But no one ever gets the truth from plastic man
About midway through Yann Martell’s Man Booker Prize winning novel “The Life of Pi”, the protagonist finds himself washed up on an island populated solely by meerkats. After a time on the island he begins to suspect that all is not as it seems - the meerkats take to the trees every night and one day Pi takes a bite of a fruit growing from one of the island’s trees and finds human teeth inside. It begins to dawn on him that the island is carnivorous, each night digesting anything that has the misfortune to remain on the ground.
For some reason, Pi’s carnivorous island was the first thing that popped into my head when I heard a news story on the NewsHours with Jim Lehrer podcast recently about what was described as our rapidly growing eight continent. There are no meerkats and it is not strictly carnivorous and it’s not really an island, but the Great Pacific Garbage Dump is as disturbing and potentially dangerous as Martell’s fantasy island.
My initial reaction to the NewsHour report is that it was a typical case of what tends to be a melodramatic and lacking in understanding response of the mainstream news media to a juicy science story. Surely there isn’t a continent of garbage out in the Pacific Ocean. The good news is that the media has overreacted, “continent” is not the right word. The Great Pacific Garbage Dump is not visible from the air (because most of it lies slightly below the surface of the water) nor does it have a particular nautical position (due to the shifting wind directions and currents). The bad news is that there are two massive accumulations of plastic waste swirling around in the doldrums of the northern Pacific Ocean. Charles Moore, the founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the man who had the misfortune of discovering the dump, estimates that the plastic garbage in the Pacific covers approximately five million square miles (about 1.5 times the land mass of the United States) and contains over 3.5 million tons of largely consumer waste.
By most accounts the trash finds its way to its home in the North Pacific through a long and circuitous route. Trash is dumped into rivers, in both North and South America and Asia, that empty into the Pacific. Ocean currents carry the trash, picking up more debris as it travels, around the Pacific before depositing it in the doldrums of the North Pacific Gyre. 80% of the trash in the ocean originates on land and a majority of that is from consumer products. Thus, it is a hard truth that we - you and I - are the problem. Here is how it works: say that you inadvertantly drop some innocuous bit of plastic - a clear plastic wrapper from a box of candy. The next time it rains, that wrapper gets washed into a storm drain which will flow into your nearest watershed and ultimately into the ocean. That little wrapper floats its way around 
the Pacific currents until it comes to rest in the Gyre where it will join the rest of the trash. This plastic waste will be around longer than you and I, longer than our children, longer than our grandchildren, longer than our great-grandchildren. Nobody really knows how long it takes for plastic to biodegrade because it basically doesn’t. Conservative estimates are around 450 - 500 years. We are creating a problem that will outlive us by centuries.
It isn’t just an aesthetic problem. In short, it’s devastating to marine ecosystems. Forty percent of albatross chicks are killed each year by consuming plastic accidentally fed to them by their parents. More than a million birds and marine animals die each year from consuming or becoming caught in plastic and other debris. But there is a less obvious and more frightening consequence to our trashing of the oceans. Moore’s group does a lot of research into the ecological effects of plastic debris on marine ecosystems. Recently they have been looking at plastic particulate levels in and around the Garbage Patch. The small bits of plastic that are a byproduct of the slow degradation of the plastic debris have been found to accumulate a lot of nasty chemicals - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated and legacy pesticides and hormonally active additives. This latter class are particularly nasty beasties, some of which have been implicated in an increased risk of breast cancer. Moore and his colleagues found that the ratio of plastic particles to plankton in the Gyre was between 1.4:1 and 6.9:1. In other words, there is more plastic particulate matter in this part of the ocean than there is plankton. You don’t have to be a biologist or have an in depth knowledge of food chains to recognize what this means: small fish eat plankton (or plastic particles), big fish eat small fish, humans eat big fish. We are eating our own toxic garbage.
I don’t wish to sound melodramatic or preachy but this is a problem that is getting worse on a daily basis and one that we cannot repair. We can, however, do something to slow the accumulation of rubbish in the oceans. 80% of the trash out there comes from us directly, so it is up to us to do something to make it better.
Here are ten things we can do about it:
- Don’t use so much plastic. Make a concerted effort to reduce the amount of plastic that you purchase. It’s not easy. I’ve been making a concerted effort since I heard this story and it’s absolutely stunning how much excess plastic you get when you purchase anything. Note how much plastic crap you come home with on your next trip to the supermarket. Preferentially purchase items packaged in glass or paper. Virtually any material is better than plastic.
- I’m a beach bum. Roughly 10% of the crap out in the Pacific comes from trash left on beaches. So, don’t leave trash on beaches and maybe pick some of it up when you’re out there. Boy Z, Timmins and I are headed out to the beach shortly and I’m bringing a bag with me to pick up.
- Recycle. Plastic recycling is very low efficiency - only about 3.5% of plastic is recycled in any way. This is due in part to contamination of plastics with non-plastics, food waste and non-recyclable plastics. Clean up your plastic before recycling and make sure that you only include recyclable plastics. If your community does not recycle plastic then demand that they do.
- Along the same lines, buy recycled products or products containing recycled materials.
- This is kind of a no-brainer. But do not litter. Most of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is thought to be a result of litter working its way into the river system.
- Consider volunteering or donating to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation or other environmental organizations.
- Think about the watershed when cleaning up around your hose. Sweep your sidewalks rather than hosing them. Wash your car on the grass so that the water sinks into the ground rather than storm drains.
- When you go shopping do not take a plastic bag. Use a cloth or other reusable bag.
- Buy in bulk. Most of the plastic that you bring home with you from the shop is packaging, the higher the product to packaging ratio, the less trash generated.
- For god’s sake, don’t use so much plastic.
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Image credits:
I was leaning towards Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” for this post, as it seemed appropriately gloomy. But, The Kinks have been in my head lately, possibly because they are apparently reuniting.
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24 Nov 2008 at 9:45 pm
“…hormonally active additives.”
I have heard that exposure to plastics in the environment is thought to be responsible, in part, for our declining sperm counts. What say Ye, and Dr. O’C?
24 Nov 2008 at 9:59 pm
Love.This.Post. Hellbilly & I are on board with about 75% of this. You have inspired more. Thanks!
25 Nov 2008 at 12:28 am
Good post. When I go to the Pacific Northwest beaches I am stunned at the amount of trash on them.
I’ve started bringing reusable bags to the grocery store. Old habits die hard and I keep forgetting to bring them in from the car.
I’m sure none of us is doing enough.
25 Nov 2008 at 12:36 am
My first thought when hearing about this island was “Lost”…anyway, it would sure be nice to have more biodegradable plastics available (like ones made from corn
). On a side note, I get really fed up with our local recycling. They won’t take brown glass in the curb-side bins since we have a stupid 5-cent deposit on bottles. All it becomes is a money-making scam by the government, since they get to keep that money when folks just dump those brown bottles in the trash instead of returning them.
Sorry for the rant.
25 Nov 2008 at 12:42 am
I never realized how hard it is to reduce use of plastics. It’s everywhere. I find myself aware of how much I’m using all the time. I do my best to cut it down though.
25 Nov 2008 at 1:10 am
Love Life of Pi. And this post feeds off it well. Living in the midwest, this seems so far removed from life here. But a global sickening effects us all, so thanks for this.
25 Nov 2008 at 2:19 am
I try my best to use as little plastic as possible, but it’s so difficult. So many things come packaged in plastic these days, and there’s rarely another option. It’s unbelievable how much waste we generate.
Life of Pi is a really interesting book, but I still can’t tell you whether I liked it or not. It’s different; I’ll give it that.
25 Nov 2008 at 2:35 am
damnation. glad you shared, as many of us didn’t realize such.
i’m glad we recycle plastic every wednesday. i’m also glad we don’t use sex toys (or discard them when finished).
25 Nov 2008 at 2:56 am
This is horrifying. More pressure needs to be put on manufacturers. I seem to remember hearing that somewhere in Germany you get taxed on your garbage and so there are facilities for people to take everything out of the packaging at the supermarket before they go home. Does anyone know if this is true? And if so, how is it helping the recycling/garbage issue? (Too busy writing reports to look it up myself…..)
25 Nov 2008 at 5:58 am
Great, informative, thought provoking post! It is great to see you doing your bit to help education your readers on the issue. If everyone does their part, we can make a difference long term.
Fake Plastic Trees… classic. Love it.
25 Nov 2008 at 7:47 am
Holy fucking shit. I had never heard of this until today. How absolutely horrid. The only bright side I can see to something like this is that if someone gets up the cojones to mine this garbage dump Get a giant ship, use nets and fish the plastic out, bring it ashore and sell the plastic back to the recycling companies. Kind of like collecting aluminum cans on the side of the road but on a completely different scale. It would benefit the earth and at least make tiny dent in all that crap.
25 Nov 2008 at 7:51 am
That is a lot of plastic. Maybe some day we will have skimming boats to mine these trash pits.
And the Bulldogs are going down Saturday.
25 Nov 2008 at 10:31 am
Ian Keirnan of clean up australia organisation had the suggestion of a fleet of boats picking it all up and taking it back to recycle to earn some money. Instead of fishing for fish, fish for plastics instead.
25 Nov 2008 at 12:22 pm
Wow, this was a great post. I am sending it to do gooder environmental consultant husband. I swear we do our best here, but now I feel like I need to be more of an activist.
25 Nov 2008 at 1:53 pm
When I first went to Latin America I was shocked by how small the household garbage cans were (and this was in middle-class homes) - just so much less garbage as most food was bought in markets fresh and unpackaged. Unfortunately, that is so hard to do in the U.S. food economy. (At least where I live I know our run-off does not make it to the Ocean!)
25 Nov 2008 at 2:35 pm
Yo, I knew there was a lot of crap in the sea but not that much. Mental. And I hate using plastic bags. We use canvas or none at all here me and MrC. Was at a friends house at the weekend and she was all about no point recycling plastic bags only take up a little bit of room. WTF?? Isn’t any room too much? And it’s the waste of it all, the consumerist, use now pay later way of thinking that does my nut in. She also came out with the fact we’re not really going to run out of oil as the government has a secret stash. That they’re just scaring us and used it basically as an excuse to use as much power as we like. And they think i’m mental? Dont get me started on MrC’s friend who thinks global warming is something politicans made up. Whatever. Anyhow, waste not, want not, recycle and re-use and dont fuck up the planet. Morons. Not you, of course, or your lovely readers…
25 Nov 2008 at 6:11 pm
Headbang - There are a lot of environmental (and genetic) factors contributing to reduced sperm counts. This could be one of them, but to my knowledge, nobody has done the relevant experiments.
Mongola - Well done.
Sarala - I always forget the reusable bags. Always!
Nathan - Biodegradable plastic (as you know) is a great option. But it’s too expensive right now or it’s perceived as too expensive anyway.
Andrew - It’s shocking isn’t it?
Tysdaddy - You’re not as isolated as you think. Where do your watersheds ultimately empty out? The Gulf? The Great Lakes? There are similar problems in most major bodies of water. Have you heard about The Dead Zone at the Mississippi Delta?
Courtney - Yeah, why do plastic toys have to be wrapped in plastic and placed in a plastic box wrapped in cellophane (plastic)?
Muskrat - I bet that if you contacted your local officials, they could arrange for recycling your sex toys. That would be a fun phone call. “Pardon me, I’d like some information about recycling my dildo.”
Erin - That whole album is fantastic.
Ariza - I think taxing garbage is a great idea. People might think about what they are throwing away.
NATUI/Barbara - That’s a good idea, but the problem is that plastic recycling is not very efficient or cost effective. It’s certainly not profitable, which prevents anyone with the capacity for doing so from going out and cleaning up.
Yellojkt - No chance. (On Saturday, I mean).
Heather - It’s hard to do everything right, It’s changing old habits.
Jamie - Where does your watershed go? Great Salt Lake?
SSG - You’ve got some interesting friends! Do I know that one?
26 Nov 2008 at 6:54 am
Yeah - it all flows into the Salt Lake and nothing flows out: called the Great Basin of the West.
26 Nov 2008 at 2:02 pm
My ex bought me the limited edition, hardback, illustrated version of this book as an apology gift after a silly argument. Made me wish we argued more often - best present I’ve ever received. What a story.
01 Dec 2008 at 7:07 am
Wife and I are avid recyclers. We bring cloth bags with us to the grocery store, and tend to be very careful about waste.
I think it’s great that you made a post about this. I saw pictures of the plastic continent a few months back, and I was absolutely convinced they were fake. I wish I had been right.
People need to remember that, most times, they don’t need a bag for their purchases. We bought a couple coloring books and a box of crayons a few days ago. The cashier tried putting them in a bag. We told her we didn’t need one. After we paid, she said, “I’m just going to put these in the bag.” WTF?! These people turn into robots, and can’t accept that a bag isn’t necessary. I brought the stuff to the register without a bag… I don’t need a bag to get them to my car.
02 Dec 2008 at 11:50 pm
I just researched this myself for work. It’s insane and horrifying and just plain weird
But mostly sad. Very, very sad.
If you like nonfiction, there are three books I read in the past year or so that I REALLY learned a lot from, in the vein of this post: Elizabeth Royte’s “Garbage Land” and “Bottlemania” and “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman.
04 Dec 2008 at 2:16 pm