Editorial: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

By Bart King This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which released between 11 and 30 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, causing an estimated $15 billion dollars worth of damages and lingering ecological effects along 1,300 miles of coastline. And though oil spills continue to occur with increasing frequency–the most recent happened off the coast of Australia just two weeks ago–oil is not the biggest polluting threat to the world’s oceans, at least not in its liquid form. Plastic is. I was shocked to learn there is an area in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that contains an estimated 4 million tons of floating plastic waste. A circulation of ocean currents causes trash discarded along the Pacific Rim to gather in this area, known as the North Pacific Gyre. The most densely polluted area is roughly twice the size of Texas and is alternately called the Eighth Continent, the Plastic Vortex or Garbage Island. Although floating plastic bags, bottles and foam can be seen in every direction, it’s the plastic that has broken down into much smaller pieces that is the greatest cause for concern. Plastic does […]

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