The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan

The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan

www.independent.co .uk

A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.


The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It is hard to believe that such a pile has grown overnite. But yet it get bigger and bigger everyday, not my problem, what we can't see can't hurt us. This seems to be the thoughts of many. Many of you think otherwise, being highly educated individuals, we all know better recycle, reuse. But the question is how does so much garbage get out there. Is it garbage barges, just alot of current. I think the garbage should be tracked, for what is in tact and the countries responsible can start or attempt to clean it. But where do we begin. I guess the best place to start is stop with the waste going in, or all cleanup efforts will be for nothing. I really think we should get rid of alot of plastic goods. Plastic bags have an average life of usage for 5 minutes, then where do these billions of bags go. Plastic bottles, why not go back to glass, glass breaks back down to sand in which it came, durable, useful. any ideas?

www.independent.co .uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I recently flew to the Philippines, and on my way there I had a window seat on the JAL flight. Incredible amount of pure garbage floating in the Pacific. In a 13 hour flight, every single time I looked out, all I saw was trash dotting the ocean.
This is what waste management and all those scum criminals do with all the trash cash they get from USA and other countrys.They dump it right in the ocean, its so much easier than properly recycling or disposing of it correctly. Then all the executives go about there day without a care in the World as long as they get theres.
Truly is the end of days when the oceans are full of human plastics, and trash.It makes me want to just throw up!
All those 6 oz pepsi bottles they sell , all those rediculously small serving containers for foods. What is this world coming to?
But the TV is calling so.....I better not think.

Oh this thread should be on the main ATS Forum.

What tragedy.

I really believe that Nature, or Existence as a whole will be the only hope of our planets survival. There must a major cleansing forth coming.
In the past it has been so and we have not learned to over come the darkness and the illusion so there is no other way.
The unfortunate part is that the same ones responsible for this incredible disrespect and breech of harmony, will be the ones that will bunker down and emerge in a new world, a world no longer populated and in such great need.
Not to say that I do not have a strong sense of being a pessimistic optimist about humanity and our role in the future.

Originally posted by antar
Oh this thread should be on the main ATS Forum.

I agree, it really should be, hopefully a mod will move it so it gets the attention it deserves.

Why is recycling still an option ? It's beyond me how careless people can, and will continue, to be.
I am so glad my parents taught us how important recycling is, and how easy it is to do too. Doesn't take long before it becomes second nature.

People are just so lazy and are getting lazier. And those same people are no doubt the same ones bitching about global warming. What a joke.


Starred and flagged.


[edit on 7-2-2008 by ImJaded]

star and flag

I think that in the future; garbage dumps will be mined for "raw" materials.

As available resources become increasingly scarce, a new style of recycling will be forced upon us.

It's a brave new world, welcome to the monkey house!

I highly doubt all that trash got into the ocean from disposal companies just taking a barge out and dumping it. If they got caught there'd be Hell to pay. This is just crap people throw overboard and whatever gets picked up in the tides.

Recycling is not the answer. Recycling paper and plastic and in some cases steel is a net energy loss. It takes more energy to recycle these goods than it takes to produce new ones. That means more pollution. Not to mention the operating overhead of recycling programs. You think one garbage truck pukes out a lot of black diesel smoke? Try two.

After researching my city's recycling program, I have stopped recycling everything except for aluminum and newspaper. Cardboard I still personally deliver to the receiving center.

I don't know what the solution is besides continuing to bury waste in landfills. It's not like we're running out of land. Waste vaporization systems seem promising. I've personally always been a fan of launching everything into the sun.

If it was only as simple as blame, but where would we start, just look at the ammount and ask yourselves where did this come from? How could we clean it up if we had to? But before we could even begin to clean up, figure out where it comes from. Maybe we have slowed it down, but many governments and companies do treat the ocean as a garbage dump. Out of sight, out of mind. But the unfortunate factor in this is that it is adding up very quickly, and there is no hope of the pastic breaking down. Check out the video on trash, to give a better visual of what we face.
Life Afeter People (Trash) Video
and another great article on dirty seas these are some great visuals and articles on the fact. We say there should be an uproar, or maybe its just not published enough. For most of us we would never venture out there, so what does it matter. Only when our lovly beaches get covered do we care. Aventually it will streth to the shores, as a wasteful society, we need to find alternatives, maybe make plastics so that they will break down with time, or just plain out ban plastics like in bags, bottles and other disposible items and come up with alternative ideas. Like global warming it is another issue. Even if one does not believe in global warming. The time is now to change how we use and create things, with 6.5 billion of us and the possibility of 9 billion in the next 20 years, resources, land and food will run out. Only the wealthy of us will be able to have the comforts we have today. Renewable resources are the way to go. This goes for the plastics and other materials we use, and dump and plain out forget about. The next guy will get it. So next time you trash that soda bottle into a lake or ocean, it may not be tommorrow, or next week, but it will break into small peices and maybe kill a poor creature thinking its plankton, or just wash back up on a beach, where it will sit for a million years till it does go back to dust.

Originally posted by ImJaded

Originally posted by antar
Oh this thread should be on the main ATS Forum.

I agree, it really should be, hopefully a mod will move it so it gets the attention it deserves. ..

We do allow 1 duplicate thread topic, as long as one of them is in a News Forum.

If you want to bring this story into the spotlight, or focus in on a particular angle,
might I suggest the Fragile Earth Forum

Just sayin'...

Forgive me i always forget about the below top secret part, but as anything many consider global warming a topic as a myth like big foots or little green men. I think the topic is covered up by the government just as well as aliens or 9/11. They have lots to loose if it is true. They control their power with fear. They make their money of the resources we have to keep buying over and over like oil and gas. Sorry their are always so many topics and discussions on this great site it is hard not to repeat things. One thing i can not stand is the long threads, surely they are good but take a long time to get through. Chopping topics up or conversations up does break down the issues. Like plastics is to oil, they will not give them all up with out a fight. Even know we are a smart intelligent speices, we can not imbrace change well. We have had the technology for the longest time to avoid oil in our cars. I met an old farmer who had a tractor which would run on anything that would burn, you poured it in and it would run. But this does not create dependence. Forgive for the spelling, it was never a strong spot for myself. I will rant here, i am greatful you moderators moved this topic to where it should be, and that is why we have moderators. Some of us are not aware of all the nooks of this great site. But being above top secret i can see this topic going and doing for just as well. It is not as exciting as alien being seen over mexico or haarp projects, but non the less it is happening, they know it is happening yet they lie to us to keep their war and oil machine running at all cost. I am tired of being nickel and dimed to death by corporations. I would love to see a renewable resource sector that could allow all of us to live more cost efficient, I do not want to spend my pay check on fuel for my car or to light the lights in my house. I would rather spend it on building a larger garden or retaining wall, making our lives easier. But we rely on the system to much i fear. If the power went out tommorrow could you survive? Can you supply yourself with clean water? Can you grow your own food? We seen how easy life can change through hurricane Katrina, people turned from civilizated to monsters overnite. I would like the day to come where if a disaster of immense proportions comes, my lights would stay on, i could feed my family and the water i drink would be cleaned by my infrared lites and filters. Even if one does not believe in global warming, you have to admit that we need to change our actions for another reason. There are to many of us now. Everything is based on growth in our society, thus the population has to grow as well, well this can only continue for so long. Look now, we are running out of supplies and the cost is rising faster than most of your paychecks, How long till most of you can not afford most things anymore. What if gas hit $2 a liter or $8 a gallon where ever you are. I could stand to pay 3 dollars a liter if my car could get 300 miles per gallon. But they give us no option, which leads me to believe they want to nickel, dime us to poverty and then control us. Look for instance in Atlanta, a new Walmart opened a few months back, The job market is so poor that 450 full and part time jobs were offered, and over 10000 people came to apply, this is so sad we have to fight for jobs that pay below the poverty line. People want to work, they want to survive, but with no options would you turn to crime or corruption. I believe the government should pay for health care and education. If they pay for everyones higher education, we get better jobs and in turn we pay more taxes which would pay for itself. But an educated society is not easy to control. We should not fear the government, they should fear us. They work for us, we elect them to surve us and do the things the masses want them to do. If we want the death penalty, then they should give it, and visa versa.

In 1968, the National Academy of Sciences estimated the annual release to the marine environment, from both dumping and disposal (through a pipe), of 100 million tons of petroleum products, two to four million tons of acid chemical wastes from pulp mills, more than one million tons of heavy metals in industrial wastes, and more than 100,000 tons of organic chemical wastes.

EPA records indicate that between 1946 and 1970, more than 55,000 containers of radioactive wastes were ocean dumped at three ocean dump sites in the Pacific Ocean. In addition, almost 34,000 containers of radioactive wastes were ocean dumped at three dump sites off the East Coast of the United States from 1951 to 1962.

www.EPA.gov...

Originally posted by Jbird

Originally posted by ImJaded

Originally posted by antar
Oh this thread should be on the main ATS Forum.

I agree, it really should be, hopefully a mod will move it so it gets the attention it deserves. ..

We do allow 1 duplicate thread topic, as long as one of them is in a News Forum.

If you want to bring this story into the spotlight, or focus in on a particular angle,
might I suggest the Fragile Earth Forum

Just sayin'...

Now that is a good idea..be careful though.. lol.
Something already exists in that forum Plastic 'toxic soup' bigger than the US

I'm really glad that this issue is slowly gaining a stronger footing across ATS/BTS.
The more of us who become aware of this terrible problem the more someone may do something about it.

This is one of the worlds major catastrophes that nobody is taking any serious notes on.

Action for this please..clean it up NOW!!!


BTW, flagged and starred

[edit on 11-7-2008 by Extralien]

I dont know why everyone gets there knickers in a twist over this stuff.If you look at the big picture its inconsequential.We are like an insect bite to the earth a minor irritant that will quickly pass.