Where did the garbage come from in the Great Pacific garbage patch? How can we stop it?

Plastic garbage

The Ocean Cleanup, via epa / EFE

The bottle of water could come from Los Angeles, Manila Food Container and Shanghai Plastic Bag.

But, regardless of its specific source, almost all garbage from the famous waste ship of the Grand Pacific comes from Pacific Rim countries.

Concerned about the millions of tonnes of waste in the patch – a floating drop of waste halfway between California and Hawaii that's twice the size of Texas – the Ocean Cleanup project sends a giant waste collector to try and get it back . The first of its cleaning systems is launched Saturday near San Francisco.

This is a daunting task: the patch includes about 1.8 billion pieces of waste and weighs 88,000 tons, equivalent to 500 jumbo jets.

And though many scientists claim that it is great that people are trying to clean up the plot, others say that most of our efforts should rather be aimed at stopping the uncontrolled flow of plastic waste in the area. ocean.

How much more? Try to put 95% of our efforts to prevent plastic from entering the ocean, and only 5% for cleaning, says Richard Thompson, head of the International Marine Litter Research Unit at the University of Plymouth. UK.

Thompson said that a massive global effort is needed to tackle the problem, an effort that includes contributions from individuals, policymakers, and the industry. "The way we use plastics – from design to disposal – has to be done more efficiently and more environmentally friendly."

George Leonard, Chief Scientist of the Ocean Conservatory, said, "Time is running out, we have to face this challenge before plastics submerge the ocean."

Go further: See how the Great Pacific Garbage Patch feeds on our disposable culture

Where does this come from?

According to Laurent Lebreton, of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, originally discovered in the early 1990s, garbage comes from countries around the Pacific, including countries in Asia and North and South America.

But in particular, scientists say most of the garbage comes from China and other Asian countries.

This should not be a surprise: Globally, most of the world's plastic waste in the ocean comes from Asia. In fact, according to a study published in 2015 in the journal Science, the six countries most affected by ocean waste are China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

According to this study, the United States brings up to 242 million pounds of plastic waste into the ocean.

China has begun to take measures to stem the flow of garbage floating far from its shores. The country has recently banned the importation of most plastic waste, according to a study published in June in Science Advances.

China has imported about 45% of plastic waste worldwide since 1992 to recycle it, according to the study. In the United States alone, nearly 4,000 shipping containers filled with recyclable plastics per day have been shipped to Chinese recycling plants.

Now where do all these rubbish go?

"It is difficult to predict what will happen to plastic waste that was once destined for Chinese processing facilities," said Jenna Jambeck, associate professor at the University of Georgia's College of Engineering and co-author of the study. . "Some could be diverted to other countries, but most of them do not have the infrastructure to manage their own waste, let alone waste produced by the rest of the world".

This decision means that the United States and other industrialized countries that export their plastic waste to China for recycling will have to find new ways to get rid of their garbage, much of which is already starting to pile up in landfills.

The waste in the ocean could be there for a very long time: "Most plastics do not biodegrade significantly, the plastic waste generated by humans could be with us for hundreds or even thousands of years. 39 years, "said Jambeck.

Since plastics only existed in the 1950s, there is no way of knowing exactly how long it will last in the ocean. If left alone, plastic could stay there for decades, centuries or even longer, Jambeck said.

And we talk a lot about waste.

According to Ocean Conservancy, every year, 8 million tonnes of plastic enter our ocean, in addition to the 150 million tonnes that are already present in our marine environments.

Whether it's through stray plastic bags or plastic straws that pour into gutters or large amounts of poorly managed plastic waste from rapidly growing economies, it's like throwing each week into the ocean a garbage truck from New York. .

From the smallest plankton to the largest whales, plastics have an impact on nearly 700 species of our ocean. And, incredibly, our garbage has reached the stomach of some of the deepest fish in the ocean.

The researchers said that 73% of deepwater fish in the North Atlantic Ocean had consumed plastic particles, called microplastics. According to a recent study, this is among the highest percentages ever observed in fish on Earth.

Another study by the British research company Eunomia indicates that there could be up to 70 million tons of plastic waste on the seabed alone.

And it's not only fish or marine life, we too: Rolf Halden, professor of environmental health engineering at Arizona State University, said that every human being in the developed countries had traces of plastic in his blood.

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