The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of litter consisting mainly of plastic. It is described to be a "huge soup of trash" twice the size of Texas and approximately the size of Turkey. The Pacific Trash Vortex is the largest landfill on the planet. 90% of the trash is plastic, 80% which originates on land, and the other 20% coming from seafaring vessels and oil platforms (planet 101). The Vortex extends over an unfixed area, which depending on the degree of plastic concentration, estimates the wide range of the affected area. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is also not the only garbage patch on the earth. The Pacific Trash Vortex is said to be only one in five (1 in 5) existing Trash Vortexes in our oceans. Combining all the vortexes together cover up to 40% of the world ocean. This epidemic is has became a serious problem that should not be taken lightly. Increasing the existence of this, and other votexes as well, can be extremely detrimental not only to animals of land and sea, but humans as well.
The Pacific Trash Vortex is actually composed of two separate vortexes combined. It is composed of the Eastern Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California, and the Western Garbage Patch between east of Japan and west of Hawaii. The two patches are connected by a current called "Subtropical Convergence Zone". A gyre is a great ocean current connected by smaller currents. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was created by the North Pacific Gyre. The North Pacific Gyre is made up of the California current, North Pacific current, and the Kurishimo current. Ocean currents are created by diffusion between warmer and denser water and colder less dense water. The water becomes pushed around in a circle like motion and creates a giant current. When we leave garbage on the intertidal zone, it gets washed into the ocean and gets trapped in these huge currents. Where the two currents meet is where all the garbage gets collected (Greenpeace).
As previously mentioned, plastic is the number one culprit which forms the horrendous vortex. Plastic has been around for over a hundred years. Apart from the very microscopic percentage that is incinerated for good, every piece of plastic ever formed, is still existing today. This epidemic is because plastic does not biodegrade, it photo degrades. It has to be broken down by the sun. When the sun starts to break down the plastic it gives off a milky film, that sinks and does not float. It is approximated that together we dispose of 60 billion pieces of plastic annually (howstuffworks). This amount of waste kills millions of animals every year by either consumption or getting tangled in the debris. Birds and sea creatures become tangled in plastic wrapping or bags and it prevents them of their normal functions like swimming or flying. They are completely helpless to our pollution and are forced to suffer the consequences of our actions. The consumption of this plastic waste is not only harms the sea life, but it can also go back to us, the consumers. As all the fish begin to eat the plastic debris, we then consume these fish. Thus, we start to eat our own garbage.
Humans, especially those in a developed world, are what created the Great Pacific Garbage Vortex. We have gotten in a terrible habit of consuming then discarding and replacing many goods, mostly Chinese goods, at an accelerating rate. After world war 2, America became the country of "throw aways" or plastics designed to be used once and then simply thrown into the trash. Discarding debris creating a vortex made the trash become "out of sight, out of mind", which developed our careless habit. "The United States of America has 5% of the total world's population, but we consume over 30% of