The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Plastic pollution is the biggest threat in our oceans as it takes up about 90% of

“Around 260 million tons of plastic is produced every year, approximately 10% of this ends up in oceans. This litter is frequently consumed, often with fatal effects, by marine animals and birds who mistake it for food. The Trash Vortex of the Northern Pacific ocean is a patch the size of Texas consisting of trillions of pieces of decomposing plastic.” (Geer) Water pollution often directly correlates with other natural recourses that is being harmed by the same

People are polluting the ocean in many ways, and we need to make the ocean healthier. In 2010, 192 countries bordering the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean and Black seas produced 2.5 billion metric tons of solid waste, and within that, 275 million metric tons is plastic waste. Two billion people within 30 miles of the coast create 100 million metric tons of coastal plastic waste. An estimated eight million tons of plastic entered the ocean that same year. Also, every year, eight million metric tons of plastic goes into the ocean. Because of all this trash, ocean and sea animals are losing their healthy habitat. They could get trapped in six-pack rings, mistake solid waste for food and eat it and die, or could get harmed or

In the documentary “Inside the Garbage of the World”, the main social problem being explained is that there has been a great influx of plastic and other type of garbage in oceans and their beaches. This buildup of pollution has largely affected the wildlife population ranging from animals on the beaches to the creatures of the ocean. In oceans, what is called ‘garbage patches’, a large buildup of garbage that flow to one area in the oceans, are being created. Approximately 50 percent of all plastic sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor but about 2 times that much is actually already on the ocean floor. In fact, according to the documentary, there is a garbage patch that is to the left of California that is the size of half of the United States. Each year, about 4.7 million tons of plastic goes in the ocean a year and it is estimated that by 2050, there will be another 33 billion tons of plastic added to the present amount. Eighty percent of the current pollution comes from the land. According to marine researchers, twice as much plastic debris is one the ocean floor than it was 10 years ago. In the futures, plastic will break down into smaller pieces of plastic, creating a bigger problem from the habitat. This plastic pollution is one of the leading cause for beach and ocean inhabiting creatures be extinct because animals are mistaking these plastic pieces for food. When scientist began to dissect beach animals such as birds, they discovered that at least fifteen pounds of

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the effect of the human population’s waste. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of trash floating in the ocean where there is a high density of garbage because of the Pacific Gyre. “Though their name suggests rafts of bobbing refuse, the patches are instead areas with high concentrations of trash — mostly wee bits of plastic particles that have degraded from larger pieces of litter such as water bottles. The bits amass within ocean vortices, driven by wind and ocean currents.”( Mole) The types of waste found in the garbage patch are micro plastics and macro plastics. Macro plastics can range from

Oceans are suffering because of these floating dumpsters and as they continue to grow, marine life will continue to die. Much of this garbage is already ending up on beaches and affecting birds and other land animals, as well as destroying beaches and habitats for other animals. Soon, oceans will be suffering even more due to overfishing and the destruction of their environment. Studies show that nearly 70% of fish in all oceans are gone and as we continue to fish at the rate we are at now, we will soon exhaust all of the marine resources we have readily available to us.

Plastic debris and litter is a serious pollution that is currently affecting oceans, waterways and coastal lines. Plastic is a man made tangible substance made from a range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, and nylon. This material is high on demand with the human kind but takes an average of 450 years to disintegrate. This product is impacting the marine environment, wildlife, and then eventually circling back to humans. Currently, the world’s biggest plastic patch is located north in the Pacific Ocean, trapped in what’s called a gyre (known as an ocean rip). There are also another two plastic islands located in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. These three plastic patches contain a higher amount of plastic but to today's count, in total there are 5 forward. Sea Education Society scientists studied plastics in the Atlantic and calculated there are 580,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer. Causes of plastic are endless, but trash is the main contributor. Plastic is located in almost every item around, and once it's in the trash, all the garbage gets dumped in land fills and seeps into the ground and soil affecting wildlife. Plastic is cheap and substantially available, so over production of plastic is high. The cause of plastic filling up land and oceans is a couple of reasons. People normally have a one-time use for plastic then throw it away but after that, the plastic is hard to eradicate. Burning plastic leads

There is trash everywhere and our oceans are collecting a big majority of it. Animals in the ocean are dying more and more early in their lifetime because they’re eating plastic, metal, nets etc. Only us humans seem not to care or even think about the animals that do not know any better. This includes ships dropping unburned oil and gas into the ocean. The majority of us love to swim or fish in those pristine oceans, to surf, sail, watch the sun set, or play. Yet, hiding under the beautiful aqua surface is the hard truth. We are in the midst of an environmental catastrophe that is destroying our oceans.

We are causing harm to the only oceans and ocean animals in our world. Instead of taking care of it, we put plastic bags in the ocean. First, many sea animals would die because we do not reuse plastic bags and we don’t throw it away. We also do not ever wonder about how many plastic bags we are using. There is about eight million of trash in the coastal countries. Some people may wonder how it gets there. It gets there because we are the ones who put it in there. We don’t throw it away and we also let it

After careful analysis, it appears that “Can the Pacific Garbage Patch be Cleaned Up?” by Danial Stone as published in Newsweek, is a credible sources. The author, Daniel Stone, has a Masters degree from John Hopkins University in Environmental Science and Policy, and a Batchers degree from the University of California, Davis in Political science. Furthermore, Stone worked for Current Magazine, America’s Most Wanted, and was the Senior Reported for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Currently, Stone in employed as the Short-Form Editor for National Geographic. I have found no way to contact the author. While there is no citations or reference page, the information presented in this source is found in other, credible sources. After briefly

Due to the lack of recycling, the Great Pacific Garbage patch increases, as it increases, much of the sea life is affected and the food chains are growing weaker. Many fish assume that the plastic is food and then eat some of the small bits, although the fish feel full they are actually being starved, and not getting the nutrients needed to stay alive. If more people would recycle the amount of plastics in our oceans would slowly decrease, since the fish are already eating much of the plastics.

It was discovered in 1997 by Charles Moore and is getting bigger by the day. In Earth Island Journals website Charles Moore states, “When plastic is so prevalent that it can fill up a creature’s stomach, that turns off the desire to feed, and if an organism doesn’t put on fat stores for reproduction and migration, it’s going to crash in population.” This is not only a problem to us but it is also affecting the oceanic wildlife. According to the Clean Our Oceans Refuge Coalition's website, “12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic are ingested by fish in the North Pacific each year.” The pieces of plastic they consume ends up being transferred in the food chain to bigger fish and then eventually to us. Most of the garbage spills are followed by toxic chemicals which ends up in the food web and then inside our bodies which can be very harmful to us and the

The overuse of plastics in today's society has become major environmental issue for our oceans. Plastic pollution is the dumping, littering, or disposing of any type of man-made plastic that has been produced and has ended up in our ocean and has not been recycled.

First, I would like to say that much of the information provided by Rogers was surprisingly new to me. I like to think of myself as being pretty knowledgeable about waste/recycling. In the past I have watched documentaries on e-waste and clothing recycling plants overseas. In my high school chemistry class during sophomore year I remember being taught by two of my classmates during their presentation on recycling about the meanings of the numbers printed on plastics and how glass, plastic, and metals were re-purposed into new objects. Before I left home, my mom was super into recycling and made sure my sister and I put what could be recycled into the proper bin and in order to keep the items out the landfills as long as possible. I know and practice the phrase “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. I know that the Great Pacific garbage patch exists. In reading this, I was surprised to find that the history and current state of the garbage industry is so horrifying and entertaining, and also that there was so much information which was new to me. I learned a ton of useful information. I definitely plan to recycle this information and share it others.

The amount of money needed to clean up the pollution of plastic in the ocean would amount to at least 30 billions US dollars per year. The majority of the plastic polluting the ocean is due to plastic bags which people throw away. The pollution of the environment would endanger animals since they may eat it. Then, others would not make the teeniest effort to recycle because they would think that they are too insignificant to make a change. However, they would be able to make a change, if they desired to do so, since they can just use a little tiny effort as to place the plastic bags inside the recycling bins compared to the regular trash bins. However, there isn't such a perfect world, so people would litter and cause pollution which would deceive animals that mistakenly eat the waste. Animals like turtles and dolphins would mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and would choke on it. This