The Biggest Dump in the World

[Marduk2012 Profile]

Synthetica - Earth's New Continent of Plastics




The enormous soup of plastic debris in the Pacific has grown rapidly to twice the size of the U.S. An ongoing voyage into the foul soup of garbage has revealed it is composed of two huge vortices one in the eastern Pacific and one in the western Pacific. The vortices are maintained by a confluence of subsurface currents and by regions of high atmospheric pressure above the subtropical Pacific Ocean.

These plastic patches have profound implications for wildlife because birds tend to eat bits of plastic and marine mammals can be strangled by them. Moreover, the plastic can accumulate in areas where currents are forcing nutrients upward - zones of high biological activity. The consequences are deadly to a wide range of species.





This massive plastic stain is divided into two big “balls” of garbage, connected by a narrower part. They are known as the “East stain” and “West stain”. A sailor says that, during the late 90’s, while he was crossing the Ocean, he was stunned with the vision of a giant Ocean made of plastic just in front of his eyes. “How come we could make this?” – “I navigated for more than a week on the top of all that plastic.”


Turtle trapped by a plastic ring.


All pieces of plastic seen on the right were taken from the bird’s stomach.


Death bird with the stomach filled with plastic.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 78016.html



What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate.

It's that simple.

Bon appétit!

[Marduk2012 Profile]

Plastic Breaks Down in Ocean, after all — and fast, into dangerous chemicals



Though ocean-borne plastic trash has a reputation as an indestructible, immortal environmental villain, scientists announced yesterday that some plastics actually decompose rapidly in the ocean. And, the researchers say, that’s not a good thing.The team’s new study is the first to show that degrading plastics are leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A into the seas, possibly threatening ocean animals, and us.

Scientists had previously thought plastics broke down only at very high temperatures and over hundreds of years. The researchers behind a new study, however, found that plastic breaks down at cooler temperatures than expected, and within a year of the trash hitting the water. The toxic compounds the team found don’t occur naturally in the ocean, and the researchers thought plastic was the culprit. The scientists later simulated the decomposition of polystyrene in the sea and found that it degraded at temperatures of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius).

Left behind in the water were the same compounds detected in the ocean samples, such as styrene trimer, a polystyrene by-product, and bisphenol A, a chemical used in hard plastics such as reusable water bottles and the linings of aluminum cans. Bisphenol A (BPA) has been shown to interfere with the reproductive systems of animals, while styrene monomer, a derivative of styrene trimer, is a suspected carcinogen. The pollutants are likely to be more concentrated in areas heavily littered with plastic debris, such as ocean vortices, which occur where currents meet. …

About 44 percent of all seabirds eat plastic, apparently by mistake, sometimes with fatal effects. And 267 marine species are affected by plastic garbage—animals are known to swallow plastic bags, which resemble jellyfish in mid-ocean, for example—according to a 2008 study in the journal Environmental Research by oceanographer and chemist Charles Moore, of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

Now, it seems, they also face the invisible threat of toxic, plastic-derived chemicals.

[Lucidlemondrop Profile]

Yep, most are a cancer................

[sockpuppet Profile]

A great opportunity for a company that recycles plastic.

Wow, no kidding....

Since big business doesn't give a sh*t about this, you'd think they could/would turn the clean-up into a money-making scheme...