The Garbage Patch

The very thing that makes plastic so useful for consumers, their stability and durability, it’s exactly what makes them a threat and a problem to the marine ecosystems.

10% of plastic end up in the sea and most of them comes from land, from us.

Plastic doesn’t go away. Every piece of plastic we made it’s still here! When we throw it away it doesn’t disappears for good, it’s just out of our sight but the effects they have continue affecting our planet.

The Trash Vortex (also known as Garbage Patch) is an area bigger than Texas and it’s located in the Pacific Ocean. This huge concentration of garbage is swirling slowly around like a clock. It’s estimated that there is six kilos of plastic for one kilo of plankton. This is extremely dangerous for sea creatures that have a much larger probability of eating plastic instead of plankton. This is really dangerous for fishes and humans as well! Sea creatures can die, not only because they suffocate with pieces of plastic, but also because plastic contains many hazardous chemicals. When these chemicals enter in the fish food chain it also affects humans. Large fishes like tuna have an even bigger concentration of dangerous chemicals and that can cause cancers, reduced fertility problems, etc.

This situation is awfully embarrassing for us. How could we let it get to a point that it’s impossible to go back? It’s not possible to clean up the Garbage Patch it would take too many money and effort. The best we can do now it’s prevent it from getting even bigger if we can’t just start putting garbage where it belongs instead of in the oceans.

sources: http://www.greenpeace.org/ varied documents
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUjTHB1lvM&feature=fvst

Ana Rita Costa