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Pacific Ocean Contains 100 Million Tons of Garbage

July 22nd, 2009 by mark

A huge amount of garbage has accumulated in the north Pacific due to ocean currents and wind. There are actually two distinct “piles” of this refuse, called the Eastern and Western Pacific Garbage Patches, and they come together on either side of the Hawaiian Islands.

Discovered by a sailor in 1997, the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ or ‘trash vortex’ that floats around in oceanic gyres is now of great interest to scientists, biologists, weather forecasters and marine researchers for the information it reveals about ocean currents.

There is a soup of waste – humanity’s flotsam and debris – literally clogging the Pacific Ocean. Experts say it’s growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the USA.

Only about one-fifth of the junk comes from ship refuse, while the rest comes from land. The garbage is responsible for the deaths of about 100,000 marine animals and more than 1 million seabirds who mistake the plastic waste for food.

Our plastic waste poses a risk to our health too. What goes into the ocean goes into the food chain and eventually onto your dinner plate. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, known as ‘nurdles’ – the raw materials for the plastic industry – are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT.

Since 90% of the waste is plastics, the problem is that it won’t biodegrade for tens of thousands of years The United Nations Environment Program estimates that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of north Pacific Ocean.

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  1. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch « Eco Pic Of The Day said, on July 28th, 2009 at 2:17 pm

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  2. BeMoreEco » Voyage to study plastic island said, on August 5th, 2009 at 10:24 am

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