what is the issue and where is it?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also referred to as the Pacific Trash Vortex or North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is located in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, midway between Mexico and California. It was discovered by Captain Charles Moore in 1997 while sailing from Hawaii to California. Although the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the most well known, there are others of different shapes, sizes and compositions in the South Pacific, North and South Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Gyres are formed by the Earth’s oceanic and atmospheric forces. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is formed by four large clockwise rotating currents known as the North Pacific, Californian, North Equatorial and Kuroshio currents that spiral inwards, trapping floating debris and causing them to accumulate, forming a gyre. The waste found in our oceans comes from rubbish and street litter, domestic waste and packaging that finds its way to the ocean through rivers and drains. The most common material entering our oceans is plastic. “Depending on where they sample, oceanographers have found that between 60 and 95 percent of today’s marine debris is made of plastic” (Moore, C 2007, in NPR 2007) All of the plastic photodegrades into smaller micro-plastics known as nurdles. Because of the durability of modern plastics “Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere” (Andrady, T 2008, in Marks, K, 2008)
These non-degradable plastics are creating a major environmental issue that if not solved will continue to have a significant adverse impact on our society. |
The Location of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch The primary reason for the formation of the patch is due to four clockwise rotating currents that trap rubbish to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Source:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/North_Pacific_Subtropical_Convergence_Zone.jpg The formation of the Garbage Patch begins when waste from East Asian Nations and the USA finds its way into the ocean. Over the past 20 years, this waste has accumulated to become the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. |
Ultimately the problem of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the same as landfills - "how long does garbage take to degrade?" and "what problems are caused when it does degrade?" Source: http://www.activeseakayaking.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Marine-debris....jpg