Monday, July 9, 2018

Garbage islands


The title itself should have already put you in thoughts. By garbage islands in common language, we mean the “Great Pacific garbage patch” or “Pacific trash vortex”.  This phenomenon was first described by Day et al. (1988) who found relatively high concentrations of marine debris as well as pelagic plastics and chemical sludge, accumulating in regions governed by ocean currents. The basic idea is that once the garbage is thrown in the oceans, the oceanic currents enclose them in a gyre and prevent them from going onshore, so they accumulate in the oceans.
You can see visualization on the link below:

There is a big misunderstanding of this “trash vortex”; first of all it is synthesized from microplastics creating blurriness at the waters. Microplastics are small plastic objects that have been relatively broken down (Kaminari, 2017).  This means that most of the debris are practically underwater and only a small proportion stay on float, which means that picture 1 is misinformation and from a little search it is found out that it is taken from a great earthquake in Wakuya, Japan.



Picture 1: Earthquake in Wakuya, Japan

Leaving all the misinformation aside, the problem is still there. According to the MacArthur foundation report (2016) estimates that, there are 150 million tons of plastics in the ocean today. If we continue with the same pace, the oceans will contain 1 ton of plastics for every 3 tons of fish by 2025 and by 2050 the total plastics in the ocean will outweigh the fish. The effects on public health, on the environment and in future generations will be enormous if the problem remains unaddressed (Efferth and Norbert, 2017). Plastic litter is frequently mistaken for food; sea turtles, Laysan albatrosses and black-footed albatross have already plastic traces in their stomachs (Schuyler, 2014; USFWS, 2012). Via the intake of microplastics into the food chain, human food chain included bioaccumulation of toxic compounds happen; Human biomonitoring study indicates that plastic compounds are already present in human blood cells (Koch and Calafat, 2009).
However, there is still hope. In 2008 the Environmental Cleanup Coalition was formed in order to address this pollution. The cause also joined independent companies like 4ocean. This company makes a bracelet out of recycled materials and promise to remove one pound of ocean trash per time. Our support on this cause will be crucial in the years to come. Start now!

References

4Ocean. Retrieved  01/ 04/ 2018, from: https://4ocean.com/
Day HR, Shaw GD, Ignell ES. (1988). The quantitative distribution and characteristics of neuston plastic in the North Pacific Ocean. NOAA.
Efferth Thomas, Norbert W Paul. (2017). Threats to human health by great ocean garbage patches. The Lancet Planetary Health, p. 301-303.
Kaminari A.E. (2017). Microplastics in the marine environment. TheMindofNature. Retrieved 01/ 04/ 2018, from: https://themindofnature.wixsite.com/themindofnature/single-post/2017/12/21/Microplastics-in-the-marine-environment
Koch HM , Calafat AM. (2009). Human body burdens of chemicals used in plastic manufacture. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, p. 2063-2078.
MacArthur Ellen Foundation. (2016). The new plastics economy . World ecnomic forum.
Schuyler AQ. (2014). Ingestion of Marine Debris by Sea Turtles. PHD thesis - University of Queensland.
USFWS-U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. (2012). Discarded Plastics Distress Albatross Chicks. Retrieved 01/ 04/ 2018, from: https://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2012/10/24/Discarded-plastics-distress-albatross-chicks


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Πόσιμο Νερό

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