Transition Island Blog

Plastic rubbish in the Pacific Ocean is collecting at an alarming rate.

It now covers an area twice the size of the United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris is held together by rotating underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches across the northern Pacific, around Hawaii, but kept clear of coasts by the current vortex.

About one-fifth of the junk - which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags - is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.

Unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, this soup will double in size over the next decade. This is health hazard for animals and humans alike.

Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, said yesterday: “It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States.”

Rubbish ending up in ocean used to biodegrade. Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. So every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere.

According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.

Dr Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, said yesterday the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles - the raw materials for the plastic industry - are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain.

“What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It’s that simple,” said Dr Eriksen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Eco-News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.