[env-trinity] Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean

[Josh Allen]

Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific
Ocean


Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/1
0/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&type=politics 

Friday, October 19, 2007

At the start of the Academy Award-winning movie "American Beauty," a
character videotapes a plastic grocery bag as it drifts into the air, an
event he casts as a symbol of life's unpredictable currents, and
declares the romantic moment as a "most beautiful thing."

To the eyes of an oceanographer, the image is pure catastrophe. 

In reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm
drain to the ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific
Garbage Patch - a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice
the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.

The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and
weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few
people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.


Marcus Eriksen, director of research and education at the Algalita
Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, said his group has been
monitoring the Garbage Patch for 10 years. 

"With the winds blowing in and the currents in the gyre going circular,
it's the perfect environment for trapping," Eriksen said. "There's
nothing we can do about it now, except do no more harm."

The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold
every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program
manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco.

Ocean current patterns may keep the flotsam stashed in a part of the
world few will ever see, but the majority of its content is generated
onshore, according to a report from Greenpeace last year titled "Plastic
Debris in the World's Oceans." 

The report found that 80 percent of the oceans' litter originated on
land. While ships drop the occasional load of shoes or hockey gloves
into the waters (sometimes on purpose and illegally), the vast majority
of sea garbage begins its journey as onshore trash.

That's what makes a potentially toxic swamp like the Garbage Patch
entirely preventable, Parry said.

"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. ... The
long-term solution is to stop producing as much plastic products at home
and change our consumption habits."

Parry said using canvas bags to cart groceries instead of using plastic
bags is a good first step; buying foods that aren't wrapped in plastics
is another. 

After the San Francisco Board of Supervisors banned the use of plastic
grocery bags earlier this year with the problem of ocean debris in mind,
a slew of state bills were written to limit bag production, said Sarah
Christie, a legislative director with the California Coastal Commission.


But many of the bills failed after meeting strong opposition from
plastics industry lobbyists, she said.

Meanwhile, the stew in the ocean continues to grow. 

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is particularly dangerous for birds and
marine life, said Warner Chabot, vice president of the Ocean
Conservancy, an environmental group. 

Sea turtles mistake clear plastic bags for jellyfish. Birds swoop down
and swallow indigestible shards of plastic. The petroleum-based plastics
take decades to break down, and as long as they float on the ocean's
surface, they can appear as feeding grounds.

"These animals die because the plastic eventually fills their stomachs,"
Chabot said. "It doesn't pass, and they literally starve to death."

The Greenpeace report found that at least 267 marine species had
suffered from some kind of ingestion or entanglement with marine debris.


Chabot said if environmentalists wanted to remove the ocean dump site,
it would take a massive international effort that would cost billions. 

But that is unlikely, he added, because no one country is likely to step
forward and claim the issue as its own responsibility.

Instead, cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is left to the
landlubbers.

"What we can do is ban plastic fast food packaging," Chabot said, "or
require the substitution of biodegradable materials, increase recycling
programs and improve enforcement of litter laws.

"Otherwise, this ever-growing floating continent of trash will be with
us for the foreseeable future."


How to help 


You can help to limit the ever-growing patch of garbage floating in the
Pacific Ocean. Here are some ways to help:

Limit your use of plastics when possible. Plastic doesn't easily degrade
and can kill sea life.

Use a reusable bag when shopping. Throwaway bags can easily blow into
the ocean.

Take your trash with you when you leave the beach.

Make sure your trash bins are securely closed. Keep all trash in closed
bags.

Trash is also a problem in parts of San Francisco Bay. For an
interactive map showing some of the worst locations, go to
www.savesfbay.org/baytrash.

- Justin Berton jberton at sfchronicle.com 

This article appeared on page W - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

 

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