Garbage island

[Deleted]

What are the compelling arguments they make? I didn't hear any.

Not cost effective in many cases. USA not running out of land reserved for dumping garbage in a very long time.

[Deleted]

What are the compelling arguments they make? I didn't hear any.

oh dude. Dont look now. Your bias is showing. ^^

[Ozzy1346]

I thought this topic was about Staten Island. :P

Shouldn't laugh though. They turned a giant mountain of trash into a ski hill around here..

haha i had the same thought

[Urti]

What I find interesting is they don't even know how big it is. In the end all we have is drawings, and nothing exact. How do we even know it exists in the size and scope they are speaking to?

Every time this topic comes up I try to find real pictures of it and I just can't find anything more that what I could create in a swimming pool

This reminds me of the poor Polar Bear picture Al Gore used, people should look into the truth of that picture

Thats becuase it isn't an "island" in the sense most people think. I wish they wouldn't use that term. It isn't a big chunk of floating garbage you can go walk around on. It's a big eddy in the ocean currents that funnels garbage into it's center. It's more like Sargasso Weed, than land. You sail into it and at first you notice a little garbage here and there, and as you get closer it gets thicker until you pass out of that zone and it thins again.

[Deleted]

In the pacific ocean there is a stew of garbage collected by ocean currents from all around the world estimated twice the size of Texas. Made up of mostly plastic, a non biodegradable substance. Instead "Sunlight does eventually "photodegrade" the bonds in plastic polymers, reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces, but that just makes matters worse. The plastic still never goes away; it just becomes microscopic and may be eaten by tiny marine organisms, entering the food chain."
"This is bad for a couple of reasons. First, Bamford says, is plastic's "inherent toxicity": It often contains colorants and chemicals like bisphenol-A, which studies have linked to various environmental and health problems, and these toxins may leach out into the seawater. Plastic has also been shown to absorb pre-existing organic pollutants like PCBs from the surrounding seawater, which can enter the food chain — along with BPA and other inherent toxins"


Now i have never been a huge environmentalist, but after learning about this, I'm sad to know that this is going on and there's not much we can do to stop it. But maybe the answer is not what we can do but what we should not do, and thats continue to litter in the oceans. Eventually the waters will entangle a lot of the trash and spit it out, but it can't do that if more trash is going in then out.
I always try to recycle properly and i hope more people do to, for its a simple thing to do, and a simple thing not to litter.
What do u think of this? Do you think there is anything we can do?

The developing countries shame baby: Trash.

In good news though, biodegradeable plastics excist. There's solutions to most things. When it comes to trash, it's just a matter of people being arsed.