In the case of plastic waste, “away”, more often than not, ultimately refers to the planet’s oceans.  We as human beings are responsible for 100 percent of the plastic pollution in the ocean.  Plastics first enter the water systems through the Earth’s streams, rivers and oceans. In fact, approximately 80 percent of plastic pollution in the ocean has originated on land, while recreational boaters, commercial operations, maritime industries, and the military generate only 20 percent. Unfortunately, while plastic is not biodegradable, it is photodegradable.  This means that as plastic flows through the waterways, the sun’s rays cause the plastic to break down into smaller and smaller pieces.  In turn, these pieces are caught up in fast moving ocean currents and are swept out thousands of miles to accumulate in places like the North Pacific Gyre. The term ‘Gyre’ refers to a naturally occurring vortex of wind and currents, which rotate clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere.   These swirling vortexes move more slowly towards the center, thus accumulating vast amounts of plastic debris.  The North Pacific Gyre is one of five major Gyres worldwide, all of which contain large amounts of plastic as well as other chemical pollutants.  The North Pacific Gyre, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is located 700 miles northeast of the Hawaiian Islands and 1000 miles off the coast of California.

At present, the Gyre is estimated to contain over 11 million tons of waste and covers roughly five million square miles of ocean, twice the size of Texas.  Plastic waste takes eight to 12 years to enter the Gyre.  However, without efforts to remove this plastic, it will remain in place for 400 to 700 years and the oceans worldwide are filling up quickly. Beyond the tragedy of immense trash build up in our oceans, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has many lesser-known yet highly devastating biological ramifications.

In 1999, the Algalita Research Institution took water samples from the Gyre and reported that plastic outweighed zooplankton six pounds to one.  These samples were repeated in 2009 with a new ratio of forty pounds of plastic to one pound of zooplankton. Such statistics speak to a decrease in zooplankton, an increase in plastics, or, most likely, both.  This plastic accumulation is also a vehicle by which other chemicals are transported into our food system. Due to plastics’ inherent attributes as a petroleum-based product, it attracts other, similar chemicals to the surface, serving as a mechanism to transport toxins.  Marine life, such as albatross, whales, dolphins, and turtles, are mistaking this plastic waste for food and are, in turn, consuming these devastating neurotoxins, carcinogens and hormones.  These toxins work their way up the food chain, ultimately ending up on our plates, a process known as bioaccumulation.

Other animals are dying either through direct plastic consumption or because of an inability to reproduce due to the large amounts of hormones in the water.  Such occurrences are an early, yet all too clear, warning of the dangers coming to the human population. It is clear beyond any reasonable doubt that something must be done. The issue at hand is not what to do with the plastic, but how to remove it without damaging the surrounding marine life, which has yet to be solved.  Leaving plastic and chemical wastes in the oceans’ Gyres is not an option.  Yet, in the words of Richard Sundance Owen, “We have faith in humanity’s ability to rise to the challenge.”

What can you do to make an impact?