Why Trashing the Oceans is More Dangerous Than We Imagined

Degrading plastics may cause serious toxic risk to ocean dwellers and, eventually, us
By Matt Ransford Posted 04.01.2008 at 9:24 am 13 Comments
Trash on a Beach: As plastics degrade in our oceans, we face serious risks. Photo by Poagao

Last fall we reported on the growing mess of garbage swirling in the North Pacific Gyre. It’s a swath of ocean arguably the size of the continental U.S. where all the plastic refuse from Asia and the western coast of North America ends up when it’s washed out to sea. Turtles mistake bags for jellyfish and birds mistake floating chips for prey. Animals have been discovered starved to death because the entire contents of their stomachs were plastic fragments. Sail a boat out to the middle of the gyre and the problem is in plain sight. Unfortunately for us, the more severe problem is the one we can’t see.

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Tags

The Environment, environment, Matt Ransford, oceans, platics, toxins, trash
Plastics don’t biodegrade like organic matter, which means they can’t be converted by living organisms into useful compounds for life. Instead, they photodegrade, a process by which photons from the sun’s rays pulverize the plastic polymers until they are broken into individual molecules. Even when they have been smashed into the tiniest bits physically possible, they are still plastics.

What’s worse, the plastics act as a kind of magnet for toxins in the water, accumulating chemicals on their surface. The worry now is those toxins will be transferred to the bodies of the animals eating the debris.

Already, British researchers have discovered that in a “typical sample of the sandy material gathered” along shorelines, one-quarter of the weight may be plastic particles.

The trouble for us comes when those polymers enter the food chain. Jellyfish are already mistaking the non-microscopic bits for zooplankton. Larger fish eat the jellyfish and so on up until you’re eating a tuna filled with plastic dust and toxins.

13 Comments

Comments

mikepwalsh
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 04/01/08 at 2:24 pm

Good Grief!

I've never seen such a trashed out beach in my life!
Where was the photo taken? Seems that the municipality
should place ubiquitous trash and recycling containers every
100 feet to accomodate the large #s of people visiting the beach.

Also it would behoove them to place $1000 littering fine signs along
with the containers since littering people are seriously lacking in
common sense or decency.

What a shocking testimonial to the egocentric, foolhardy and
apathetic culture that exists in these United States. I am
ashamed to call these people fellow Americans.

Michael P. Walsh
Lake Tahoe, CA
mwalsh2222@hotmail.com

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BluElephant
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 04/01/08 at 2:56 pm

I'm intrigued that you assume this is an American beach. If I were to guess I would say it is somewhere in Asia

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milliways
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 04/02/08 at 3:37 pm

I never looked at it from this angle before. What we put out in this world really does come back to us, even through the food we eat. Thank you for posting this article.

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2008
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 04/03/08 at 9:11 pm

Most beaches in California look like that after every holiday. No matter how many trash cans they put out, there are never enough and people do not want to pack sandy wet trash back in their car.

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wsp2
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 04/04/08 at 11:46 am

I read a similar article last year in "Best Life" magazine ("Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we?"). It's indeed a sad state of affairs, but the truth is that the large majority of the population just don't care. I try my best at reducing the amount of plastic I use and recycle what I can't avoid, but most people have the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality when it comes to the Gyre.

Until people realize that this isn't just another crusade from those crazy "eco-terrorists", it'll get worse.

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Bluelaser
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 04/04/08 at 4:46 pm

Agreed. People just dont understand every bit of pollution you causes comes back to "Someone". Its the fact that they dont think it will affect them in anyway that keeps them doing it.

Its exactly the same with almost all enviormental pollution. We are also still just putting suage straight into rivers and streams.

Meh. But as usual we wont get it until its 2 late.

-Word.of.Warcraft

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majin davito

from Belcourt, North Dakota

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 04/04/08 at 8:52 pm

All the trash swirls up toward the north of hawaii from the west coast, dang we are filty people. They should create an effort to fish out the trash.

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petervdg
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 04/06/08 at 9:25 am

Although you may assume that the picture was taken on some beach nearby, it was actually taken on the north-east coast of Taiwan, near Taipei, after a music concert. Here's the address:

http://flickr.com/photos/poagao/764908903/

1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful
underdestars
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 04/06/08 at 9:59 am

This is an arguable topic, although Al Gore would disagree. I found this article on ecology which is completely different from anything I heard of on the subject matter of environment and ecology

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underdestars
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 04/06/08 at 10:02 am

This is an arguable topic, although Al Gore would disagree. I found this article on ecology which is completely different from anything I heard of on the subject matter of environment and ecology
http://www.kabtoday.com/epaper_eng/content/view/epaper/6183/(page)/1/(article)/6185

1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful
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