The Eastern Garbage Patch - twice the size of Texas, between Here and Hawai'i

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 29 2007, 01:16 PM) [snapback]532028[/snapback]</div>

"Unusual?" What a specist. So is this going to become a Salton Sea ecology, created as a side effect of humanity, but can't be returned to its "natural" state because of the adapted wildlife?

And on another note, this stuff didn't come from space, it comes from "nature". Like uranium, the problem isn't its existence, but the concentration and distribution. Some here have suggested fishing it out of the ocean and burying it. Sure, but then it will seep into the water table. A modest suggestion: we should evolve.

Or, perhaps better, Happy Halloween.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ Oct 31 2007, 08:09 PM) [snapback]533242[/snapback]</div>

I think they were refering to the amount of phytoplankton in the areas where the trash is located? Here is a paper I found rather quickly but I do not have time to verify it as I'm in the middle of homework.

Total phytoplankton biomass is very large though so that would be a lot of plastic to compete with those numbers.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 30 2007, 02:35 PM) [snapback]532586[/snapback]</div>

The basic issue is to replace or re-use plastics. Some ideas:
1. Glass bottles. I know, there is the problem with glass when it breaks; but after being broken into small enough pieces and tumbled enough, you get... Sea Glass! Which if you are creative enough, can be turned into art work.
2. Cornstarch is being used to create alternatives to plastic. Cornstarch works for storage up to ~120 degrees F; then it starts to break down. Corn starch may not be suitable for industrial scale application; smarter people than I would need to put their brains to this concept. I am just putting it out for consideration.
3. Truly re-cycle the plastic containers. Maybe add a $0.25 deposit to the price of every bottle? But the other side of the recycling equation is to be sure to use the plastic that is returned again and not landfill or seadump it. If the particular type of plastic can not be re-used, it should be banned from commercial use.

It is our mess. We need to be responsible for it. Perhaps it is time for a clean seas fund? (Take the $0.25 deposit per plastic container and put it into a fund that can be used to pay for peer-reviewed ways to clean up or truly re-cycle the mess.)

 

While this doesn't directly work towards cleaning up refuse in the oceans, this organization, the Marine Stewardship Council, does work towards maintaining the ocean environment and fisheries. They, like the Forest Stewardship Council, work diligently to educate consumers and ensure sustainable harvests for the future.

 

That insect, bug, roach, whatever!

Reminds me of Alien!

 

South Australia has a compulsory deposit scheme on all beverage containers which results in 80% of beverage containers being recycled through recycling depots and additional recycling through kerbside recyclables collection of plastic, glass, paper and metals. The recycling industry here is a major employer and makes a big difference to litter pollution.

The deposit scheme has been in place since 1970 for glass bottles and was adapted to include plastic bottles. The deposit on plastic bottles is only 5 cents but has had a huge impact. Kids and pensioners have worked out that the money from collecting bottles and cans can make a difference to their disposable income.

I'd love to see this type of scheme introduced globally.

That "cockroach" looks like a Moreton Bay Bug or Balmain Bug


a type of lobster or crayfish

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Nov 1 2007, 07:20 PM) [snapback]533671[/snapback]</div>

Many states in the US have similar laws, although I think the deposit is much too small. I think its .025 cents (may be up to .05 now). When I was a kid, back in the mid-1960's, we had a .05 deposit on soda bottles, and wages were 1.35. A six pack cost you about 5 minutes in comparable wages, and you can be sure that we returned every one of those expensive bottles. A comparable deposit today would something on the order of .40. I'll bet you'd get a lot more bottles and cans returned with that kind of deposit.

Californians recycle about 60% of the cans and bottles they buy. It should be higher, much higher. That still leave 8 BILLION containers tossed out.

 

The bug is some type of sea louse. A close relative of wood lice, pill bugs, or whatever your locale calls those little greyish decpods living under logs and rocks.

 

Instead of a deposit, how about the container has to be returned to the store before you can buy any more?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Nov 2 2007, 09:48 AM) [snapback]533934[/snapback]</div>

Then the store becomes the enforcement agent. Talk about adding costs.... Your grocery bill would probably double. A deposit puts the burden on the consumer to return the container. If the consumer doesn't want to be bothered, they lose their deposit. If the deposit is high enough, you will also empower a secondary scavenging effort (otherwise known as people who can be bothered to make the effort to find and return the containers for the deposit).

 

I was thinking of removing costs, actually. The costs of all that goes into making one-time-use packages, like the mines, the oil wells, the forests, the garbage dumps, and the effects of huge toxic masses of crap floating in the ocean somewhere between 'here' and Hawaii. A sturdy, continually-reusable container is less expensive, not more.

 

Reusable containers reduce use of resources, but that isn't going to automaticlly reduce cost. The stores would now have to install some sort of bulk dispensing system. Even if the customer can self use it, the system will require maintence and power. Maybe even have to use industrial strength cleaners on site.

 

I wish stores such as Best Buy had a place for me to take Old or Broken electronics for recycling (TV's, DVD players, VCR's, etc) and I wish Wal Mart, Target, and the Malls would have something set up for Plastics, Clothes, and cardboard. They could give rebates for the use. As I don't live in a community that has recycling I do my best to collect my recyclables such as newspapers, and the larger plastic bottles for laundry soap and soda, but there is only so much you can do if its not convenient.

 

Unlike Akron, OH around here recycling is easy and has been part of the group consciousness for a very long time. I object to paying the deposits at all when for years I have been recycling all depositable containers. For busy people who chose to recycle the containers instead of return them for the refund it amounts to a hidden tax.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Nov 4 2007, 02:14 AM) [snapback]534324[/snapback]</div>

Get a kid to come and get your bottles if you don't have any kids of your own.
To recycle clothes try the salvation army. They onsell what they can and the rest become rags which they sell to industry.

My local computer shop collects dead computers to use the parts to make computers for the poor. Any working appliance I have replaced gets taken to St Vincent DePaul or the Salvos. I have an old digital camera, a portable CD player, a telephone and a fax machine to take down this week. I never throw anything that grows in my garden in the bin, it becomes mulch, food scraps get composted, I'm seriously thinking about going solar. Where to then? Might need a vegie garden.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Nov 2 2007, 10:03 AM) [snapback]533994[/snapback]</div>

I am not against a re-usable container. The problem is human nature. Unless there is some mechanism to compel return, the container will likely end up in a curb-side recycling receptacle or in the trash that gets sent to a landfill or dumped into the ocean. Put enough of a value on the container, and even if the original consumer can't be bothered to return the container, someone else will. In my neck of the woods, because of the value of aluminum, there are people who make 4:00 a.m. runs on recycle day to pull the aluminum cans out of the recycle bins that homeowners conveniently put out for them the night before. If that same concept (added value in the form of a reasonably high deposit) applied to plastic containers, you would see a similar approach to return/reuse/recycle. For those who can't be bothered to return/reuse/recycle, the deposit is indeed a tax, but I have a hard time with the conclusion that the tax is "hidden".

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(morpheusx @ Nov 2 2007, 02:42 PM) [snapback]534091[/snapback]</div>

California has an electronics tax that pays for state-wide recycling of things like computers and monitors. Periodically, they have a free recycle day when you can take your old electronics down and have them recycle and dispose of the hazardous materials responsibly.

Agitate for the merchants to have to provide the service; our grocery stores must provide a means for customers to recycle plastic grocery bags, and small business has stepped in with independents providing cardboard collection bins that are stationed near the front door of the stores. Suggest that Ohio implement mandatory recycling statewide; here in California, the recycling program has helped employ otherwise hard to employ folks like the mentally ill or developmentally disabled.

 

Sail Magazine had an article about the garbage patches last x-mas or there abouts. It's incredibly vile and people are shocked when I mention it. Most people don't have clue that these things exist. It would be nice if these patches could be mined and utilized someway (pyrolysis isn't bad idea). Hell, even compressing the stuff, bailing it and sending it to Davy Jones would be better than the current situation.