The Ire of Gyre

April 29, 2008

This is not news to the world, but is news to me. Humans dumping waste into the oceans has had unexpected results.

Currents of the oceans have accumulated the waste into concentrated zones of floating plastic called Gyres. There are 5 major swirling pools of plastic in our oceans. The most discussed one is the North Pacific Gyre which is located between California and Hawaii.

These Gyres contain a high density of small pieces of plastic that make it into almost every part of the ecosystem. This image of the Laysan Albatross shows how it repeatedly mistook the floating debris for food. Unable to expell the plastic, it likely died of starvation.

See more details at Greenpeace.

Our best hope is to have designers pay attention to this and stop producing so much waste. As consumers we need to get better at reducing our consumption, reusing what we have, and making sure the rest gets recycled. But to drive the point home, maybe we should organize a group swim through this stuff?

Stumble it!

Tags: , Albatross, garbage, North Pacific Gyre, Oceans