Great Pacific Garbage Patch

[Ironcat]

Every piece of plastic ever made, with the exception of the tiny amount that's been incinerated, STILL EXISTS!

An enormous island of trash twice the size of Texas is floating in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii.
Chris Parry with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco said the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, has been growing a brisk rate since the 1950s, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

The trash stew is 80 percent plastic and weighs more than 3.5 million tons.

"At this point, cleaning it up isn't an option," Parry said. "It's just going to get bigger as our reliance on plastics continues."

Parry said using canvas bags to cart groceries instead of using plastic bags is a good first step to reducing reliance on plastics, the newspaper said.

LINK (http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm)

[Omega]

Why am I not really surprised that California would have the wonderful idea of dumping trash into international waters?

They should go get the plastic and melt it down and reuse it. =/

[rendermandan]

I think they should develope a way to recycle the plastic into roads, building structures or some type of energy producing fuel. -Don't ask me how, If I knew, I'd be super rich! :)

[Greco101]

Hell, I'd collect it...

Then retire after cashing in 3.5 million tons of plastic.

[jdbnsn]

Don't worry, once the petrolium reserve runs dry there will be no more plastic and I'm sure what's left will burn during world war III. ;)

[Ironcat]

Okay, let's see...


Why am I not really surprised that California would have the wonderful idea of dumping trash into international waters?
This isn't California dumping their crap, this is a natural phenomena of all the plastic the world disposes of and litters, gradually being pushed along by ocean currents until it all comes together in this area... and there are actually 2 areas that make up the garbage patch, The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas [source: LA Times]. The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii.


Don't worry, once the petrolium reserve runs dry there will be no more plastic and I'm sure what's left will burn during world war III
The petroleum reserves are actually incredibly vast, the problem is, that for many reasons, some that make sense and some that don't... people don't (or won't ) go after them...

Example : Canada : By conservative estimates, the underground deposits around Fort McMurray, Alberta hold 1.6 trillion — with a "t" — barrels of oil, making them the largest lode of hydrocarbons on Earth. Up to 330 billion barrels of the crude here in Canada's oil sands region are recoverable, geologists say. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, possesses 262 billion barrels of proven reserves.

The U.S. Geologic Survey says that oil production will continue to INCREASE for at least 3 more decades. I am not saying it is infinite by any means, but there's plenty of oil left to use until we figure out how to use something else.

[jdbnsn]

I wasn't aware that Canada had that much, but one of the problems is the steady rise in oil consumption especially in China plus our own consumption which I believe is the highest worldwide. There are also new products and uses constantly being developed and oil is so versitile so it will run out, but the idea is we should be working harder to see that when it does there is a backup infrastruction actively running so that countries don't end up poised over the last barrel. The furure is by all means difficult to predict, but an exhausted supply of fresh water, food, and oil has a very high risk of triggering global conflict, dangerously high. And all three are occuing, even if there is oil in Canada like you said, it will be eventually a problem.

[Zephik]

Question: This GPGP, is it a bunch of floating debris or is it an actual mass, like an island? Why don't we make something out of it? Like an actual island? There has been a few people that have taken plastics and other floating debris and turned them into man made islands. Can't we do that? ...with enough effort? ...as massive of an effort that would be? Twice the size of texas is huge! Piled together it would still be fairly large, right? Maybe thats not possible though, the ocean is freaking huge and I can't imagine that the most of it is just floating in one concentrated spot or even floating where we can grab it with a net or something. Hmmm. I guess we'll just have to wait for another hundred years or so, then we'll have a whole new continent to live on! lol

[Quakken]

Melting down would take large amounts of energy, which we don't really even have in the first place. I say that we put into our buttsechsin' machines.