Indian Ocean garbage patch

[sushirain]

An explanation about environmental impact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch#Pho...):

> Unlike organic debris, which biodegrades, the photodegraded plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while remaining a polymer. This process continues down to the molecular level.[26] As the plastic flotsam photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, it concentrates in the upper water column. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms that reside near the ocean's surface. In this way, plastic may become concentrated in neuston, thereby entering the food chain.

[Jetrel]

Having read Larry Niven's Ringworld, I'm brought to think of an eerie possibility this might create; that is - what if this currently non-biodegradable material becomes biodegradable? What if the colossal supply of this material (which as a hydrocarbon, had bound-potential-energy in it), over what's going to be a colossally long period of time, gives enough interaction surface that somewhere out there, a bacteria evolves that breaks down plastic?

I hardly expect this would be the collapse of civilization or anything (as depicted in the book), but it really could have some nasty consequences. Plastic is relied on almost for precisely that reason - the fact that it doesn't decay/rust/collapse over time. That's why we use it for stuff like medical implants, safety gloves, food storage, sanitary containers ... you name it. It could lose its un-decayable and its sanitary property in one go.

Kinda like the problem with overuse of antibiotics.

[Blahah]

There are already many bacteria (and fungi) that can break down plastics. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science...

[ssdfsdf]

sounds a bit like the plot from the Andromeda Strain. Although that organism was clearly extraterrestrial in origin.

[namenotrequired]

For those who care, please support The Ocean Cleanup:

http://www.boyanslat.com/plastic/

An impressive undertaking (founded by a 19 year old, no less) that's creating technology to solve this in ~5 years.

[oftenwrong]

The policy director of 5 Gyres has provided evidence that suggests the existing plan will not work:

http://inhabitat.com/the-fallacy-of-cleaning-the-gyres-of-pl...

[spodek]

For those who care, please reduce your plastic use!

Please try to pollute less all around.

[cbg0]

> we are currently only at about halfway our feasibility study

From http://www.boyanslat.com/plastic5/

[washedup]

The most amazing thing about these garbage patches are the large amounts of bacteria that are feeding off the plastics.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682478/welcome-to-the-plastisphe...

Life, uh, finds a way.

[Filligree]

That article doesn't say they're feeding off it, just colonizing it. I wonder how long it'll be before you're correct, though.

[grej]

Here's a trailer on a current project to create a film about the impact of the problem on Midway Atoll, in the Pacific Garbage Patch: http://aaronwolf.blogspot.com/2014/02/documentary-trailer-mi...

It's heartbreaking.

[mzahir]

The 5 Gyres Foundation http://5gyres.org advocates both cleaning up plastic from the ocean and cutting down the use of it

[RutZap]

Imagine a small gadget (that would fit under the kitchen counter) that would take your plastic waste and recycle it into a polymer of some sort that can be used as material for 3d printers. Then you can recycle your plastic waste and turn it back into other things. This sort of stuff will make plastic truly valuable (which I think it is) and people will stop littering.

Now I don't know much about plastics so I can't say if that's possible or not.. it would be nice if it was :D

[Gravityloss]

If the human can do the sorting since plastic is already marked with number codes then this could be possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_recycling

Easiest is to just collect it and burn it in a central facility though. Simplified, you can burn everything except PVC (number three).

[rsync]

How does the sediment rain in the ocean affect this ?

I would think that if the plastic pollution stopped one day, within a few years most of the plastic would be sequestered at the bottom of the ocean. Even though plastic floats, eventually it gets inside animal bodies which eventually die and rain to the bottom ... yes ?

Genuinely curious...

[zebulom]

In future generations there will be people who devote their lives to clean up the mess that we made. And it will be good lives too.

[guard-of-terra]

Perhaps we should employ harvester vessels that collect that garbage, make something useful out of it?

[citricsquid]

There's a Vice documentary[1] in which reporters visit the "garbage island". The "garbage island" is not how you imagine it, it's literally an ocean of tiny broken down particles of plastic[2] invisible to the naked eye (when looking at the sea) that are in everything, including the fish. There is no way to remove the plastic through harvesting, the only option would be to filter the sea water which has its own set of problems.

[1] http://www.vice.com/en_uk/toxic/toxic-garbage-island-1-of-3

[2] http://i.imgur.com/zLqSGsX.jpg

[Crito]

I suspect that the amount of sealife that you would kill while attempting to finely filter that shear volume of sea water would make doing that worse than doing nothing.

Also, that plastic is really the lowest possible grade of plastic that you can imagine. I'd be surprised if it were good for even synthetic mulch in playgrounds.

[vvvv]

We may be witnessing the genesis of plastic-based lifeforms :P

[alandarev]

And the end of everything else.

[periferral]

If only we could collect all this and give it to this guy

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/garbage-man