#5gyres

[biglisbonnews]

Over 170 trillion plastic particles are now floating in the ocean A newly released study published in the science journal PLOS ONE reveals the average number of plastic particles in the world’s oceans may have reached over 170 trillion as of 2019. Read more... https://qz.com/170-trillion-plastic-particles-in-the-ocean-study-finds-1850212918

[rward24]

Inspirations

A group I found which really inspired me was 5 Gyres which was founded by Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins whose intentions was to investigate key unanswered questions about plastic pollution. What they aimed is? They are a leader in the global movement against plastic pollution with more than 10 years of expertise in scientific research and engagement on plastic pollution issues. (5gyres)

5gyres,(2017) about us. Available at: https://www.5gyres.org/about-us  (Accessed: 29th January 2023)

[dropsofsciences]

Microplastics as an oceanic chemistry lab

As plastic continuously finds its way into the ocean it follows a long trip that weathers it down to smaller and smaller pieces. These pose a hazard to ocean environments and other aquatic habitats based on a new study published in Environmental Science & technology letters. Once below 5mm they fall into the category of microplastics with, as it seems, additional properties for chemical pollution besides the physical one. The surface of microplastics bonds optimally with heavy metals such as Cromium but also with organic components such as UV filters in sunscreens. In their study Kelvin Sze-Yin Leung and colleagues observed that the heavy metal substances where not only oxidised (rusted), but also hindered the growth of aquatic algal communities. In a continuous stream of pollution in the ocean, plastics do not only entrain into the tissue of fish and other animals as previous studies have shown, but also create a chemically hostile environment to the growth of aquatic ecosystems full of rust.

Image credit: 5Gyres, courtesy of Oregon State University, source: flickr

Source: phys.org

[greenwithtiffany]

#Repost @5gyres ・・・ 1 million single-use plastic bags are used every minute globally. That’s a wow! Only 1% are recycled each year. Plastic production is projected to triple by 2050. That is completely unsustainable. What are some steps we can take to make a difference? Watch my stories to find out. #5gyresambassador #choosetocare #noplasticbags • • • • • #greenwithtiffany #5gyres #reducereuserecycle #babysteps #trashblitz #noplastic #plasticfree #recycle #zerowaste #singleuse #singleuseplastic #plasticpollution #sustainableliving #refusesingleuse #circulareconomy #gogreen #earthdayeveryday #pollution #healthyliving #spring #saveouroceans #glass #plasticocean #banthebag #recyclingcenter #losangeles #trash https://www.instagram.com/p/BxLRGZalWT0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=h8vblxtwm6wr

[hishandstho]

"My gift from the sea, as it were, was an education, a road map, to the kind of father I one day hope to be." Eric Balfour speaking at event #Voices4Oceans, March 23, 2017 hosted by @5gyres. I encourage you to visit their website to view the full video as well as others. While you're there, READ! Learn something! 😊 https://www.5gyres.org/events/ **Clicking video will take you to Vimeo, where you can watch the video. It was too big to upload (probably because I downloaded the largest size. Oops.)

[ericbalfourhotspot]

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Eric Balfour backstage at the 5Gyres Voices4Oceans 🌊 Event on 23 March 2017 © 5Gyres

[pimentanomeio]

Canudo plástico? Não, obrigada.

Você pede um suco ou refrigerante no restaurante e, sem que você seja questionado, o copo vem acompanhado de um canudo. É uma cena trivial que causa um grande impacto nos oceanos. Para se ter uma ideia, só  a rede mundial de lanchonetes McDonalds usa, aproximadamente,  60 milhões de canudos diariamente.

A foto acima foi tirada na praia do Leblon. Curiosa, perguntei a dona de uma das barracas que vendem refrigerante na praia, quantos canudos ela usava por mês. Ela não soube calcular, mas fez uma conta rápida: num final de semana de verão ela usa 1 pacote que contém 500 canudos. É muito canudo....A gente bem que podia tentar parar de agir no automático e começar a recusar os canudos, você não acha? Uma simples atitude que terá efeitos extremamente positivos e de grande alcance em nosso planeta. No final da contas, o plástico descartado volta para nós  em forma de poluição ou entrando na cadeia alimentar marinha que ao final vai para no seu prato!

Segundo a ONU, cerca de 90% de todo o lixo flutuando nos oceanos é plástico. Por ano, mais de 8 milhões de toneladas de plástico chegam aos oceanos. 35% do plástico consumido são descartados após 20 minutos de uso. É um consumo insano, pois após o uso, quase 10% do material descartado tem como destino o mar, segundo estudo da Race for Water, fundação suíça dedicada à preservação da água.

Uma curiosidade: O uso de canudos remonta aos sumérios da Mesopotâmia antiga entre 3000 - 5000 aC. Os canudos eram feitos de materiais naturais, como hastes ocos de grama, e usado para beber cerveja.  Assista à animação (infelizmente sem legenda) “The Last Staw” (”O último canudo”).

[rosecransbaldwin]

Not a bit mad about some love in The New Yorker. So, a reader wrote in, asking if there was a place that listed some of the nonprofits or groups mentioned in Everything Now. Great question. Here’s a bunch of wonderful folks, and surely I’m forgetting some, and needless to say, any of the great artists or writers or experts interviewed in the book are all people whose work should be sought out immediately. Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles - @blmlosangeles Border Angels - @borderangelsofficial Cast - @castlosangeles Clockshop - @clockshopla Coyne Survival Schools - @survival_expert CORE - @coreresponse Five Gyres - @5gyres Hollywood Food Coalition - @hollywoodfoodco The Midnight Mission - @themidnightmission The Point Dume Bombers - @pointdumebombers The Right Way Foundation - @therightwayfoundation @mcdbooks @fsgbooks @janklownesbit #everythingnow #losangeles #bookstagram 📷 Wimbledon champion @nic_brown_the_writer

[helloecostudent-blog]

Marcus Eriksen’s Fight on Ocean Plastic

Marcus Eriksen is a marine pollution expert with a PhD in science education from USC (the one in California, not the USC). He was collecting plastic found in the North Atlantic and found that most of it wasn’t large chucks for garbage floating in the oceans that can be cleaned out by putting on gloves and picking it out. Eriksen described it as a “plastic smog,” as the plastic deteriorates into small piece, aka micro-plastics.

“Plastic in the oceans breaks down so fast. It becomes a fine particulate distributed globally. Cities like New York and Miami are pumping out this plastic smog into the world’s oceans.” -Marcus Eriksen

In 2003, he went on a 2000 mile, 5 month journey down the Mississippi River on a homemade raft made from plastic bottles to bring attention to the plastic issue. Then, in 2008, he made a raft from 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessina airplane fuselage as a cabin. This raft, appropriately named JUNK, took him on a 2,600 mile journey, that lasted 88 days. It also brought attention to the work of the 5 Gyres Institute, the organization he co-founded with his wife.

The 5 Gyre Institute is a nonprofit organization in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2017. Their mission is to empower action against the global health crisis of plastic pollution through science, education, and adventure. If you have time, I recommend their website, they have many articles about plastics and their effects. Their website is linked below.

Sources:

-https://www.marcuseriksen.com/biography

-https://thenewtropic.com/our-plastic-paradise/

-https://www.5gyres.org/

[microfiberpollutionproject-blog]

Textiles and clothing are a constant source of microfiber emissions into the environment.

A study by Pirc, et al. (2016) investigated microfiber release during typical washing and drying to see if microfiber loss changed after subsequent washes. Researchers showed that after 10 subsequent wash/dry cycles, the polyester fleece material still shed microfibers, though there was a steep drop in the amount of fibers loss (as you can see in the figure above). This is important for understanding sources of microfibers, as it tells us that microfibers are continuously released over the lifetime of our synthetic clothing. 

Got questions about microfiber pollution? Ask me at https://microfiberpollutionproject.tumblr.com/ask

Image modified from Pirc, et al. 2016.

[johnkmelvin]

#Repost @plasticconscious with @get_repost ・・・ Scientists have found worrying evidence that fish are becoming toxic, as their environments are being polluted with billions of microbeads – the tiny plastic particles commonly found in face scrubs, body wash, and other cosmetics. Microbeads act like tiny magnets for pollutants, capable of concentrating these substances up to 1 million times. 8 trillion of these tiny plastic beads are entering the waterways of the US alone, every single day. 📷 @ekko.world #plasticconscious #plastic #plasticfree #singleuseplastic #microplastic #microbeads #nurdles #refuse #reuse #recycle #saveourocean #ocean #sea #environment #sustainable #marinelife #fish #dolphin #whale #5gyres #aplasticocean #oceana #oceanic #lonelywhale #parleyfortheoceans #leonardodicapriofoundation (at Utica, New York)

[gogreenfernbank]

GO GREEN CLUB MEETING DECEMBER: PLASTICS!

Have you ever noticed how plastic is EVERYWHERE ? (straws, packaging, single use cutlery, cups, take out containers, packaging, toys.. look around your house, look around your school your work, any store you visit)How can we reduce our use?What happens to plastic when we "throw it away"?

We had 3 projects for the students to work on:

1. "plastic ocean snow globes" MORE OCEAN LESS PLASTIC Inspired by the 5gyres organization : https://www.5gyres.org/

Students added plastic pieces (from: grocery bags, food packaging, drink labels, styrofoam cafeteria trays) to jars that we have collected and filled it with colored water to represent plastic in an ocean, and plastic in our environment. 

2. plastic whale - we have been collecting plastic bottles and containers at school (it is amazing how many have been used !) and we are using them to create a whale art piece.

3. makers station (the kids favorite) using cartons, cardboard rolls, bottle tops, tape, and other packaging materials, the students came up with some inventive and amazing creations

this is the video we watched at our meeting:

[greenwithtiffany]

#Repost @5gyres ・・・ Hi All! Tiffany Paige here of @greenwithtiffany and a #5gyresambassador Plastic pollution is on the rise! It’s hard not to ever use single-use plastics. You know the kind you use shortly, but then throw it away after. A water bottle, utensils, your take out containers, your grocery bags, a straw. It’s easy and convenient to use, but not so easy to dispose of. Recycling is not the answer. Only about 8% of our waste gets recycled. Just a reminder that plastic comes from oil. A resource we need to hold precious and keep in the ground. Not to mention the havoc it causes to our oceans environment and health. Can you see what I’m holding? My recycle bin of plastic ♻️. That’s right, even though I am hyper aware and do my best to not use plastic, it still ends up in my home and my bin. It's not that it’s all or nothing, but to start being aware of how much plastic you use. Where you can make easy lifestyle changes that will have a big effect on how you use plastic. ✅Can you replace single use water bottles? ✅Can you carry your own reusable utensils? ✅Can you ask for take out in something other than plastic or bring your own. ✅Refuse plastic straws at your local restaurant and suggest they move to an alternative material. ✅Where can you shop that offers food in less plastic and instead in other alternatives. ✅Don’t use disposables at home, especially those pesky plastic solo cups or polystyrene, aka styrofoam plates and cups. Start slow if it’s too much. Together we can help make the shift. Let’s be part of the solution rather than adding to the immense problem and don’t fault yourself if you can’t get it perfect or to zero waste. If you want to get there you will, but baby steps are better than no steps. Watch my stories on Monday and Tuesday to see how you too can cut down on your everyday plastic use and #choosetocare #MoreOceanLessPlastic #singleuseplastic #greenwithtiffany #5gyres #reducereuserecycle #babysteps #trashblitz #noplastic #plasticfree #recycle #erewhon #zerowaste #plasticpollution #sustainableliving #refusesingleuse #circulareconomy #gogreen #earthdayeveryday #pollution #healthyliving #spring #saveouroceans (at West Hollywood, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxIRhAYFjYn/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1x7oy6tw14loz

[ilovetangie]

This was posted by someone I follow and I want to share it with you. I think it's well written. 🌐 ... ▶️Dear @cocacola , you make a great beverage. There is just one thing. People tend to litter and your bottles are scattered all over the place. Next to the road, in streams, rivers and the ocean. Where there fall apart due to the weather conditions and uv light. ..🐠🐟🐡 Marine life see these small particles (microplastics) as food and eat them. Besides that they attract chemicals, which also enter the food chain, it has come to a point it longer enters the food chain of marine life but it is starting to enter ours. .. So my question to you @cocacola please start looking to alternatives to plastic bottles... (eg bottles made out of alge) .. ☑️Take the lead in this ever growing problem while we can still turn the tide. Hoping to hear from you.💦💦💦 ....... Sincerly AJ co-founder @ajbrilstra of @stichtingclearwaterinitiative .. 🌊 #marinelitter #plasticpollutes #stopsingleuseplastic #stopsucking #fanta #cocacola #cleanseas #clearwater #kitesufing #kitesurfersunited #kitesurfersunitedagainstoceanpollution #oceanpollution #2minutebeachclean #5minutebeachcleanup #5gyres #bytheoceanweunite #plasticsoup #vroegevogels_vara #unep #algalita #oceanconservancy #aplasticoceanfilm #plasticoceanproject #cleanoceanproject #Repost @stichtingclearwaterinitiative (@get_repost) ・・・

[ericbalfourhotspot]

Eric Balfour‘s Story at “Voices4Oceans” Event on 23 March 2017 hosted by 5 Gyres “My gift from the sea, as it were, was an education, a road map, to the kind of father I one day hope to be” © 5 Gyres

[beyondparadisemovie]

#Repost @localrose #ShivaRose, the star of #DavidAndLayla: "I was challenged by one of my favorite environmental groups @5gyres to go topless for our oceans 🌊 please resist accepting the plastic tops on all your coffees, juices and teas or bring your own vessels when you go for your daily brew ☕️ I am going to challenge @la_leovarela to go topless with me I also will challenge @zero_waste_voyage and anyone else who is passionate about saving our oceans 🌊 #nationaloceanday #banplasticbottles #saveourseas #5gyres #worldoceansday." #LeonardoDicaprio #EmmaWaton #toplesswomenruletheworld (at United States)