Plastic Is a Problem
We’ve gotta stop it.
Not for vacay tho
Nope, these are not the hottest new vacation spots. And no, you won’t find any sweet Airbnb bachelor pads on any of these islands in the Pacific ocean.
That’s because they’re made of plastic.
Sadly, all those plastic forks, plastic straws, and plastic bottle caps that you, your parents, and possibly even your grandparents once used, are probably floating around in the ocean gyre pictured above.
Gyre you say…🤔
This is a scientific term for circulating ocean currents. And that swirly patch of water in the image above is only 1 of 5 major ocean currents across our blue planet.
(You can’t say you ain’t learning anything with us)
Way too much
These massive water vortexes have sucked in so much marine debris that estimates of its size start at roughly 270K sq mi (that’s pretty much the size of Texas, dayum.)
And that’s only one gyre in the Pacific. There are 4 more big ones out there in the world. Not to mention the innumerable amount of trash that pollutes our precious shorelines.
Case in point is that we humans have been pretty bad when it comes to littering and the illegal dumping of our waste.
Bad enough that 5.5B out of the 9.1B tons of plastic ever produced, is currently littering our land and oceans. That’s because the 7B pounds of plastic made every year is not recyclable.
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We know. Pretty absurd.
One solution at a time
One organization, wisely named 5 Gyres, is doing everything possible to empower us to focus on more ocean, and less plastic.
Back in 2008, its co-founder, Marcus Eriksen, sailed from LA to Hawaii on a boat made of plastic junk to raise awareness about the world’s plastic problemo. Talk about brave.
And more recently, after a major study uncovered the massively high concentration of microbeads (you know those things that exfoliate your skin?) in the Great Lakes, 5 Gyres, along with some partners, got President Obama (come back would ya!) to enact the The Microbead-Free Waters Act.
Enjoy that scrub now, because in 2018, it’ll be prohibited to sell those darn plastic microbeads. (All is good though, you can scrub your face with sugar.)
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We’re def not the first to talk about the plastic epidemic (VICE covered it over 5 years ago!), and we won’t be the last.
It’s a big, nasty problem.
And while we might not have the adequate technology to clean up these massive islands of garbage, what we can do today is be more aware of the plastic in our lives, and make smarter decisions.
Easy win of the week — ask yourself if you really need that plastic bag at the store. You probably don’t.
Fun challenge of the week — do like us and pledge to go topless4Oceans.
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