I like calling IT the “trash superhighway” and after digesting repulsive statistics  and then hearing politicians pushing to make historical changes, well, I applaud. Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego, who is trying to build on the 1970s success story of replacing the dangerous, sharp-edged, aluminum-can pull tab with one that remains attached to the beverage can.

She said it is time to attach the plastic bottle to its lid. Nice work, Lori! It may not be a hazard to people, but it definitely has a serious impact on marine life —- birds and mammals

What in the heck is this patch of ocean called the infamous “Plastic Pacific Garbage Patch”?

It’s described as an oceanic trash dump, a giant bowl of plastic soup, a place where sea turtles and albatrosses fill their stomachs with lighters and bottle caps.

A mass of plastic in the Pacific, increasing tenfold each decade since 1945, is now the size of Texas and killing everything in its wake

First, they said it was a “large area” the size of Texas. Then it was two Texases. Then, a continent.  They call it the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Trash Island, The North Pacific Gyre, or the Pacific Trash Vortex.

Some researchers believe that more than 5 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean has become a soup of plastic confetti.

It was discovered in 1997 by a Californian sailor, surfer, volunteer environmentalist, and early-retired furniture restorer named Charles Moore, who was heading home with his crew from a sailing race in Hawaii, at the helm of a 50ft catamaran that he had built himself.

Some say it’s not a “patch” of garbage, nor a trash island. It’s more like a huge bowl of diluted plastic soup, from California to Japan.

Imagine a handful of plastic cornflakes sprinkled over a football field…. Now imagine 9 million football fields in the Pacific Ocean.

12 years ago, Captain Charles Moore accidentally “discovered” the plastic debris debacle in the North Pacific while sailing an infrequently traveled route from Hawaii to Los Angeles.  Stunned by the endless river of plastic junk he found – toothbrushes, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments –- Moore decided to return with research tools and scientific sampling methods to better understand what he saw.

In 1999, Moore et al. published the groundbreaking study, 4,200 miles across the Pacific, collecting surface samples the entire way.

What we found this year: the problem has gotten much, much worse. Though our samples are still being processed, Captain Moore guesstimates a 5-fold increase in ten years, bumping plastic to plankton ratios up to 30:1.

And still, we tear through plastic bags and bottles like they’re going out of style…..

Two researchers set sail on a raft of junk from Long Beach to Hawaii, along with messages in bottles which will eventually be delivered to legislators in DC.  Cool Video about this journey

“This is the most shocking thing I have seen,” Oprah says.

In some places, the floating debris—estimated to be about 90 percent plastic—goes 90 feet deep. Elsewhere, there are six times more pieces of plastic than plankton, the main food source for many sea animals.

Worse still, there seems to be nothing we can do to clean it up, so how do we turn the tide?

Four bills that aim to slash the amount of plastic waste headed for the Pacific Ocean would phase out foam food containers, force manufacturers to attach caps to beverage bottles and charge a fee for throwaway bags used to bag groceries.

It’s all part of what has become a perennial campaign by state lawmakers and environmental activists to target the plastic that accounts for an estimated two-thirds of all trash in the ocean and 90 percent of its floating debris —- and poses a serious threat to marine life.

Typically, a trickle of the introduced legislation becomes law. And the unsuccessful bills either get discarded or recycled into new bills.

Two of this year’s bills —- the ones that address plastic bags and foam containers —- are repackaged legislation from the last couple of years.

If you liked this post, here’s two green eyegasm plastic bottle posts that are scandalous
How can canned tomatoes and water be certified organic when the lining of the can contains BPA?
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