I also wonder if ships haven't been going out there secretly and dumping all this crap to save cash.

It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened.

Peace

reguardless the nuke ship or whatever that would be sent out to collect all the trash could easily turn it into energy for the ship or make storage capsules to store the gas for future energy needs, after the gas is depleted you have paper an plastic maybe even metal to recycle.....

if its radioactive well, im sure a solution for that will come up too, use all the radio active materials on earth to power a space station on mars or the moon someday....

"We will adapt an understand thru our experience on this ball of sand.... "-trance optic

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
If there is as much debris as they claim and if it is mostly recyclible plastics, then there must be some profitible way to harvest this material.

Precisely my thoughts.

I am aware of a process by which plastics can be converted back into crude oil. The name of this process eludes me for the moment unfortunately. Does anyone else know about this?

I proposed the nuclear powered processing ship because it could have a long loiter time in the garbage field, choppers should fly in food for the crew periodically and the ship could make countless circuits within the trash field collecting and condensing the floating plastic refuse until the cargo hold was peaked with compressed plasti trash cubes. Maybe it could spend 2 months or more per pass then come into port where the processing center is to offload all the cubes and head back out to sea. Since the nuclear powerplant could produce plenty of energy to power all the onboard processing machinery without having to haul around extra fuel oil/diesel etc to run the machinery.

the top deck of this massive ship could be a huge solar array to capture and store solar energy to power additional systems or machinery on the boat.

All we would need would be a fleet of floating "wood chipper" ships with massive cargo holds. They draw up the sea water and trash, mince it into tiny pieces and compact it in the hold (like a garbage truck compacts trash)

Then all of the piny pieces could be recycled or used as filler for roads/housing/insulations/textiles ect..

This makes me sick..

that's it. i like that. build a trash processing platform out there. have a fleet of ships that just collect trash, nuke the plastic back down to oil and gas and presto. think a trash field that big would power us for a while? it may use more fuel than it produces, but it's a thought.

Isn't it funny how the "Global Warming" craze and all this talk of "going green" is thrown into our faces daily and then you read about a landmass of plastic toxic soup pretty much just sitting and ruining our oceans and theres absolutely no word about it on television, large media websites, or newspapers?

People care more about britney spears going to rehab again than the impending doom we are creating for ourselves by potentially ruining our oceans and food supply (mainly fish).

Thanks Al Gore for distracting us from this with your global warming frenzy and "eco-friendly" options.

Going "green" is the equivalent of getting rich for lies I suppose.

I know I probably shouldnt tell you guys this but I am in the US Navy. I used to work as part of security on the boat. One of our jobs was to ensure that people were not throwing trash in the water. However, sometimes our Plastic Waste Processing rooms would become backed up due to so much trash being generated on an aircraft carrier that the Commanding Officer or Officer of the Deck could give us permission to throw trash in the water. I remember walking in the hangar bay and seeing the HAZMAT (they dealt with trash as well but they were part of HAZMAT division) throwing trash over the side out of the elevator doors. I used to hate that because i am a huge advocate of a clean planet.

hey, it could be a new recycling industry. Look at the positive side of it.

I absolutely love the idea of a nuclear-powered trash collection ship or heck, even a fleet of them with a couple semi-permanent platforms!

Thing is, NO ONE is going to foot that bill. Even if you make double your money ... no one is going to take on the R&D, risks of losing ships/crew to inclement weather, etc. unless there is a definite financial multiple of their outlay. Doesn't matter if it would guarantee "climate global warming cooling change schizophrenia" goes away for good. We can see that Big Auto won't even go the hydrogen route (something that COULD make them money if they were smart, although it's much easier to be lazy and keep burning oil however).

Just ain't gonna happen. I'd love to foot the bill for a nuclear-powered ship, but my salary barely lets me pay my internet bill.

Use something real sticky too get it mostly in one area and nuke it...lol...not exactly science but.....it will work.

I Personally agree with everyone that something should be done. The Media does not cover this as it should it does not give the civillian population enough awareness.... This would give all the tree-huggers something to do. And while we are at it get all the inmates onto a barge and make them process this stuff.. we will ship them the food as needed but let all of our wasted time and money for inmates go to a good use.

I also personally would like pictures... not to disprove but it would also sink into more peoples minds and hearts if they actually saw it with their own eyes... Pictures anyone?

Maybe us here at ATS should fund an expedition and publicize the issues at hand while ATS is publicizing its new book! Awesome! Maybe instead of whining about all of this we shoud all get involved... any takers?

There's some very interesting ideas coming through here from all you posters and it seems that most of us are in agreement.

Whilst I was just catching up on some of the new posts here, I had an idea.

What if it is this huge pile of rubbish that is the cause of all our severe weather to date. What if the immense weight and distribution of the plastic is upsetting the Oceans natural flow?

As we see form the pic in the post above this, the plastic island is estimated to be 300 feet deep. That's surely got to upset any currents.

Not only that, but the sun would have a hard time trying to do its job by warming the Ocean to allow the warm/cold water to fluctuate as it has for umpteen years.

Most of us know that if the Oceans 'conveyor belt' sy.
stem fails then we will more than likely get a new ice age.

So, I ask again, is it this plastic rubbish that is the cause of our planets current abnormal weather and not Co2 as we all have been led to believe.

1. Sheer mass slowing Oceans currents.
2. Preventing natural warming/cooling of the Ocean.
3. Killing the food chain.

And don't forget that no matter how careful we all think we have been with our rubbish, there is still the many other people and operations involved after we've carefully disposed of our used items that this stuff has to go through before it's finally deemed 'disposed of'.

How many coastal towns have rubbish bins where rubbish is safely put in, only for a gust of wind to lift it out and send it to sea.

How many seagulls and other creatures been responsible for the spilling of our waste? (I'm not blaming the animals, I'm looking at the current methods of disposal).

How many of us ensure our items are disposed of safely only for someone at the tip to mess it all up.

Landfill sites have a nasty habit of filling with methane and it's common practice to have to dig them up and release the gas. Once the digging begins, any plastics buried down there are then exposed to the winds and blown wherever they may go.

Our use of the land and the seas as a method of waste disposal has to stop.
The cost is irrelevant. The cost to this planet far outweighs our monetary thinking.

Now if only our $trillions spent fighting an illegal war were spent cleaning this mess up. I don't buy the official line that 'we'd never be able to clear this mess up'. What they mean when they say that is that no goverment would be willing to give up valuable war-money to do something so positive for this planet. Besides, even if the world's goverments acknowledged something needed to be done, they'd probably spend 10 years arguing over who's responsible first, and therefore who should fund the project.

Just another example of how greed comes first.

These times are truly the most depressing times in the history of Planet Earth.

May we have mercy on her, and her to us.