Any ideas for a cleanup??

Has anyone seen any aerial/satellite photos of this? I've been looking for a while without any luck. could be a powerful image if it exists.

Solar powered trawlers? Floating self-powering clean-incinerator boats?

Best picture I could find...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59204382@N00/2056712238/

How about a Plasma Gassification Plant?

I read somewhere that satellite images don't show the trash because it is mostly small plastic particles which reflect light and do not photograph well. In that same article they said cleanup would be next to impossible: cost, size, etc.

This immediately brought to my mind the article that claimed a specialized microwave could turn plastic back into oil.

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12141

If it works, and if it is efficient enough to net energy, there may be a day when someone builds a large floating refinery to scoop up the plastic from the gyre, nuke it into oil, and pump it into waiting tankers.

Also, I'd like to add my voice to those requesting photos. I think satalite photos would not be detailed enough, but a picture with people on a boat surrounded by garbage as far as the eye can see--that should drive home the point.

Is this pollution that has settled underwater or floating above sea level? From the looks of the image, these areas are in the middle of the ocean, miles below sea level. I don't think cleanup on that large of a scale in these areas would even be possible, let alone feasible, especially with the priorities of the country so out of whack. Also, I don't think aerial photography would be possible if the pollution is underwater.

Would make a great use for robotic sail boats with collection compartments? Or combined sail, solar and wind generators?

I wonder if bulk sail cargo carriers with self power assist for docking would be viable today?

vsk

while it's a lot of junk, this is not a big raft of junk, its things floating on and below the surface. it's something like one piece for every ~500 square feet of ocean surface.

not dense enough to really see from space, or be terribly easy to tidy up.

How stupid are we to think that these actions have absolutely no consequence...

@Kristopher: The Independent (UK) is reporting that it can't be seen from above. I'll copy the bit:

- Mr Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. "You only see it from the bows of ships," he said. -

@ Kristopher Larsen, i don't think that you can see it by airplane or even by boat. The fact is that most part of the garbages are above ocean's surface...

i mean below... sorry

There's a good video online from a few years back, all about the Garbage Patch Gyre here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3892310789953943147

There was also a really good series in the LA TImes last year that's worth taking a look at... if you don't want to sleep anymore. Check it out here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.special

It's all part of a much larger issue

We really need more public awareness of the consequences of plastics.

Maybe TREX or some other plastic recycling manufacturer could scoop up the plastics and reform them into something more useful??afterall, if they're taking my plastic bags at the grocery store, why not get a trawler and start scooping up the profits?

Hello. We are talking about stuff that is often minuscule in size, spread out over an enormous remote area, contaminated with sea water and stuff growing on it, and weighs 100 million tons!

There is no realistic fix. We as a species actually need to stop producing and using so much plastic.

Alan Weisman's excellent book, The World Without Us, has a section about this gyre on page 122. Most of the plastic garbage comes from the land. Since plastic doesn't biodegrade, it overtime, blows in the wind or flows down rivers until it reaches the sea. Currents then take it all over the ocean, with much of it ending up in the huge North Pacific gyre.

More from the book:

There is six times more plastic than plankton on the gyre's surface! In India alone, 5,000 processing plants produce plastic bags. Kenya makes 4000 tons of plastic a month with no potential for recycling. Filter-feeders such as jellyfish and salps try to eat the plastic nurdles that litter the ocean by the billions thinking them to be fish eggs or krill. Toxins from plastic are contaminating the food chain.

All of this plastic has appeared in barely more than 50 years. Except for a small amount that's been incinerated, all of it is still with us somewhere in the environment. It surpasses 1 billion tons and continues to accumulate at a high rate.

There are skimmer boats that work the rivers around New York City to pick up wind blown garbage. If the material is large enough and close enough to the surface such a skimmer could capture it. If the material is suspended deep enough, even 2-3 meters it might require a different method to capture. I doubt this could be done for profit, but a cleanup effort might be funded by Pacific Rim countries that have contributed to the mess.

As far as disposal, plasma gasification does seem like the best idea. The material is mostly hydrocarbons, so it would be broken down to CO and H otherwise known as syngas. It could be burned in a gas turbine to generate electricity. You'd end up with a much smaller amount of slag including metals used as stabilizers and colorants. That would probably be toxic and have to be landfilled appropriately.

Organic material wouldn't pose a problem as it would be broken down by the plasma arc into CO and H, too.

Lovely. Another thing to worry about. I wonder how many other disgusting and horrible things we have caused?

And most floats, some sinks. It would cost billions of dollars to clean up. But then, what will billions of dollars be when the earth is a big ball of trash?

This is such a sad fact. I almost wish Hawaii were in the middle of it - maybe we would have done something sooner.

Every single person on Earth would have to pick up 50 pounds of trash to clean it up. That's just the Pacific. One has to imagine the Atlantic has just as much, somewhere.

If only 1 in 100 people cares enough to help, participants would have to pick up 5000 pounds of trash - each.

The reality is, we are all responsible for it.

The plastic kills birds and turtles by clogging them. Then, the plastic is the only part to remain intact as the animals bio-degrade, so it can kill again.

I plan to do my fair share in my local area. I live in Florida where there are lots of small ponds where beautiful birds come to drink. It is more enjoyable than I would have imagined to clean up the trash I find on the shores. I just bring one small bag at a time and it only takes a few minutes to fill. I end up getting most of the trash I see.

We also have to reduce our consumption - be mindful of the number of extra bags stores tend to offer.

Please help.

@ Kristopher et al: there's no question we're producing too much plastic and it's trashing the planet, but seriously doesn't it strike all of you as strange that we're hearing reports of a trash clump the size of Hawaii, and no one can produce any images of it.

Whenever I hear about this phenomena there's a picture or video of trash in the ocean, but it's never THE plastic island. I understand the current/gyre idea, it looks clear there's lots of trash in certain areas, but does this thing exist as a clump or not? If there's no actual 'island,' than we detract from the larger issue by framing the discussion this way.

maybe we just found a use for all those destructive trawling fishing boats. Would need the government to pay them to do it ( i doubt the garbage has much 'value' to a recycler). The cost maybe huge- but not doing anything may ultimately be even more expensive. :(

This is such a damned shame and I'm really disappointed to hear so many people say (online) how there's nothing that can be done.

I'm challenging that statement and will be working to prove them wrong, while raising awareness in the mass media and public eye.

To that end, I've started a website to serve as HQ for these efforts, at the aptly named site:

http://www.greatpacificgarbagepatch.com

Please come by and say hi, we'd love to hear your feedback there on this and any related issues.

This is such a damned shame and I'm really disappointed to hear so many people say (online) how there's nothing that can be done.

I'm challenging that statement and will be working to prove them wrong, while raising awareness in the mass media and public eye.

To that end, I've started a website to serve as HQ for these efforts, at the aptly named site:

http://www.greatpacificgarbagepatch.com

Please come by and say hi, we'd love to hear your feedback there on this and any related issues.

To me it would be great to work with a couple of terr huggarsputting together a grant asking for funding to be able to see how much profet could be maid from mining this blight on our children we have been asleep at the wheelnow is time to once again get to it!I have many ideas on what to wright. I do not find joy in working alone!Are you out there reading this if so call me cell to cell or fi you are like me you can call collect, jest state name andplastic trash,we will connecy. my numbers are land line 8089551246 cell 8082286987. I look foward to being on a large ship exploring this treshure of our making...,,1IF ONLY!!! p,s.lets make building blocks they can be made in any shape as orbered and they will last a very long time . this could work,, join me, we will help MOTHER EARTH ....lets have some real ffffuuuuu, ok by me ..how about YOU???

ALOHA ALWAYS
LARRY RODRIQUES
YOUR BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER

I have looking for info on this and see about 1 articles worth of info repeated about 100 different ways..multiple links to pictures that have no relevance such as a picture of a net then a picture of some plastic garbage on the floor??? No satellite pictures and a bunch of lame excuses why a garbage patch twice the size of texas cant be seen and wait...????that must be about 1600 miles wide covering most of the distance between calif and Hawaii??? or how about a picture of a decomposing bird that looks like some kid put a bunch of taquria salsa containers in its rib cage.... I see birds and animals eat and it is amazing how birds will eat A LIZARD and spit out its bones and how most animals can eat food but avoid th rocks and dirt picked up off the ground with that food... but they gobble down plastic???

I appreciate the concern for the environment and agree things need to be done... but when propaganda and misinformation is spread and regenerated it makes the whole cause loose because i cant believe anything said

seems a respectable researcher might have an unedited video of a net being thrown in the waTER and pulling it up with a bunch of garbage

still waiting for a link to some compelling info...any?

At the end of the day its too late. Who cares about the rubbish in the ocean. I know that this problem doesnt affect us at the present but our future generations will suffer. Well look at all the problems we have at the moment. There are wars, people are starving, and people are dying. Who really cares about the future if we cant help our people in the present.

This was the original artical i read printed by The Independent (London), 2-5-08 is in full below my comments.

The reports I have seen on this vary from the size of Texas to as large as 2x the United States land mass. I have seen numerous pictures of garbage washed up on shores, inlets, and islands and even a neatly arranged set of syringes washed up on the beach. I still cant find a picture of this "soup" all the articles keep mentioning. I saw a sat pic that showed the currents, but nowhere did i see a 100 million tons of plastic debris. clear plastic or not something that big would be easily seen by the naked eye for a good distance. I think its like the global warming thing "it may not be true but we have to do someting to prevent it from happening" All this sounds like to me is just another way for the US Government to raise taxes, because this giant mass of floating garbage is all the fault of the United States of course. link a pic of this floating garbabe dump and Ill gladly withdraw my comments. And dont talk about it being underwater becasue if it was who was the guy that saw it to tell the tale?

Since at least the early 1990s, trillions of discarded plastic items have converged, held together by swirling currents, to form the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch that now covers an area twice the size of the United States and weighs about 100 million tons. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there," said one researcher quoted in a February dispatch in London's The Independent. An oceanographer predicted that the Patch would double in size in just the next decade. A 2006 United Nations office estimated that every square mile of ocean contains, on average, 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. [The Independent (London), 2-5-08]

Helpme..:
Who cares about our present when there is no future?

Where do we start?
and where does all the plastic go once it is collected?
why aren't there any good picture of the vortex?
Why don't enough people know about this?

We need to act on this situation, spread awareness, and refuse, reuse, reduce, recycle plastic use.

There are no pictures because there are none
the point is i tried to look up information to back up what that article said and was unable to find any scientific evidence to support the story

The Independent (London), 2-5-08

We all need to do our part to limit our impact on the earth

but don't spread misinformation

here are some of the clues that you may be being duped by the news/media

when they quote a researcher but don't provide a name

"said one researcher"
"An oceanographer predicted "

or

they use information from what sounds like an official or important organization but in reality could be anybody

"A 2006 United Nations office estimated "

there is not one person or institution name in the article.

"Any ideas for a cleanup??"

Sure, if you've got a couple hundred billion dollars that you don't need and would like to donate.

On a serious note they say this thing is bigger than texas how come there are only a few questionable photos of something supposedly so large? If it is submerged and not floating how do they know that it is bigger than texas in the first place? Also, if it's submerged it wouldn't really be an "island" of garbage would it?

Did researchers swim or navigate along it taking measurements? I do not doubt the amount of garbage in the oceans, I guess I'm just agitated that there are no decent photos of this phenomenon even though people go on spouting its apparent size.

Regardless of whether or not this "soup" exists, the fact is that we need to all be aware and responsible for how we treat this planet. We have to start somewhere, and even if it seems a small part, every bit makes a difference. It is a HUGE problem and there are no easy answers, though education and research on better alternatives to plastics may be in the long run a better way of tackling this problem.