Scientist - N. Pacific Garbage Gyre "A Confetti Of Waste Spread Over The Entire Ocean Surface"

[hatrack]

The famed Texas-sized garbage patch swirling in the Pacific Ocean doesn't exist, according to Dr. Marcus Erikson, of the Algalita Research Foundation in Long Beach, Calif.

"There is no island of plastic trash," Erikson said. "It's actually much worse than that. The truth is, it's a confetti of waste spread over the entire ocean surface."

Erikson spent last weekend informing visitors at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium that most of the debris originates on land before taking a long, circuitous journey to the world's oceans.

He said the debris collects in areas where currents flow in a circular motion, known as gyres. Erikson said there are five gyres and he has visited four of them, most notably in the North Pacific and North Atlantic. When plastic products end up on the ground, they travel downhill, he said, and the middle of the ocean is downhill from everywhere.

EDIT

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=298763

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. Kicking

:kick:

[jpak]

2. I've been there and it's astonishing the amount of *visible* debris you can see on the surface

but there's much more at near-microscopic levels you can't see...

:thumbsdown:

[BrklynLiberal]

3. We are destroying the only place we can live....Well, making it uninhabitable for us, anyway.

Earth will survive..with or without the human race.

[Kolesar]

4. only 5 percent of all plastic ever gets recycled !

"The biggest thing people can do is reduce their consumption of plastic," Erikson said. "Bring your own bottle, your own coffee mug, your own bag to the store.

...
Paul Schultz, Dubuque's resource management coordinator, who oversees the city's curbside recycling program, said it costs about $4,000 to process one ton of plastic film; it generates about $32 in the marketplace. Schultz said only 5 percent of all plastic ever gets recycled.

[felix_numinous]

5. Good use for robotics

would be for environmental and toxic cleanup. I always thought they would make the best minesweepers too.