The far reaching effects of human waste products keep popping up across the globe, sometimes in the most unexpected places. This time, our oceans are taking the hit. Garbage patches are forming in oceans everywhere as a result of garbage being transported from streets to seas due to urban runoff. During a heavy rainfall, debris is sometimes carried directly into waterways, but more often it is being deposited into storm drains that eventually lead to the water supply. As a result, trash is accumulating in our oceans because they are the final source that waterways lead to. Ocean gyres, the huge circular currents of the oceans, are the reason that such huge patches of garbage are forming because they carry trash with the flow, where it eventually ends up spiraling in a vortex for years.
The most extensively studied ocean garbage accumulation is in the Pacific. This was the first patch that was discovered 12 years ago. It is not so much of a “trash island” as is the common view, but rather it is a collection of smaller clumps that occur over a huge area. There are still no precise measurements of how much trash there really is, but many sources claim that put together, all the debris adds to the size of Texas, if not bigger. Making up the heaps are large objects, as well as a huge under layer of degraded plastic bits. The worst part of all is that the majority of the debris is plastic products that are not biodegradable. The accumulation of plastics in the oceans can have contaminating effect to both the water itself and the organisms that live in it. Not only can the masses of trash trap organisms, but more and more birds and fish are being found dead with great amounts of plastic in their stomachs. What happens is smaller fish feed in the areas where garbage patches occur, causing them to ingest small particles of plastic. As they are eaten by larger fish and oceanic birds, these plastics are accumulated into these animals’ biomass, as well. Plastic is not able to break down in their bodies, which can result in death for these organisms. This phenomenon is also a cause for human concern because these degraded plastic toxins may be building up in the fish we eat, but there is no way to guarantee or certify that they are not there. These and many more are the problems that we face from the huge accumulations of garbage in the oceans.
How to go about cleaning up the trash patches is a huge issue because of the vast size of the problem. These areas are so large that it would take up huge amounts of money and effort to clean them up completely. Moreover, using nets to collect the debris would also trap any aquatic life in the area. Another issue is that many of the garbage heaps are not on any country’s territory. This takes the responsibility off any single government for cleaning them up. Despite these limitations, some private groups are still trying. Project Kaisei is one such group. They have designed nets for the job and hope to collect 40 tons of garbage and plastics to be used in trial recycling. This is not a perfect plan, but it is a start. What really needs to be done is on land. Although they are cheap and versatile, plastics need to be phased out because of their environmental threat. This could even be done on a personal scale by choosing to buy fewer plastic products. Better recycling methods could also help in reducing the amount of plastics that go into our waterways. Another technique would be the use of better storm water management techniques. By processing storm water before releasing it into waterways, a lot of the trash could be taken out of the water before it reaches the oceans. Overall, it is going to take huge amounts of effort, time, and money to solve the problem of ocean garbage heaps.
The process your describing in the plastics is called photodegradation, it is the effect of the sun on those plastics out there. the problem like you said is that it keeps getting smaller down to the molecular level! I watched a documentary on this in another class and the results were disturbing as to how much of this is truly in our diet and most people dont know.
ReplyDeleteI have not heard about this before reading the blog. It is definitely cause for great concern, not only for the environmental consequences including degradation of the oceans and the harm being done to birds and fish, but for our own dietary concerns. Although some of the largest "Trash Islands" that are publicized are commonly found in the Pacific, there are some that are causing a lot of environmental problems that are developing in the Atlantic as well. Apparently, the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic is experiencing the accumulation of trash forming "trash islands" in its waters. Four currents are currently carrying a portion of the worlds trash to the Sea. In your blog you mentioned focusing on land aspects of the problem to develop a solution for the increasing amounts of garbage entering the waterways that consequently ends up in our oceans accumulating as "trash islands". One aspect of land solutions proposed are more extensive efforts to clean up beaches, as beaches are a huge source of trash that is getting into waters. One thing that came to mind is how many people eat and drink on the beach daily. Although we can't eliminate people from eating or drinking on the beach as this will cause obvious health hazards, maybe extend the use of particular "picnic" areas for eating and drinking that is to be done far away from the water? Maybe eliminate specific types containers/cups that can be used on the beach? I know this may require a lot of oversight and manpower, but this may be a small step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteInstead of simply regulating the trash, I think we should get rid of the trash entirely. That is to say, more coastal cities should take the path of San Francisco and eliminate plastic bags, a highly disposable piece of trash and that which is most easily blown into water. Although the trash brought together in the ocean gyres happen due to non-point-source pollution (which nation did a certain piece come from) a lot of it can be treated as point-source pollution for local governments to tackle. Additionally, I think that container deposit programs can really cut down on trash. When people know that trash is worth something, they are less likely to litter.
ReplyDeleteAs it terns out, when you throw away that plastic water bottle, you will end up eating it the next time you go out for sushi. In the short term, I see that a filtering type of solution would be prudent to address the plastic soup that is the pacific ocean at this point. In the long term, we will need to both reduce the amount of disposable plastics and find new ways of managing it so that it does not end up in rain runoff.
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