recyclingthepatch

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RecycleThePatch2030

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PLASTIC OCEAN

The Pacific garbage patch is one of five major accumulations of rubbish drifting in the oceans. It is thought to be twice the size of Texas and almost visible from space.

Ninety-percent of the garbage is plastic.

The plastic is not biodegradable.

It disintegrates over time by natural erosion.

The sun is responsible for disintegrating the plastic.

Still are small particles in the water.

The problem is becoming more serious because the particles are microscopic and the aquatic living organisms can be swallowed easily.

Yoshua Venegas

A01331231

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“LANDMASS” OF TRASH: Numbers of Pacific Garbage Patch

The Pacific Garbage Patch is a problem that affects us all, it is necessary create awareness and start acting immediately. A problem that is growing alarmingly. It is estimated that there are over 100 million tons of garbage.

The damage may be irreparable.

These are the residues that are found most frequently in this area.

Yoshua Venegas

A01331231

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If you don’t want to do it for your kind at least do it for the animals.

Humans are literally violating the planet. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of the Eastern Garbage Patch (Japan, Hawaii, California) :O  70 percent of marine debris (human garbage) actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean, causing a several marine species extinction. 4 example:

The albatrosses mislead the plastic pellets for fish eggs and feed them to babies, which die of hunger or ruptured organs. T_T

Sea turtles also mistake plastic bags for jellyfish which they then mistakenly eat… AND DIE! :(

Source: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/great-pacific-garbage-patch-is-destroying-the-oceans/

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About 80% of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land-based activities in North America and Asia. The remaining 20% of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from boaters, offshore oil rigs, and large cargo ships that dump or lose debris directly into the water. The majority of this debris—about 705,000 tons—is fishing nets.

#semanai #recyclingthepatch

NOAA: Marine Debris—De-mystifying the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’

Arantxa Mendoza

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No country is helping to clean up the garbage patch because it is a very expensive process. All that is being done to solve this problem is to try to sensitize people through organizations and social media.

#semanai #recyclingthepatch

Arantxa Mendoza

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Trapped by non/humans

Many marine mammals are at risk from “ghost gear” with abandoned fishing gear turning oceans into death traps for sea animals.

640,000 tons of gear is discarded annually causing the death of almost 136,000 seals, sea lions and large whales. -World Animal Protection-

Poor innocent things right? :(

Laura Ivanna Vargas

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You are an innocent human, you drink water in your little plastic bottle, then you get rid of that bottle and it mysteriously ends up in the ocean. Let me tell you, that bottle does not biodegrade, it photodegrades, meaning the sun turns that little plastic bottle into fucking million pieces which are then endlessly dragged by marine currents and gathering, causing huge garbage patches. But that’s not enough for the plastic particles, those little bitches soak up toxic chemicals, then they bury beaches and since they’re so little, it’s practically imposible to clean them up! More than 1 million animals per year die because of them particles which threatens the food chain, affects local fisheries, discourages swimming, damages submarine equipments and so on.

So, what we’re doing here is trying to figure out what the fuck are we going to do about it.

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Vocabulary basics #semanai #recyclingthepatch

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Scientists have come up with a new way to measure ocean trash—and the numbers are even worse than thought.

In 2010, eight million tons of plastic trash ended up in the ocean from coastal countries—far more than the total that has been measured floating on the surface in the ocean's "garbage patches."

That's the bad news. The even worse news is that the tonnage is on target to increase tenfold in the next decade unless the world finds a way to improve how garbage is collected and managed.

The findings are part of a groundbreaking study published Thursday inScience that for the first time quantifies how much garbage flows into the world's oceans every year.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150212-ocean-debris-plastic-garbage-patches-science/

Evlyn Torres

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Evlyn Torres

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22 Preposterous Facts about Plastic Pollution.

In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments—like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles—are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day.

Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.

50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away.

Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times.

We currently recover only five percent of the plastics we produce.

The average American throws away approximately 185 pounds of plastic per year.

Plastic accounts for around 10 percent of the total waste we generate.

The production of plastic uses around eight percent of the world’s oil production (bioplasticsare not a good solution as they require food source crops).

Americans throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles every year (source: Brita)

Plastic in the ocean breaks down into such small segments that pieces of plastic from a one liter bottle could end up on every mile of beach throughout the world.

Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute.

46 percent of plastics float (EPA 2006) and it can drift for years before eventually concentrating in the ocean gyres.

It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.

Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences in the oceans making up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces. 80 percent of pollution enters the ocean from the land.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California and is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. This floating mass of plastic is twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.

Plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.

One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.

44 percent of all seabird species, 22 percent of cetaceans, all sea turtle species and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies.

In samples collected in Lake Erie, 85 percent of the plastic particles were smaller than two-tenths of an inch, and much of that was microscopic. Researchers found 1,500 and 1.7 million of these particles per square mile.

Virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form (with the exception of the small amount that has been incinerated).

Plastic chemicals can be absorbed by the body—93 percent of Americans age six or older test positive for BPA (a plastic chemical).

Some of these compounds found in plastic have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects.

by: María Fernanda García O.

A00568560

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Cleaning up marine debris is not as easy as it sounds. 

Because of the size of the oceans 

Because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is so far from any country’s coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up. (Charles Moore, the man who discovered the vortex, says cleaning up the garbage patch would “bankruptany country” that tried it.)

Organizations such as the PLASTIC POLLUTION COALLITION and the PLASTIC OCEANS FOUNDATION are using social media and direct action campaigns to support individuals, manufacturers, and businesses in their transition

#SemanaI #RecyclingThePatch

Grecia M.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: Environmental Governance

Similar to other global environmental problems like climate change, a major challenge is that no single consumer or producer of plastic ―owns the oceans or is identifiably responsible for the garbage patch.

The challenges to solving this oceanic crisis are similar to those facing policymakers attempting to combat climate change. No nation has regulatory authority over or liability for waste problems in the Pacific Ocean, so nations lack motivation to try to solve the daunting problem alone.

There is a great need for coordinated environmental governance to work on this problem across the scope and scale, from international to local action. Existing treaties and conventions have inadequate dispute resolution mechanisms, inadequate economic instruments, and inadequate provisions for liability, and simply do not address the issue directly enough to produce results.

by. Tania Videgaray

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Why should we care?

Many sea animals are being killed as a result of this man-made floating garbage pile. Many animals feed in this area and ingest poisons contained in the items within. Additionally by eating indigestible bits of plastic, which remain in the animal’s stomach, they slowly starve to death because they eventually can no longer consume and digest the food they need.

The plastics found in the ocean have a dire effect on marine life. Turtles confuse plastic bags for jellyfish and birds confuse bottle caps for food. They ingest them but can’t digest them, so their stomachs fill with plastic and they starve to death, even though they continue trying to eat.

On a more human level jellyfish are eating toxic plastics. These are then eaten by fish, which then enter the human food chain. Indeed we are then eating the toxins absorbed into their bodies, things like PCB’s and DDT

Less than one percent of all plastics are recycled. Therefore, almost all plastics are incinerated or end up in a landfill. Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60-watt light bulb for up to six hours.

By: Paola Ferretis Díaz I. - A00570375

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, spans waters from the West Coastof North America to Japan. The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California. 

The amount of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch accumulates because much of it is not biodegradable. Many plastics, for instance, do not wear down; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces. 



#SemanaI #RecyclingThePatch

Grecia M.

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Marine Debris Items

Top 10 marine debris items:

·         Cigarettes filters

·         Food wrappers and containers

·         Plastic bottles

·         Plastic bags

·         Bottle Caps

·         Plastic cups, forks, knives, spoons…

·         Straws

·         Glass bottles

·         Beverage Cans

·         Paper bags

Dedliest Ocean Trash:

·         Fishing gear

·         Plastic bags

·         Ballons

·         Cigarettes

·         Bottle caps

Rarest Finds of 2016:

·         149 shopping carts

·         101 boat anchors

·         87 mattresses

·         39 toilettes

·         28 refrigerators