the Great Pacific Waste Dump

[liveonearth]

The dump is more than one floating mass of mostly plastic garbage that some say is as large as the United States. I guess there are no shipping lanes that go through those parts of the ocean. I wonder if there's any connection between all the floating trash and the increase in ocean-bourne MRSA.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/16-6

Comments

[hausfrauatu.livejournal.com]

That is just horrible. Not the kind of world I want to hand off to my kids. I have gotten over blaming the older generations and realize that we need to fix this. Now.

I dunno. Can someone get big scoop/dredger things and make money recycling the stuff?

I think charging for shopping bags would be a good start. If I got whacked with a buck a bag charge every time I forgot, I'm sure I would remember more. Michigan has 10 cent returnables and you almost never see soda containers by the side of the road. It's like throwing money away. What you DO see is water bottles, juice bottles and energy drink bottles. I also remember going to "The Pop Shop" where you would return your bottles.

Waste really pisses me off. I think it is immoral.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I think the bottles are a bigger problem than the bags, because they are more durable, thicker plastic. The more we can shame everybody into not purchasing them, and into re-using them once they are in existence, the faster we'll begin to handle this.

Of course, on the bright side, as oil gets more scarce and expensive we will not be able to afford disposable plastics and the problem will solve itself. That will take a couple or few more generations, though.