The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

[Rick Lee]

I've never thrown a plastic bottle anywhere other than in a recycling or garbage bin in my life. Did they all end up in the ocean? How did they get there from the landfill?

[Joe Bob]

The point is....plastic either shouldn't be used in the first place. Reuseable containers is more sustainable.

Ever visit a landfill? They still bury aluminum and plastic drinking containers that have deposits on them. They then cover it with green waste. They call that Alternative Daily Cover (ADC). ADC which then converts to methane gas a greenhouse gas. Dirt is too expensive and the ADC is easy because households seperate it for them in special green cans outside their homes......

Gee let's fill up the landfills FASTER so we can then transport the waste further AWAY and triple the fee the private landfills charge.

Trash kings. We will be mining closed landfills inside of 20 years.

Sheeple......

[flatbutt]

There is a serious opportunity in that gyre. One of our scientists resigned a few years ago to start a recycling business in the UK. He "mines" landfills for recyclables. He's making a big difference and good money.

[Buckterrier]

Plastic = Oil, Oil = $
'Nuff said

[dheinz]

[lukeh]

We're supposed to be the most intelligent creature on the planet yet we contaminate the air we breath, water we drink and soil we grow our food in.

Sadly, agent Smith was correct.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Trash kings. We will be mining closed landfills inside of 20 years.

We should be mining them now and investing in the future.
Recycling will become big business when sourcing the raw material eventually becomes critically expensive.

Huge amounts of valuable methane are lost into the atmosphere daily.
Same with cattle ranches, and other industrial waste sources.
Q: How much methane?
A: Enough to destoy an entire city block: Link between sewer job and San Bruno explosion grows stronger - San Jose Mercury News

[Joe Bob]

Waukesha makes an electrical generator that sits on top of a metahne producing landfill and has a pipe stuck down like a water pump. It runs on the landfill gas.

[pitargue]

The true environmentalists are the homeless who rifle through garbage cans and comb the streets for recyclables. Heck, they even walk or ride bikes; no powered vehicles at all. I guess I'm lucky in my neighborhood, as they are very respectful and neat as well. If I ever get rich, I'm going to start a business w/ these environmentally conscious folks collecting everything to recycle. Wonder if any one of them wouldn't mind getting on a ship and recycling all the crap in the ocean...

[mikeesik]

Originally Posted by rsNINESOOPER

It's like this, If you believe it doesn't exist because you cant see it all floating on the surface in huge piles then your in denial. You probably don't believe that cancer exists either because you cant see that can you. It's remoteness is what keeps the truth at bay for most people because they don't WANT to believe it exists or think it cant hurt them in a personal way so why bother worrying. If you have kids or plan to you should care. The world they will inherit is fast becoming poisonous and causing significant harm to the plants and animals that live on it. I am not a tree huger either but did grow up with backpacking, fishing, farming, etc. In other words I have had a keen eye on the environment indirectly through my daily activities and have noticed many changes in the area I grew up in due to pollution. Such as.... no more frogs in the creek behind the house I grew up in, not a single one. The sound they would make during the summer used to be deafening. Water test indicated high levels of fertilizer compounds.

The mass of floating plastic is really more like a soup beneath the surface where plastics have been largely broken down to the base level so that the water is toxic and does not allow for the food chain to occur normally. It's just a fact and we are all adding to this mass everyday. If more people were even just casually interested in their environment a change could be made but profit, convenience, greed, ignorance, and the "me" as center attitude prevail so change is not possible. It is really not that hard to adopt some simple habits into ones life that reduce your impact, what could it hurt?.

Or just stick your head in the sand and remember/live in the good old days of believing what your government and big business say is good for you. What do they have to loose after all but wealth and power?

[Joe Bob]

Google the Sargasso Sea. Been the pit of the doldrums since mariners documented sea travel.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by lukeh

We're supposed to be the most intelligent creature on the planet yet we contaminate the air we breath, water we drink and soil we grow our food in.

Sadly, agent Smith was correct.

I kept a rat snake fed over the winter that we found in our machines at work. He'd poop and pee up his water without a thought...

[hardflex]

In the video the plastic resembles food and is eaten so it enters the food chain, so it has the potential to be catastrophic to the entire ocean population. Thats a scary scenario!

[kinein]

[URY914]

Soylent Green

[Joe Bob]

Originally Posted by URY914

Soylent Green

Paul....soylent green is people.....they woulda been eaten/disolved by now. It's the stuff that doesn't break down.....

Bad boy....

[URY914]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Paul....soylent green is people.....they woulda been eaten/disolved by now. It's the stuff that doesn't break down.....

Bad boy....

Hey, ya can't blame me for trying to find a solution...........

[Joe Bob]

You missed a good return...yer getting old.

People have implants.....keep up, buddy.