It goes by a few names and doesn’t seem to get much attention, but the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is worth knowing about. This "gyre of marine litter" is a wide range of mostly confetti sized pieces of trash floating together in mass in the Pacific ocean. It’s barely visible since most of the trash is floating beneath the surface. The overall size is estimated to be larger than the state of Texas and up to 100 feet deep.


This mass of trash, mainly plastic, has been forming since the 1960’s and is brought together into large groups thanks to the ocean currents. 70% of the plastic sinks to the bottom, while the rest remains close to the surface.



Some marine life eat the small bits of trash. Toxic chemicals from the plastics are leaked into the ocean. Large debris can trap animals. So overall, it’s not a good thing to have a "landfill" in the ocean.



Junkraft, SeaPlex and other organizations are doing all they can to make the public aware.

Comments

Tromptista - 7/12/2012 9:38 AM I think that by now many people are aware of that trash heap and convincing people to be more mindful of waste disposal wont clean that up. Hopefully some group will develop an idea for how to maintain or even reduce that monster (blow it up, sink it, dissolve it some how). We should encourage and present good examples to those around us of the three R’s (Recycle, Reuse, Reduce), be good consumers and be conscious of product packaging waste. This should be common sense and you cant legislate common sense so dont hope for legislation or govt to solve this problem.

Flipper78754 - 6/30/2012 6:52 PM We are a wasteful world and our oceans suffer from what we do on land and at sea .