The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: what YOU can do to help

What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the Pacific ocean. Here, currents have pulled together the plastics and wastes that are sitting in the ocean into two distinct patches. The majority of the patches is made up of plastics. You may be thinking, why don't we just use big nets and scoop all of this trash up and dispose of it properly? Like many of the environmental, political and humanitarian problems we face, it is much more complicated than that. Plastic is a material that never decomposes, meaning it will never be absorbed into the materials around it, it just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic until it is hard to distinguish the particles. These particles and pieces are called Micro-plastics. The plastic will sit along the surface or a few inches below giving the water a murky look, this in turn makes it almost imposible to determine the total area of these garbage patches. In addition to the micro-plastics there are also larger pieces of trash like toys, bottles, Styrofoam and much more. To read more about the Garbage Patch look at this slide show from Nat Geo or listen to this podcast from NOAA. Also take a look at this graphic that outlines the problem.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Diagram

American and Chinese Contributions

The average American produces about 4.4 pounds of trash each day, that means that a single American produces 1,606 pounds of trash per year. If there is about 323.95 million people in the united states, that means that Americans produce 520, 263, 700, 000 pounds of trash every year. Where is all this trash kept you may ask. The simple answer is the landfill, but in addition to the landfill 750,000 pounds ends up in the ocean every year. Though America is a large contributor to the Pacific Garbage Patch, it is only ranked number 20 on a list of 80 countries that contribute trash to the ocean. Not surprisingly, number one on that list is China with a startling 2.4 million Tons of garbage. Though China is the largest contributor, many other Asian countries produce large amounts of trash that is mainly transported by rivers into the ocean, these countries include Vietnam, indonesia and many more. If you would like to read more about china's impact read this article.

River in Asia

Why does this matter?

This matters because it is affecting marine life everywhere. It starts by preventing Algae and plankton from getting enough sunlight to produce the nutrients that the ocean needs. This affects the health of all the animals in the ocean. In addition to a lack of nutrients the plastics can choke and poison many sea animals that don't realize that the objects are not food. One of the greatest examples of this is plastic bags, these look like the jellyfish that many turtles eat. Not only do the garbage patches affect the wellbeing of the ocean, it also affects our ability to live a healthy life. A main source of omega 3 oils, which help improve brain function and the overall health of our body comes from eating fish or taking fish oil. What many people don't realize is that when you consume a fish you are also consuming the plastics and toxic wastes that effected the fish while it was alive. If you would like to read more about this situation visit this site, or go to this article from NPR.

Plastic bags Vs. Jellyfish

How You Can Help

The biggest way to help is to limit your personal waste. You can do this by reusing your plastic bags and objects. When you go shopping, bring your bags from home and invest in some reusable canvas or recycled plastic bags. Recycling is an easy way to help keep more trash out of landfills, if your state or country doesn't have recycling, start petitioning your representatives. While you're at it, also try to petition for Compost services. In addition, there are many office products, toys and everyday items that are made from recycled plastics. Use and buy these instead to help prevent the creation of more waste.

Most aquariums will host a beach clean up day, if you have the time go and help your community pick up trash. If you don't have the time, next time you are on the beach pick up every piece that you can! I recently did this and ended up with almost 30 pounds of trash! this was saddening to see, but I felt like I had made a small difference. Every piece that you pick up is preventing a marine animal from potentially consuming it and becoming ill. A healthy ocean means that we have a healthier planet, which in turn, improves our own overall health.

Me with the Trash I collected