Garbage Patch "Twice the Size of Texas" Floating in Pacific

**Hootad Binky** · 20-02-2008, 06:55 AM

Giant garbage patch floating in Pacific

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.

Giant garbage patch floating in Pacific

This is a true story, about the product of life. The twisting winds and currents in various areas around the oceans create gigantic swirling pockets of debris that persist on long time scales. Normally this material breaks down, normally that is until humans began producing billions of tons of non-degradable plastics. Now, a seafaring individual traveling into the vast waters between Hawaii and California will encounter what amounts to a floating trash dump, twice the size of Texas. A twisting demon beast that is slowly infesting our beings and claiming our existence as its own.

It is known by many names:
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
North Pacific Gyre
Eastern Garbage Patch
Pacific Trash Vortex

Below are various resources gathered online:

Plastic: Trashing the Oceans Thomas Hayden THOMAS HAYDEN / U.S.News & World Report 4nov02

The Buffalo Readings Homepage - An Island of Garbage Twice the Size of Texas

**Boon Mee** · 20-02-2008, 07:02 AM

Between giant trash skips and the stock market about to go totally 'tits-up'...nothing but good news lately huh?

**Mr Earl** · 20-02-2008, 07:06 AM

Looks like the "Trash Vortex" will hit Caulifornia.

**smeden** · 20-02-2008, 08:10 AM

what can we learn recycle

**obsidian** · 20-02-2008, 08:28 AM

aussie II

**kingwilly** · 20-02-2008, 08:29 AM

I've read/heard about this before too, apparently it hadnt been found before, because it is sitting outside of common shipping lanes and because it lies beneath teh surface and is translucent it cannot be seen be satellite....

**kingwilly** · 20-02-2008, 08:30 AM

Originally Posted by Hootad Binky

A twisting demon beast that is slowly infesting our beings and claiming our existence as its own.

a little bit over the top, no??

**keda** · 20-02-2008, 08:48 AM

Crikey almost as big as the plankton swarms, and I always thought volume dumping at sea was controlled.

**mrsquirrel** · 20-02-2008, 09:48 AM

If it makes landfall then there will be lots of happy environmentalists cleaning it up.

All they need to do is give some of those old thai ladies some rowing boats and set them out collecting the plastics to recycle and sell.

Get Scampy's neighbours out there.

**Dalton** · 20-02-2008, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

Looks like the "Trash Vortex" will hit Caulifornia.

Looks like Arnold will be busy then....

**Texpat** · 20-02-2008, 09:15 PM

Twice the size of Texas and only weighs 3.5 million tons?

Sounds pretty thin.

**barbaro** · 20-02-2008, 09:40 PM

Holy cow. Great OP.

I'm not surprised. 6.1+ billion people on this planet be producin' lottsa gawbage.

**chitown** · 20-02-2008, 09:41 PM

This has to President Bush's fault

**Texpat** · 20-02-2008, 09:52 PM

I think you're on to something.

Ant told me it was either

All the US soldiers in Korea and Japan throwing their MRE wrappers into the sea

or

The slovenly (and stupid -- he added with a fantastic uproar and a chuck on the shoulder from EN) Americans are throwing their waste out of airplanes into the jetstream where a giant fan in California blows the plastic mass down into the Austrian Ocean.

**Norton** · 20-02-2008, 09:56 PM

Originally Posted by Hootad Binky

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.

Only option is to nuke it now before it takes over the world.

This is serious though. Can you imagine the amount of damage it is doing to sea life. As it expands into the coastal areas the damage will be much greater I would think. Lot more of those turtles being strangled by plastic beer thingies. Is there a proper name for those things that hold the beer cans together?

**English Noodles** · 20-02-2008, 10:16 PM

^They just call them rings, if you throw them away then you should cut them up before doing so.

**Hootad Binky** · 21-02-2008, 01:29 AM

I didn't believe it at first. The costs of cleanup would be astronomical, so it'll just get bigger, and bigger, and bigger... imagine all the damage

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