Plastics in the Ocean

I’m stepping back from the East Asia topic this week to talk about something that affects us all, plastic pollution. Everyday we use plastic and most of us disregard it as something normal, but after that plastic leaves you house, where does it go? Perhaps you recycle it, in which case it goes to a recycling plant where it is cleaned and prepped for reuse, or you may throw it away, where it goes to landfills.

But invariably some of the plastic we throw away flies out and will drift toward the ocean.

As a San Diego native, I grew up on the beach, next to lifeguard tower 14, and I will bet you that at some point when you walk along the beach, you will come across some sort of plastic. Once that plastic hits the water, it is only a matter of time before it ends up in the ocean and gets caught in one of the currents that will take it to the middle of the Pacific, to a place dubbed The Garbage Patch.

Some describe it as a floating island of garbage, but experts on it say that it is more of an underwater conglomeration of junk. They estimate that it is twice the size of Texas. Most of the plastic that is swirling around are the little balls that are the base for every plastic product.

Animals come to the patch and eat the plastic, because they think it is food, often they die because of the plastic buildup in their stomachs.

Now, I’m not preaching to you, telling you that you should stop using plastic and switch to something more biodegradable, I use plastic everyday too. I drink out of plastic cups, throw my trash out in plastic bags, write with mechanical pencils and so forth. But this is something that everyone should be aware of. I guarantee you, the next time you throw that piece of plastic away, you’ll think about it.