ocean plastic pollution

Plastic, once it has worked its way into the ocean, has proved almost impossible to eliminate. According to an article from PR Web, the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean by the end of the decade could easily be about 230 million tons -- an amount the article states would be sufficient to manufacture 400 million 2 liter plastic bottles. That's a vast amount of plastic, and the reported amounts are constantly increasing, but as awareness of the problem grows, so does the action people are willing to take to ensure the pollution doesn't stray further out of hand.

The Raw Story reported on Thursday last week that a 4.5 ton sperm whale washed up on a beach in Spain last week dead and in an extremely emaciated state, and upon further examination, it was found to have died of eating plastic. According to the story written by the Agence France-Presse, the whale, which washed ashore last year, was found to to have ingested over 17 kilograms (which equates to 37 pounds) of garbage, which blocked its stomach and caused the animal to starve to death.

The Guardian reported last week that one third of the fish collected from the English Channel for study have been found to contain plastic contamination -- a figure which is uncomfortably high.The study was conducted by Plymouth University, and the findings were published in the journal the Marine Pollution Bulletin.

In an article from The Guardian's Observer yesterday, Lucy Siegle addresses the issue of small plastic fragments used in beauty products, namely exfoliators, and their impact on the ocean. According to Siegle, these microbeads, sometimes referred to as "Mermaid's Tears," are small pieces of plastic often found in facial scrubs. Cheaper than organic exfoliators such as coconut husk, these microbeads are washed down the drain after a single use.

Taking some responsibility for the ecological disaster that has just occurred in Hong Kong, the company Sinopec made a media appearance after a 17 day silence, revealing that it had set aside HK$10m (equivalent to US$1.28m) to combat the damage done by its plastic pellet spillage. According to the Guardian.com, volunteers are currently at work trying to collect the beads from the sand by hand, but only a fraction of them have been collected. Sinopec has stated that they will employ industrial vacuum cleaners to attempt to clean up the rest. Writes Reuters:

As part of a series on plastic pollution, Forbes contributor Amy Westervelt examines the news coverage surrounding the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," and the misconceptions the term carries with it.  While the garbage patch is a very serious problem, it has often been falsely portrayed as a sort of "floating island" of trash, a large, visible mass floating out in the ocean.

A new concept drone created by industrial design Student Elie Ahovi of the French International School of Design has been created to help alleviate the plastic pollution in the world's oceans by skimming the water and collecting debris throughout the water column, according to an article on PSFK. According to Carib Guerra, this drone, called Veolia, would have the ability to remain underwater for multiple weeks at a time, scooping plastic into a large vortex within it, and emitting a sound that would keep animals from being collected in the same way. Writes Guerra:

The figures representing plastic pollution's impact continue to rise, and an article in the Christian Science Monitor last week suggests that current estimates on the amount of plastic pollution currently polluting the world's oceans are too small. Reporter Nora Doyle-Burr writes that previous studies on plastic pollution have neglected to account for the ability of the wind to shift the plastic particles, making measuring accurately more difficult.

By Ken Ellingwood, LA Times

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- A recent cleanup of trash on a scenic Mexican beach seemed to confirm what many there thought: Most of the plastic garbage comes from outside Mexico.

By Philip Hoare, The Daily Mail