Pacific Ocean Pollution AKA The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

When I see photos like the one at the top of the guardian article you posted, tempo, I wonder how on earth we let this happen. How does so much crap end up in the oceans and on our shores? It's hard to fathom.

Smellyman said:

It's why I have gone off plastic or greatly reduce anyway. Like anything it's tough to cut completely. For grocery shopping it's pretty easy. I buy nothing in plastic or use plastic bags on checkout.

Fruit and veggies wrapped in plastic? c'mon. Milk, egg cartons, condiments etc. There is a lot of simple things you can do to cut out plastic.

Problem is most people don't give a shit and I am weirdo to a lot of people who just give me condescending looks. Oh well, I will do my part for you self entitled consumer pricks and your stupid narcissistic kids and entire generation of narcissits you are helping raise.

Go Smellyman! I can't believe people give you shit for doing the right thing.

Eggs we have got down by using the same cartons to buy eggs either from friends who have hens or the Farmer's Market. We have a store that dispenses soap and shampoo into your own refillable but not all towns have this (yet, I hope). I never get a bag unless it's used (even then, rarely), and always take my own reusable ones. Milk is tough for me as I don't use the stuff but do use almond milk. I water it down to make it stretch but eventually I do have to toss the damn container. What should I do about that?

My biggest sin that way is the car. Shit load of plastic. We ride share, group our errand running together, have no drive days as often as possible, maintain the vehicle so that it will last at the very least 300,000 miles (482,803 km) and have a short commute but still, major environmental sin! I would be lying if I said otherwise.

tempo_n_groove said:

Caring about your environment, community, oceans, Forrest's and well being of others shouldn't be a "hippie" thing.

A little bit goes a long way.

Absolutely. If anything it should be more a hardcore punk thing.

my2hands said:

I've Googled it several different ways and still can't see a picture of it? There are pictures of trash in water, but no photos of the actual patch, which apparently there are 2 of... Nothing from a plane, nothing from space, nothing from a boat cutting through it?

It seems you are misunderstanding the nature and composition of the "Great Garbage Patch".
Not your fault, the name is misleading and many sources about it are as well. It isn't an island, or a tangled floating mass of garbage like the descriptions paint it to be. The photos you saw are the reality. Ocean currents push all the trash into zones known as gyres, where the water circulates around and traps the plastic floating everywhere. If you see photos of jars of sample water with bits of plastic floating in it, that is what the density is in reality. Given the vastness of the oceans, it is a much higher density than it looks to the laymen, and ecologically it is a much bigger deal than it appears to be in comparison with the floating dump that most picture.

TL170678 said:

brianlux said:

Smellyman said:

It's why I have gone off plastic or greatly reduce anyway. Like anything it's tough to cut completely. For grocery shopping it's pretty easy. I buy nothing in plastic or use plastic bags on checkout.

Fruit and veggies wrapped in plastic? c'mon. Milk, egg cartons, condiments etc. There is a lot of simple things you can do to cut out plastic.

Problem is most people don't give a shit and I am weirdo to a lot of people who just give me condescending looks. Oh well, I will do my part for you self entitled consumer pricks and your stupid narcissistic kids and entire generation of narcissits you are helping raise.

Go Smellyman! I can't believe people give you shit for doing the right thing.

Eggs we have got down by using the same cartons to buy eggs either from friends who have hens or the Farmer's Market. We have a store that dispenses soap and shampoo into your own refillable but not all towns have this (yet, I hope). I never get a bag unless it's used (even then, rarely), and always take my own reusable ones. Milk is tough for me as I don't use the stuff but do use almond milk. I water it down to make it stretch but eventually I do have to toss the damn container. What should I do about that?

My biggest sin that way is the car. Shit load of plastic. We ride share, group our errand running together, have no drive days as often as possible, maintain the vehicle so that it will last at the very least 300,000 miles (482,803 km) and have a short commute but still, major environmental sin! I would be lying if I said otherwise.

My parents have a couple of acres where they live and rather paying $100.00 per month for garbage pick up they just take all plastics (aka milk jugs), paper, and cans to the recycling center every month (it`s free) and burn every thing else in a burn barrel. I believe if more people did that it would cut down on a ton of waste.

What can't be recycled or put in compost that they burn?

We recycle everything we can but keep finding ways to purchase using reusable containers which reduces the need even for recycling which used energy. What we don't recycle or compost each week is about one half to one square foot of trash and even that seems too much. If everybody did that we would still have between 3 and 7 billion square feet of trash in the world every week. And yet I see neighbors up and down the street who put out a full trash can of trash every week.

"What can't be recycled or put in compost that they burn? "

Not sure man what exactly they do. I just know they kept on recycling to save money on garbage pick up after our area stopped sending recycling trucks around. City used to give us orange bins and sent a recycling truck, like a garbage truck, but I guess budget cuts along with a lot of people mad that they had the choice to recycle because they thought they were required to, ended that.