The World's Largest Garbage Dump is Not on Land

WE’RE LIVING IN A PLASTIC-WRAPPED WORLD

We all do it.  Between using plastic bags, drinking from plastic water bottles, or ripping the plastic packaging from a new gadget, we all use plastic in our daily lives.  Plastic is literally all around us, and if we don’t find a way to contain it (or even better, find an alternative to it!), our lives could soon be taken over by this mass produced product.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2012, plastics accounted for over 12 percent of our country’s waste.  That’s 32 million tons of plastic garbage!  In that same year, only nine percent was recovered for recycling.  So where does the rest end up?  Some plastic ends up in landfills, but the ultimate final resting place has quickly become the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Remember that empty water bottle you unconsciously tossed at the trash can outside the mall?  Well you didn’t quite make a swish, and that bottle bounced off the rim, rolled down the parking lot, and fell into a storm drain.  From there, it found its way into a local stream, which led to a larger river, and eventually, the ocean.

This ever-growing ocean garbage dump is located in a high-pressure area between California and Japan.  Once a piece of trash makes it to this point, it gets sucked into an ocean gyre.  The circular motion formed by wind patterns and forces from the earth’s rotation pulls the debris into the center where it’s stable and calm.  It becomes trapped here, and as more garbage makes its way to the core of the gyre, an underground mountain of garbage begins to form.

The amount of trash in The Great Pacific Garbage Patch accumulates so quickly since most of its contents are not biodegradable.  The plastic simply breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, making it nearly impossible to remove.

WHAT IS IT DOING?

Exactly how big is it?  (Get ready.)  It’s almost twice the size of Texas!  As you can imagine, all of this trash leads to harmful impacts to the local marine life.  Birds get strangled in the plastic rings used to hold six packs of soda together.  Sea turtles consume plastic bags because they mistake them for jellyfish.  Algae and plankton are unable to absorb sunlight because the thick plastic barrier is blocking them.  And this is just the beginning…