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Comments (4)The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Published: July 10, 2008by Kira Yannetta
Ximena Waissbluth from the Surfrider Foundation teaches Truckee High School Students to “Rise above Plastics.”
photo by Kira Yannetta
photo by Dino Ferri
photo by Gregg Segal
Click on images for slideshow
I struck up a conversation with plastics expert Ximena Waissbluth, from the Monterey Bay chapter of the Surfrider Foundation at a local café. She was fine-tuning a PowerPoint presentation she gives to teach people about the catastrophic effects of plastic debris on our oceans.
In the February issue of Moonshine Ink, we shared a tidbit describing a floating island of plastic trash known as, “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” I was appalled when I learned about it, so I eagerly questioned Ximena about solutions. “How can we clean it up?”
“We can’t,” she responded.” It’s impossible. It’s twice the size of Texas.” Then she showed me a total of six islands of floating, toxic waste in our oceans, formed when hot air descends in swirling winds, producing circular ocean currents which spiral infinitely. These dead zones are also known as gyres.
I joined a local freshman/sophomore Marine Biology class for Ximena’s presentation and call to action, “Rise Above Plastics.” The students shuffled in, vying for seats at the back of the class and casting dubious glances toward the petite stranger in front of the projection screen. She began by introducing the Surfrider Foundation, started 25 years ago in Malibu, California, by surfers who were getting sick from untreated sewage that flowed into the ocean. Since then the grassroots non-profit environmental organization has grown to more than 80 chapters worldwide that promote activities and campaigns for clean water, beach access, preservation, and restoration of special areas. Ximena found her life’s work when she participated in beach clean-ups and realized to what extent plastic pollutes our oceans and beaches and endangers marine life.
After becoming the chair of Surfrider’s Monterey Bay Chapter, she learned about Captain Charles Moore of the Alagalia Marine Research Foundation. In 1998 he sailed directly into the North Pacific Central Gyre where he found a seemingly limitless expanse of floating debris tangled in discarded fishing nets. Ninety percent of the debris was plastic, and 80 percent of it was land-based waste, coming from rivers and streams. It is no coincidence that the two largest garbage gyres are off China, the largest manufacturer of plastic goods, and the United States, the largest consumer of those products.
In an article in the Santa Barbara News-Press in October of 2002, Charles wrote, “My research has documented six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton in this area.” Salps – microorganisms that are considered the ocean’s best vacuum cleaners – are filled with tiny broken-down pieces of plastic. Small fish eat the salps. Big fish eat the small fish. And guess who is eating those fish?
In the same article, Captain Charles answers the question I had posed to Ximena.
“I am often asked why we can't vacuum up the particles. In fact, it would be more difficult than vacuuming up every square inch of the entire United States; it's larger, and the fragments are mixed below the surface down to at least 30 meters. Also, untold numbers of organisms would be destroyed in the process. Besides, there is no economic resource that would be directly benefited by this process. We haven't yet learned how to factor the health of the environment into our economic paradigm. We need to get to work on this calculus quickly, for a stock market crash will pale by comparison to an ecological crash on an oceanic scale.”
The trouble began post-World War II, when we began replacing natural materials with mass-produced, petroleum-based, inexpensive and lightweight synthetic products. A 1955 cover of Life magazine featured a housewife tossing single-use, disposable products into the air. The caption read “Throwaway Living,” glorifying the idea of disposability. The problem is that every piece of plastic still exists because it only photo-degrades: it is broken down by sunlight into smaller and smaller pieces, all of which are still plastic polymers, eventually becoming individual molecules of plastic which never go away. Ximena showed us horrifying photos of sea turtles that had mistaken plastic bags (one trillion of which are used annually) for jellyfish, and were unable to extract the suffocating meal from their throats. One photo showed a turtle that had gotten caught on a plastic ring when young, and had grown around the restraint, its shell cinched in the middle (That’s why we’re supposed to cut the plastic six-pack holders apart). We saw photos of the contents of dead birds’ stomachs: lighters, plastic action figures, pen caps, umbrella handles – you name it. They starved to death because they were full… of plastic.
Americans buy and drink 45 million bottles of water daily. Do you remember a time when people didn’t have to carry a bottle of water around at all times? Were people dropping dead of dehydration on the streets? Here are a few reasons Ximena mentioned to swear off using the 45 million bottles of water consumed by Americans each day:
• The water you purchase is not held to the same quality standards as the free water from your tap. • Not all of the chemicals used to make the bottles are bound to the plastics. Heat releases them, into the water and into our systems.
• It takes five bottles of water to manufacture one bottle of water.
• Truckee/Tahoe is at the top of the watershed, and every piece of plastic will end up in the sea eventually.
While we may not be able to vacuum up the great gyres of debris, we can stop making them any larger. Ximena’s mantra is “One less piece.” Make it yours, too. Become aware of all of the plastic products you see on the ground: straws, to-go lids, juice bags, bottles, plastic bags, etc. Pick them up and throw them into the trash. Try to find alternatives to plastic, and by all means, stop using single-use plastic products. Use stainless steel water bottles and coffee cups. Make sure you bring tote bags when you go shopping. Bring your own containers to stores like New Moon Natural Foods, and buy bulk. Don’t accept Styrofoam to-go containers from restaurants; request aluminum foil instead.
Ximena encouraged the students to use their “young, smart minds to begin inventing things” to create a sustainable future.
Learn more at seaofconsequences.blogspot.com, and join Surfrider Foundation at surfrider.org.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
~ Gandhi
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