Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Rios, L. M., Jones, P. R., Moore, C., & Narayan, U. V. (2010). Quantitation of persistent organic pollutants adsorbed on plastic debris from the Northern Pacific Gyre’s “eastern garbage patch”. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 12(12), 2226-2236.

This journal by Rios, Jones, Moore, & Narayan basically aimed at enlightening people on where the Great Pacific Garbage Patch existed, how this garbage accumulated, the environmental harm it has caused to the environment and the presented some measures to reducing the severity of the problem. According to their journal, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch subsists in the northern Pacific Ocean, extending between United States and Japan.

Out of their research, they indicated that 80% of all the plastics that have accumulated to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has its origin in land based activities taking place in Asia and North America while the remaining 20% from boats and the ships operating in the ocean. According to their research, the trash has taken six years approximately to leave North American coast and ended up to become  a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean while from Asia it has approximately taken one year to reach the destination.

Their research has also indicated that the living organisms dwelling in these settings have experienced significant harm from those plastics. For instance, the Sea turtles tend to assume that those plastics jellyfish and consume them. Similarly, the Albatrosses mistake the plastic resin pellets with fish eggs, and feed their young ones. These and other incidences have led to health problems to these organisms and ultimately they die. The garbage patch layer which blocks the sunlight penetration hinders the growth of algae, and with fewer algae the entire food chain in the environment is disrupted.

In attempts to come up with solutions to this problem, Rios and his colleagues acknowledged the fact that cleaning this mess is impractical and the focus should be on preventing more accumulation of plastics in the already built garbage patches. In this approach, consumers are encouraged to use biodegradable plastics if they must use plastic. Alternatively, recycling plastics properly whenever used was another effective measure tabled by the journal.

Sesini, M. (2011). The garbage patch in the oceans: the problem and possible solutions. Columbia University, New York Google Scholar.

Sesini in this paper, he first acknowledged marine plastic pollution as major issue facing the oceans in general with the biggest accumulation of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which lies between Hawaii and California. The aim of his paper was generally to propose a possible solution which can be used to solve the problem.

Sesini acknowledges The Ocean Cleanup technology which was founded by a Dutchman, Boyan Slat as an effective method to solve the problem; Boyan Slat had invented this method to clean up the mess in the Pacific. According to Sesini, he sees this method as effective from the approach, in which it was devised, considering the question, “Why move through the ocean, if the ocean can move through you?” Through the approach, it has reduced the work of moving around the ocean collecting the trash and instead encouraged collection of the trash from one point since it’s always in motion.

The technology will deploy floating barriers, and by utilizing the natural movement of currents in the ocean will passively concentrate those plastics itself. The technology works practically as all the currents will flow beneath the barriers to prevent any by-catch of sea-life, while the lighter-than-water plastics will be gathered ahead of the floating barrier. He concluded by indicating that if a 100 km clean up array can be deployed for at least 10 years, it will passively do away with almost half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Grant, R., & Ryder, B. (2009). Drowning in plastic: The great Pacific garbage patch is twice the size of France. The Telegraph, 24.

According to their paper, whose main aim was to reveal the size of Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Grant and Ryder indicated that GPGP had expanded more than it was thought of to become worse. According to their study, it was increasing exponentially at very high rates than in the surrounding waters. Their study indicated that the trash and the seawater which was loosely held by Pacific currents span 617,762 square miles, approximately twice the dimension of Texas. They revealed that this patch contained all sort of substances, the main being plastics. They estimated it to weigh more than 80,000 tons. Of that, they indicated that 46 % came from the disposed fishing nets.

They indicated that 80% of all the plastics that have accumulated to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has its origin in land based activities taking place in Asia and North America while the remaining 20% from boats and the ships operating in the ocean. According to their research, the trash has taken six years approximately to leave North American coast and ended up to become  a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean while from Asia it has approximately taken one year to reach the destination.