Have You Heard Of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It is a huge swirling mass of broken down plastics that have converged through centuries of pollution in the center of the Pacific Ocean. There is even a Wikipedia page about it.

 

The black portion represents the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

 Surprising Facts About Ocean Pollution

•  The Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to be twice the size of the United States.
• Some areas are called 'dead zones' where nothing lives because the water is lacking oxygen.
• 90% of the pollution is plastic
• Almost every marine organism in Oceans is contaminated by man-made materials.
• Plastics block sunlight which can hinder algae production.

Currently, we use Landfills to dispose (or 'hold') our trash. Yet only 20 years ago we loaded all our garbage on cargo ships and dumped them directly into the ocean. Little did we know all the toxins and harmful material would not 'disappear' as we imagined it would; these methods past and present are to blame for the high amounts of ocean pollution.

Check out this comprehensive site about oceanic pollution. 

Check out this map below of landfills littered throughout South Florida. Landfills can contaminate water supplies, always recycle toxic materials as to assure this doesn't happen.

View Larger Map

Unfortunately, all of these plastics and other trash break down into very small micro pieces, and cover the surface of the water, like a 'plastic soup.' Is our pollution changing the ecosystem of the Ocean as we know it?

NIFTY TRICK #11

Use glass and paper materials (cardboard cartons) whenever possible,  avoid plastics completely! Trash always makes it way to some sort of body of water even when it is disposed of properly, diminishing the usage of plastic can help alleviate this problem in the future.

And of course, DON'T POLLUTE!

Let's work together to keep the most precious resource of our earth clean and safe!

Stay Wavy ;-)