Is it true there is a ginormous swirl of trash in the lower Pacific ocean because of world litter?

Question

especially the usa

Answer 1

No, this is just propaganda started by an unknown source. Probably an Alarmist group. I looked it up on Snopes.com, and there's no truth to this.

If there was actually a swirl at that location, it would have already been there for a long time. As such, it would have been swirling dead plants and other natural ocean debris for a long time. And there is no such location in the Pacific  ocean.

Answer 2

yes i think so because all the rivers and oceans conet some how

Answer 3

thats news to me.

where did you hear this?

Answer 4

i never heard of something like that !

Answer 5

Yes and it's all plastic.

There is an area in the Pacific twice the size of the United States that is full of plastics at the surface.  The currents and wind patterns all go clockwise and this area is in the center of these.

Sort of like the Sargasso sea in the Atlantic.

"Most plastic floats near the sea surface where some is mistaken for food by birds and fishes. Plastics are carried by currents and can circulate continually in the open sea. Broken, degraded plastic pieces outweigh surface zooplankton in the central North Pacific by a factor of 6-1. That means six pounds of plastic for every single pound of zooplankton."

"Storms flush plastics down stream and ultimately into the ocean. Plastic debris looks bad, but it behaves worse. Far worse! Plastic pollution negatively effects trillions upon trillions of ocean inhabitants and ultimately humans."

"Synthetic Sea" shows how many marine birds and fishes ingest plastic, because it mimics the food they eat. The program reveals scientific research, indicating how plastic pieces can attract and hold hydrophobic elements like PCB and DDT up to one million times background levels. As a result, floating plastic is like a poison pill. As a result, new research regarding endocrine disrupters in floating plastic debris is being planned by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.. "Synthetic Sea" is a documentary based on scientific findings backed by published scientific papers."

DR. Marcus Ericson

http://www.algalita.org/research.html#pl...

http://www.algalita.org/pelagic_plastic....

Part of the problem is that tiny micro-organisms at the bottom of the food chain are inadvertantly ingesting these tiny bits of plastic.  They are filter feeders, and have no choice.

Plastic polllution is a huge problem, and it uses 5-10% of our oil.

One solution to this is to make bioplastics, which is a fledgling industry now.  There are two companies I know of that make bioplastics.

I think this is a more sensable use of biomass than making biofuels.  

The one with the cutting edge technology is called Metabolix.  The other is Cereplast.  Both have interesting websites.  Metabolix says they can also make biofuels from what's left after plastic production.

"In 2006, Metabolix formed Telles™, a 50-50 joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), to commercialize the production of Mirel™ bioplastics. Made by microbial fermentation of sugars such as corn sugar or cane sugar or vegetable oils, Mirel bioplastics are biobased, sustainable and totally biodegradable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics that are used for many everyday products. Telles is responsible for the manufacturing, marketing and sales of Mirel bioplastics worldwide."

"We are also developing a proprietary platform technology for the co-production of bioplastics and biomass for biofuels such as ethanol, and for chemical products, in non-food biomass energy crops such as switchgrass."

And get this.  Metabolix can grow switchgrass with the plastic already in the leaves and stems, WITHOUT genetically modifying the switchgrass.

http://www.metabolix.com/

Answer 6

no

Answer 7

Well they dump a ton of waste into the ocean, so that would make sense.

Save Our Planet: Go Vegan, Vegetarian, or Green!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24...

Answer 8

never heard of it

Answer 9

I am currently writing a paper on this subject for my environment class. It is not exactly a swirl, but the currents in the northern Pacific Ocean flow in an elliptical, clockwise manner. There are two areas, one southeast of Japan and one between Hawaii and San Francisco, that collect trash because of the current flow and down-dwelling of the water in these areas. They have been called the Western and Eastern Garbage Patches, respectively. It has been reported that 80% of the debris in these areas are land based. The ratio of plastic to plankton in the Eastern Garbage Patch is 6 to 1. Greenpeace has a great illustration of the currents and the trash flow from Japan and the USA.

http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expe...

Answer 10

Yes, it's true.  My Niece lives in California and works for an organization promoting alternatives to plastic.

Regular plastic bags, when they get into the ocean, break down into little particles of plastic.  These get eaten by fish and accumulate in the food chain similar to a chemical called DDT they used to use to kill bugs.  The plastic is a carcinogen when it reaches a high enough level.