landfills or in our oceans.
Fortunately, a lot of people are taking the plastic
crisis seriously. Several countries, for instance, have
banned or substantially taxed—or are moving toward doing
so—plastic bags. These countries include Bangladesh,
China, Ireland, Rwanda, Israel, Canada, Western India,
Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, Sweden,
Germany and Singapore.
Many cities in England have instituted citywide bans,
with London recently coming on board; across the
Channel, Paris too has joined the ban. In 2007 San
Francisco became the first American city to ban plastic
shopping bags, with Boston, Portland and Phoenix
considering following suit. New York City now requires
large stores and retail chains to recycle plastic bags.
And trendsetter Whole Foods has banned the use of
plastic bags in all 270 of their worldwide stores.
This is all encouraging, but only a drop in the
proverbial bucket and there is much we can do without
waiting for laws:
Use durable fabric shopping bags
Whenever possible, choose bio-plastics, glass or paper
Do not litter
Pick up a piece of plastic and place it in a recycling
bin
Support environmentally responsible companies who are
recycling plastic
Compost and recycle everything you can
Buy in bulk, avoiding smaller containers that will need
to be disposed of
When appropriate, send letters to companies about over
packaging or plastic packaging
When you do make a purchase, avoid excessive packaging
Repair whatever goods you can before considering
replacing them
If you live near a body of water, volunteer to help
clean up the trash
Reuse plastic bags used for bulk purchases or choose
paper instead
Cut the rings of plastic six-pack holders, which lowers
the chances of entanglement with marine animals.
Spread the word: many people are unaware of how the
choices they’re making and the products they’re
purchasing affect the environment.
by Sailor for the Sea/Sail-World
Sail-World
LINKS:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Marine Debris
Factsheet:
http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/debris/factsheet_marinedebris.html
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional
Seas:
http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/default.asp
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