Where Does Much of Our Garbage Go? In the Sea!

Floating Rubbish Creates Problems for Wildlife and Humanity

Mar 6, 2009

What happens to plastic that is thrown into the sea? Some of it will sink, but some may be ingested by the food chain and may end up on your plate. Read more here:

Rubbish has been a constant headache for mankind. As the population of the world grows the problem of how to dispose of the garbage grows too. Traditionally, incineration or land-fill sites have been used for waste disposal, but as the options are used up and the quantity of rubbish grows, and increasing amounts of waste are being dumped in rivers and in the oceans.

Philippines Floating Rubbish Dump Photographs

Recent photographs taken of The Citarim River in Jakarta, in the Philippines illustrate the size of the problem. The Citarim River is turning into one of the biggest floating rubbish dumps on the planet, but it is by no means the only problem area.

In February 2009 reports circulating in the press started to describe a similar but vaster area of plastic debris and other flotsam drifting in the northern Pacific Ocean, held there by swirling ocean currents (also known as gyres). Originally discovered in 1997 by American sailor Charles Moore, what is also called the "great Pacific garbage patch" is now alarming ecologists with its ever-growing size and possible impact on human health.

Non-Degradable Rubbish Creates a Lasting Problem

Another factor that has exacerbated the problem is that much of the rubbish being dumped is derived from plastics which are not bio-degradable. Plastics are used in packaging, bottles, toothbrushes, disposable lighters, netting and a thousand and one other items. The big problem is that, unlike organic rubbish, plastics will be around for a long time.

Toxins Getting Into the Food Chain

According to Charles Moore, marine biologist and author of "Trashed", an article published in Natural History v.112, n.9, Nov 2003, some plastics have the ability to absorb and concentrate poisonous chemicals such as DDT and PCBs - so that they are possibly a million times stronger than the amounts floating in the water.

Invertebrate animals such as jellyfish have the ability to ingest such plastic material. Charles Moore goes on to say "after the jellies and salps living in the ocean...... ingest the toxins, they are eaten in turn by fish, and so the poisons pass into the food web that leads, in some cases, to human beings."

Moore, who studies the effects of marine garbage on our oceans, believes that floating garbage is creating a real threat to the world's ecology and the environment.

Midway Atoll Albatross Fatalities

In the meantime, marine floating garbage is posing a real threat to wildlife. For example, much publicity has already been made about the plight of the Albatross communities that live on the Midway Atoll.

Midway, situated halfway between North America and Japan, has no industrial centers, no fast-food joints with overflowing trash cans, and only a few dozen people actually live there and yet they are suffering from the debris of the consumer society that has been dumped at sea.

Moore goes on to comment that the subtropical gyres of the world are part of the deep ocean realm, whose ability to absorb, hide, and recycle refuse has long been seen as limitless. He goes on to warn that this belief was born in an time prior to the development petroleum-based plastic polymers.

References

The copyright of the article Where Does Much of Our Garbage Go? In the Sea! in Pollution Control is owned by Christine Fadhley. Permission to republish Where Does Much of Our Garbage Go? In the Sea! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.