What can we do to clean up the patch?
Cleaning up the Garbage Patch is not as simple as it sounds. It will require more than collecting the waste from the middle of the ocean. It is hard to see and difficult to retrieve as most of the waste is plastic nurdles. If this was successful there is still the issue of rubbish that is running down our waterways waiting to enter the patch? Reducing and preventing marine litter is a much larger waste management issue. If we wanted to successfully clean up the Garbage Patch, the first step would be to prevent the production of waste. Waste that is never produced can't be thrown away and therefore cannot become marine litter.
This infographic produced by the UNEP in 2009 shows the recycling rates of OECD countries between 1999 and 2006. As one of the closest countries to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the USA produces 730 tonnes of waste per capita, recycling less than a quarter of their total waste making them the 15th least OECD country to recycle waste. South Korean's recycle the most amount of waste. They produce 380 kg of waste and nearly 50% gets recycled. Overall, this infographic shows that the recycling rates of the OECD countries are very poor. Out of the 30 countries surveyed, 2/3 recycle less than 25% of the waste they produce. Improving recycling rates and reducing waste per capita is the first step in cleaning up the Garbage Patch. The second step is to collect waste that has already been generated. There are many ways of doing this including vacuuming the sea or having a "recycling plant on a ship, that could be out in the gyre and have smaller vessels feeding it plastic" said Principle Investigator Dr. Andrea Neal. (Neal, A, 2009) To properly take care of the collected waste, either reuse or recycle the rubbish or dispose of it safely. The third and final step to cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is education. Teaching students, boat drivers, fisherman and the general public about waste-wise thinking will improve the chances of keeping our oceans free of rubbish. Regular cleanup operations will also contribute to helping our oceans stay unpolluted. As well as cleaning up waste, the regular cleanups also make people feel as if they are part of the solution, not just the problem. |
The Recycling Rates of OECD Countries in 1999 - 2006 10 Things You Can Do for Trash Free Seas |
How we can help to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Source: http://www.psychiclemonade.com/images/infographic.jpg
Other ways we can help prevent waste are by:
- Being conscious of potential marine litter
- Managing waste on land
- Remembering that the land and sea are connected
- Stop buying plastic water bottles
- Being conscious of our ecological footprint
- Eliminating the use of plastic bags
- Prohibiting dumping at sea
- Disallowing untreated sewerage into the ocean
- Finding alternatives to plastic that are environmentally safe
- Making use of better recycling facilities
Recently Australian researches found that microscopic creatures could be helping reduce marine garbage on the surface, not by eating the plastics but by causing them to sink to the ocean floor. The small microbes are biodegrading the millions of tonnes of debris. The researches think that the idea of using microbes to cleanup the ocean surface may provide solutions for better waste disposal on land. Other researches believe that this will cause a larger problem. By causing the plastics to sink to the ocean floor rather than float on the surface is merely decreasing the amount of plastics we can see.
Some people believe that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be impossible to clean up. "Many experts, however, have deemed a cleanup impossible, saying it would cost billions of dollars and take thousands of years to complete, whilst also resulting in significant emissions and damage to wildlife." (Peake, L, 2014) Diana Parker from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Marine Debris Program also stated that "if you tried to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean it would take 67 ships one year to clean up that portion." (Parker, D 2014 in Plastic Soup News, 2014) The cleanup of the patch is also difficult because of the size and the high concentration of waste in the area and that no country will take full responsibility for it.