Plastic, Plastic...Everywhere

     I recently watched the documentary "Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch", directed by Angela Sun. It examines the environmental impact of the plastics industry over the past sixty years, focusing mainly on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Northern Pacific. Having done a research paper on the Garbage Patch a few years ago for my undergraduate degree, I was familiar with what it is. I also read the book "Plastic Ocean" (by Captain Charles Moore with Cassandra Phillips) last spring. But there is a huge difference with reading about environmental damage and seeing it with your own eyes.

     The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located within the Northern Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a collection of spinning ocean currents that surround an area of approximately 20 millions square kilometers. The center of the Gyre is usually very calm, so as debris and trash are carried into the currents and dispersed throughout the Patch, they settle in and persist throughout the entire water column (NatGeo, 2014). It is not the only one in the world; there are these types of Gyres in every ocean of the world. And they all are collecting plastic at accelerated rates.

Map by NOAA

     In "Plastic Paradise", I watched as they cut open dead

 Albatross and Booby chicks on Midway Atoll, and revealed the large amounts of plastic that the birds had ingested. The chicks' parents had scooped plastic from the open sea, and fed it to their innocent babies, in effect killing. Everywhere on the beaches of Midway, on the surface and buried in the sand, are bits of plastic. Billions of them. They are floating in the ocean, wash up on the beaches and do not go away. Plastic, as we all have been told, lasts forever. It breaks into smaller pieces, but it doesn't degrade. Angela Sun showed in the documentary that the pieces on the beaches of Midway were discarded plastic from the 1960's and seventies. So, that Barbie Dreamhouse, those Star Wars toys and those GI Joe Army Jeeps you played with as a kid are now in pieces floating around in one of the world's oceans.

Photo by Claire Johnson, NOAA
http://www.hawaiianatolls.org/research/June2006/albatross_death.php

     The danger this poses to humans is dire. Plastic absorbs different chemicals that it comes in contact with. Dangerous chemicals like DDT and BPA, which are prevalent in our oceans worldwide, are absorbed by the plastics floating around out there. As these pieces break into to smaller pieces, they are ingested by fish and birds, and they start to work their way up the food chain (Plastic Ocean, 2014). Fish are eaten by humans. Or they are eaten by larger predators that are eaten by humans. Or they are pooped out by predators higher on the food chain and get onto the land, where they are absorbed by the vegetation or grasses that our livestock feed on. Many dismiss the danger that plastics pose by saying they dont eat fish or that they don't eat seabirds. But they miss the point that with the amount of plastics being discarded worldwide on a daily basis causes plastics to permeate, not just the oceans, but every corner of the planet.

http://newyorknatives.com/ban-happy-bloomberg-attacks-styrofoam-so-why-not-plastic-bags/

      Who should be responsible for the clean up? Its an easier question to ask them answer. If you think about the amount of plastic and the number of places and the manpower required to scoop it all out of the sea and out of the rivers and out soil, it quickly becomes apparent that it is an impossible task. We are poisoning the Earth, and ourselves. All because when the plastic companies began making plastic products decades ago, they never planned for the disposal. It was produce, manufacture, sell. No plan was devised on what to do with this material once it was discarded. It is not a close looped system. Most of it is not recycled, and the majority of it cannot be recycled. What is recycled pales in comparison to the amount that cannot, and even the products made from recycled material only utilize 30% recycled material. That means 70% is still needed from other sources.

     Nature is a series of cycles that replenish each other, that waste very little and provide for everything. One organisms waste is another organisms treasure. You only have to look at the Nitrogen cycle, the Water Cycle, the Phosphorus Cycle. Or, you can look at the life cycles in an eco-system, and how each layer compliments the other. Humans have ignored how nature does things and continue to practice open ended cycles, where wastes build up and are ignored. Take, Make, Waste. This philosophy makes a small percentage of the world's people rich while it uses up natural resources, costs the rest of us out of packet every year to keep up with what our neighbors just bought, and creates huge amounts of trash, debris and poisonous materials that make their way back into our bodies.

http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/ocean-earth-system/ocean-water-cycle/     

     Most plastics, these days, are made for single use. They are made from fossil fuels, which makes tons of money, not only on selling you gas for your car and oil to heat your home, but by providing the essential ingredients to make all of the plastics in our world, which we all buy without question. Isn't it time to close the loop? Isn't it time that the entities that start the process and put the clean up onus on us to be held responsible? Its time to demand that laws are passed that require plastic material, all plastic material, to be recyclable or it is banned. It is time to force the manufacturers to develop a cradle-to-grave plan to deal with the refuse when these products have outlived their usefulness.

Click Image for Link

Click Image for Link

     You can find "Plastic Paradise" by Angela Sun, and I also recommend you read "Plastic Ocean". You can find both by clicking the image above. They are well worth it if you value the future for your children and grandchildren. And while you are at it, next time you are at the store, think twice before getting plastic bags to carry your groceries home. Those bags are single use. You can do better than that. Join the growing movement to end the use of single-use products in our everyday lives. Visit the website for "Plastic Paradise" above. Contact your local Congressman and Senator using the links below to voice your concerns on the Plastic Problem.

House of Representatives

US Senate

Sources:

"Great Pacific Garbage Patch." National Geographic: Education. National Geographic, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1>.

Plastic Paradise. Perf. Angela Sun. 2014. Film.

Moore, Charles, and Cassandra Phillips. Plastic Ocean: How A Sea Captain's Chance Discovery Launched A Quest To Save The Oceans. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2011. Print.