Plastic Debris

Last December, while diving in the Misool area of western Papua, we entered an island cave that went upward into a fully enclosed chamber above water level. The chamber was about 50 meters across and about the same in height. There were 2 small openings less than 1/2 meter that let in light. To my amazement there was a dozen or so pieces of plastic debris - parts of coffee cups, egg cartons, a sandle, etc. floating around on the surface!

This area is about as far from civilazation as you can get and here was more plastic trash! Amazng that it even washed in through the 2 small portals.

Last year, there was a special on one of the educational TV stations on plastic waste being trapped in a giant circular water movement in the central Pacific and washing up on the far northern Hawaiian Islands. Images were shown of piles of trash and nets as high as 2 meters.

More disturbing is this recent article http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23156017-38196,00.html

that indicates that plastic trash is breacikg up into smaller pieces and turning into a "soup".

Well, I guess that the move 20 years ago to save the trees is a resoundiing success!

You know, this is a sad story of our culture manufacturing many things with plastic and plastic parts. Then you buy it, and they put it in a plastic bag from the store.

I had this argument with my wife a couple of months ago. If we make the move to using reusable fabric bags that we take with us to the store and back home filled with groceries, what do we line our garbage can with? Now, with the lack of free plastic bags from the market, we have to buy plastic bags from the market.

Sure we could ask for paper bags, but they just dont work for wet garbage. Again, were stuck with buying more plastic bags from the market.

I think we should put thought into making things with plastic that is bio-degradable. Everything from grocery bags to this computer keyboard, made from bio-degradable plastics. The technology is already there, lets use it.

I think I saw the same TV program about the plastic washing ashore on the northwestern Hawaiian islands. It was amazing when the young albatross researcher collected all the plastic from the skeletons of laysan's albatrosses and sorted it all out into categories: lighters, fishing lures, tampon applicators, printer cartridges, golf balls, and on and on and on. And all of it had ended up in the bellies of the birds, eventually killing them.

I saw a 600-pound swordfish come up in the Pacific with a bracelet-like piece of heavy plastic wrapped around the base of its bill. It had been on for so long that the growth of the bill had been altered, and the sword was curved and misshapen. Just getting that piece of plastic onto and around the bill seemed like an incredibly unlikely event—like passing through the eye of that proverbial needle in a haystack—but then again, there's so much plastic floating in that Pacific gyre that maybe it wasn't so unlikely.

I was speachless when I saw the amount of plastic debris on my ride from Manado to Bunaken (North-Sulawesi, Indonesia). It was like the ocean was a junkyard, with the pristine reefs of Bunaken just miles away. Most people just throw their trash in the ocean without thinking about it.

I was also told about those islands made out of trash, unbelievable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SULM96XL2ns

Also interesting to watch: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ > 99% of consumer goods in the US is trashed within 6 months...

How about plastic water bottles? I am all for people in developing countries having clean safe water to drink - but when I was in equatorial guinea there were literally 6' tall piles of smoldering bottles behind each home :-(

Cheers

James