By Chuck Woodbury
EDITOR
I love the Oregon Coast. U.S. 101 from north to south is surely one of the most beautiful highways in America, often hugging the stunning coastline. Pullouts are sometimes as close as a few miles apart, many of them small State Parks with picnic areas and trails leading to incredibly beautiful and often isolated beaches. State Parks with campgrounds are evenly spaced with plenty of room this time of year (not so in the summer). And for every State Park campground there are a dozen commercial RV parks and many county parks.
The beach pictured below is about 200 feet from my campsite near Newport. I took this photo on a morning walk. I was alone on the beach.
It was low tide, so there was a lot of marine debris left behind as you can see in the photo.
What you cannot see is the other debris — plastic — hundreds of thousands of pieces of it is my guess. It’s red, blue, green, purple, yellow, black, white and clear. Most pieces are the size of a dime or quarter. But some is smaller — button sized or even smaller. There are countless bottle caps.
The sight of it disgusted me. Seagulls and crows were picking at it. I’m not sure about here, but birds elsewhere are eating it. In the Marshall Islands, dead Albatross are everywhere, their stomachs so full of plastic there’s no room for food. The mothers feed it to their chicks.
What struck me this morning for the first time was that this stuff didn’t end up here from picnickers leaving their trash behind. It was in the ocean and floated in. How much more is out there? See the chart below for an idea.
I picked up about 100 pieces on my 20-minute walk. When I returned to the motorhome I emptied it on a dinner plate. That’s what you see below.
Later, I thought it was ironic that I placed it on a dinner plate. Scientists say we are all eating plastic every day — the fish we eat contain it — and we eat the fish. And it’s getting worse all the time.
I’ve visited the Oregon Coast at least a dozen times in my life. I have never seen the plastic pollution this bad. It horrified me so much today that I felt slightly nauseous. It scared me. Plastic does not rot away. It will be on earth long after you and I, our kids and our grandkids are gone. It will be here in 1,000 years. Plastic bottles can last 450 years.
Do yourself and everyone else a favor and quit buying disposable plastic bottles. And bring your own grocery bags to the store instead of using plastic bags.
Here are some facts about plastic from earthday.org:
Good article, Chuck. But how does the plastic get in the oceans ? Are island nations, some of which are quite populous, dumping their garbage in the ocean? Do cruise ships and yachts dump their garbage overboard?
But where to start? Well, in fact, that might be an easier decision to make than one would think. It turns out that about 90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world’s oceans gets flushed through just 10 rivers: The Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong (in that order).
https://m.dw.com/en/almost-all-plastic-in-the-ocean-comes-from-just-10-rivers/a-41581484
Somehow that does not surprise me:( We need to do all we can to discourage single use plastic, needless overpackaging, etc. but unless the whole world gets involved………
We (US) export our garbage to some of these areas. So, the plastic bottle or grocery sack I/we don’t recycle, may be the one floating down the Macong River to the ocean.
@4ocean.com
It’s not just bottles and grocery sacs. Globally, we recycle only about 10% of the single use plastics that we use. Most, if not all plastic trays, bags, bottles, cellophanes, and most containers, are not recycled, not to mention hard plastics used for toys, household products, car parts and more. We are drowning in plastic.
The solution: reduce and reuse.
For sure, Bonnie! Do you know of the work of “4ocean.com” ?
Where is the UN in all of this? How about putting sanctions on countries that do no make an effort to change?
Just this morning I passed a cruise ship in port. A forklift was taking cardboard boxes (broken down and strapped to a pallet) from the ship and loading them onto a recycling 18-wheeler. Appears they recycle when they return to port.
Carnival (who owns most US cruise lines) has paid millions of dollars in fines for dumping. Repeatedly paid fines – as in they did not stop once fined the first time. They make noises about changing corporate policy but thousands of passengers on each cruise ship makes a lot of garbage each week. I’ve never seen any attempt to recycle plastics on board a ship. I haven’t visited all of the far eastern nations blamed for polluting but I have been to China. The air and water pollution there was awful. Many of the rivers we saw were so full of trash that I seriously wondered if it was possible to walk across them without ever touching the water.
Sadly it is our modern culture to blame. Plastics will always be always be with us and their use will continue to increase world wide. We have conditioned people to a lifestyle that would be hard to change. I am in my 70’s and never would have thought people would pay for a bottle water to drink. Water was free and the thought of paying for it was like paying for the air your breath. Now I buy water and drink 5 or 6 bottles a day. I always properly dispose of the plastics I use but once it leaves my hands I have no control how or where it ends up.
john why would you not buy your water in gallon jugs and use a glass to drink out of? i am not sure plastics are properly dispose of anywhere.
Find out where it goes. You might be inspired to rethink those bottles. Research where the bottled water comes from. It might come from the “Smart Water” tap at their factory. Your tap at home might be as good?
The cost of those bottles add up. Maybe a Berky filter might be cheaper in the long run.
Have a great day, KT
Get a high end water filtration system ad stop buying plastic water bottles.
Hi John
I’m almost 70, I agree, when I was in my youth the thought of paying for drinking water was absurd. However now it’s big business, i refuse to buy bottled water. Most municipal water systems provide safe drinking water, or you can bring your own! We don’t have to buy bottled water. Just my two cents.
I agree. At 75 I can honestly say I’ve never purchased water or ever even drank water from a plastic bottle.
😿
Just wondering if all the proliferation of Plastics on the Pacific coast could be the “Fallout” if you will, of the two terrible Tsunamis in Indonesia, and Japan that had to have sweep millions of pounds of plastics into the oceans?
Could the debris not be analyzed to get a idea of its source.
Just a thought !
The Authorities already know where it came from! But, unless these 3rd WORLD countries are willing to deal with the problem, nothing will ever change!
When you consider how much CRAP Americans buy, and allot of it comes from CHINA and other countries in Asia! It is really sad how Man is slowly destroying this world!
Hi Chuck, My wife and I are both Campers and Scuba divers, we are well aware of the plastics in the ocean. It’s something that divers have been aware of a long time. A lot of the plastic that ends up on the west coast is from across the ocean, not saying that we in the states aren’t contributing to the problem. I have read stories and seen videos of divers removing plastic “6 pack” can holders from around turtles and other marine life. I read an article the other day that one beer maker has switched to containers made from a type of cardboard that not only dissolves, but also serves as food for some marine life. So I guess there is hope. A few of our dive buddies make a few dives a year to help do our part of trying to keep things clean. Thanks for letting me vent !! Mark
90 percent of the plastic in the world’s oceans comes from Asia because they dump their garbage in the ocean. Almost all of the world’s heavy metal and toxic chemical residues in the ocean also come from Asia because almost all of their industrial waste and runoff is dumped untreated into their streams and rivers where it flows into the ocean. If every American stopped using plastic bags it would make no difference. The solution is to pressure industrializing Asian nations to implement modern anti pollution measures like western industrialized nations.
Correct Steve:
Plus, when you consider the Air Pollution in Asia (mostly China) and how people over there have to wear masks, just to try to filter out the Factory Smoke and other pollutants in the Air.
Yes, Man is slowly killing himself! And if the WORLD were to try to correct this problem, it would take a VERY LONG Time (someone knows the answer), but probably longer than most of us has to live!
Except when we ship our trash over there and they don’t actually recycle it, they just dump it. So we are in fact a major part of the problem.
20 years ago I was working for the U.S. Navy Environmental Program Office. The Navy was spending significant money developing and implementing procedures and technologies with the goal of eliminating plastic waste being dumped into the oceans from our ships. The Navy has made great progress; but unfortunately, the problem of plastic waste pollution is getting worse. Sooner or later, when we kill the oceans and destroy the climate, Mother Nature WILL have her revenge…and we homo sapiens are not going to like it!
Some people care but lots more don’t give a dam. The easiest way would be for Govt to give a year notice ,ban all plastic containers and those company who didn’t comply would not be able to sell their stuff.
People would lose their employment, don’t worry because for those who did find a solution they would need people to fill the self’s
100% agree! It is time to change. No more plastic on earth please.
Yeah, because the countries that do 95% of the polluting will abide. Tell that to China, Indonesia, the Philippines et al. Good luck.
Yeah like we ship our plastic to them and they dump it instead of us being the ones that dump it. Same result , just different location.
Much of the pollution in our oceans is generated from china and other industrialized nations that do not care about the environment or follow the rules.
What rules? “Rules” should ban single-use plastic everywhere.
What makes anyone think Americans are less problematic than others? Ignorant prejudices have no place in this discussion.
Your “prejudice” is actually the FACT that Asian countries ARE polluting far more.
Facts are not “prejudice”.
Absolutely disgusting what we are doing to this beautiful planet.
For the people blaming plastic on the beaches on Asian populations just walk the beaches of Lake Ontario. Those piles of plastic litter didn’t land from Asia.
Excellent article Chuck. Unfortunately there is no quick fix, or even any fix to this devastating situation. It just seems to be part of human nature to hide from the grim reality of the planet’s future. Sad but true.
OK you’d need a microscope to read that quote above. So I don’t know what it says but:
“But specifically, scientists say, the bulk of the garbage patch trash comes from China and other Asian countries.
This shouldn’t be a surprise: Overall, worldwide, most of the plastic trash in the ocean comes from Asia. In fact, the top six countries for ocean garbage are China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Thailand, according to a 2015 study in the journal Science. ”
Of course some comes from the US but much of it was dumped into Chinese rivers where pollution control laws are a joke.
Years ago, there was great fanfare about processing plastic back into fuel oil. Did this actually work, or was it just to harvest money and press releases?
No, the process is available and has been done.
Just not enough profit for corporations to get involved
Exactly D.W. Thus no will to change the status quo by governments whose prime function is to collect taxes.
I spend months on the beaches from the Carolinas to mid-Fl and the Gulf. I’ve never seen anything like that. I also spend many days in my boat on the Atlantic. The worst I’ve seen is commercial boats dumping trash and holding tanks overboard. It doesn’t happen often but it happens. I’ve seen it mostly when commercial fishing boats dump their dead by catch over.
Captn John, with all due respect, you must’ve missed the Padre Island National Seashore area in the Gulf. We were visiting Port Aransas (where the beaches are quite clean and beautiful) and drove down to PINS one day. The amount of plastic debris along the shore was disgusting: flip flops, pieces of toys, 2L soda bottles, and the never-ending piles of water bottles. I know the nauseous feeling Chuck is talking about.
I stopped at the Main Office to ask a Ranger about it. I didn’t need to. There was a 20′ long display of debris that was picked up from the beach. The variety of mostly plastic items was astonishing and sickening. The info explained that the PINS location is at the perfect spot for tides to deposit the waste.
Imagine needing a huge display in the Ranger office dedicated solely to this sickening problem.
This is an area where we as humans can actually make progress. I hope Trump is adding language to address this problem to our trade deals with China and others.
There’s a museum in Forks, WA called the Beachcomber Museum which is a revelation. I wish I could attach some photos to this comment. The owner has accumulated tons of materials he found on the beach section that he owns on the Pacific. Much of what he has is easily traced to Asia, including stuff from the Fukushima nuclear event. None of this excuses our practices in the U.S. but it does support the comments about much of the Pacific garbage patches originating in Asian countries. I hate what we’re leaving to our children and descendants.
Here’s a link but you can search on your own for John’s Beachcomber Museum:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g58476-d8471947-Reviews-John_s_Beachcombing_Museum-Forks_Clallam_County_Washington.html
We can do our part, but the fact is most of the oceans’s waste is from Asian countries like China.
If they don’t control their dumping, it will continue to build. The west coast see’s most of this due to prevailing winds and currents pushing it our way.
A German study showed that 85 – 95% of all plastic waste in the oceans comes from 10 rivers in Asia, Africa, India and South America. Some countries pay to have plastics recycled in these countries and don’t follow up on the process and the plastic is dumped, ending up in the oceans. We can do our part but there must be more done to eliminate plastics and more oversight on recycling programs.
World wide use of hemp can help greatly. Must be legalized world wide.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=hemp+plastic&form=EDGNTT&qs=HS&cvid=f59bfc34c11247398a18b7b1acb2395f&cc=US&setlang=en-US&elv=AY3%21uAY7tbNNZGZ2yiGNjfPaBxlak9DYRHKIxMMV26%21LG8f2OqBIY737JFntUUJ*8ocpIf7T7w8TDrkK1geOunpIylSBJgDrmNR8keNIYrzc&plvar=0&PC=DCTS
https://www.green-flower.com/articles/448/7-ways-hemp-plastic-could-change-the-world
Thanks for that web site.
All my life I’ve heard it called “ditch weed”
Did you know that until recently, when China stopped taking it, 70% of the world’s plastic was shipped there – including OURS? Recycling haulers in the US recently have raised their service fees – because they have NOWHERE to send the plastic for “recycling”. My guess is that most of what we sent there was never recycled at all. It’s not just China:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/recycling-after-chinas-plastic-ban-american-cities-face-recycling-crisis/
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/702501726/where-will-your-plastic-trash-go-now-that-china-doesnt-want-it
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-americas-recycling-industry-is-in-the-dumps/
Also, most plastics don’t recycle for re-use, depending on which type they are:
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-plastic-waste-back-to-us-other-developed-nations-trash-crisis-china-recycling/
Maybe it would be a good idea to just stop using the stuff, and return to glass, metal and uncoated paper – all of which can be recycled? Better yet, go even farther back and re-use more and recycle less? It’s not as convenient. It takes commitment to form new habits. It’s necessary.
Most all of the plastic comes from Asia as does most all of the air pollution. If you want to clean up the planet make the Asian countries do their part! Good luck with that.
Rick, and we must do our part, too.
I’m with you Chuck: this is truly sickening. Don’t quote me but, from what I have read, the US is a big part of the problem. We have been shipping our recycle to China. Evidently China hasn’t been able to process it all so they dump it. I also read that China recently decided to stop taking our recycle so, when we put plastic in our recycle bins, a lot just goes into the local landfills. If that is true, it is probably a better option than sending it to China to be dumped into the world’s oceans. We need to get back to the “good old days”. We never had any plastic when I was growing up. Always used glass containers, wrapped our sandwiches in waxed paper, had metal lunch boxes, used paper bags for our groceries, etc. And don’t even get me started in disposable diapers! We can definitely survive without plastic and disposables.
Kat-
Actually you’re wrong. The Us is not a major contributor to the worlds plastic dumping in the oceans. Please visit this site to learn where 90% of the oceans plastics are coming from and what’s being done to curb it…
https://theoceancleanup.com/
Eddie thanks for doing the search. I only wish others could do so before they mentally copy and paste falsehoods.
I noticed that the comments directed most of the blame to the Far East but what I did not see mentioned was the fact that the poverty level is very high in those areas where plastics are prolific and there is not an infrastructure in place to recycle efficiently. These folks live from day to day simply trying to survive without adequate clean water, sewage treatment and many other areas of life that we readily enjoy. Yes, their governments could improve things but the average person’s priority there is daily survival.
Bob poverty shouldn’t be used as the excuse to pollute, or live like a Neanderthal. The most vivid example of surreal pollution there was ZERO excuse for was desecration on a landscape I witnessed while in the back country of a province in Mexico. WAY back way back. The natives had re-directed/backed up a water source so it came tumbling over an embankment, which they had cleverly scratched out pools upon that the water ran into and filled before it continued its run down that small mountain. These pools were used by women of the area to wash clothes. Nothing wrong with this at this point.
Littering the landscape for as far as the eye could see (no exaggeration) were plastic aqua colored bleach containers. I’ve nearly forgotten the kids running alongside our vehicle with their hands out begging for money, but never the sea of aqua plastic bleach bottles littering that place.
https://amp.businessinsider.com/plastic-pollution-ocean-comes-from-ships-trash-2019-10
Every study shows this comes from Asia pacific rim countries China, Vietnam, etc and these merchant ships.
Some of it — perhaps even a lot of it. But certainly not all of it. And the article you cite doesn’t say that ALL of it comes from those sources.
Certainly not all. but……….
Kevin, and we do our part, too. I doubt there is a country in the world that cannot take some blame.
Those people who care already pay attention to avoid pollution. Those idiots who do not care or do it on purpose will never grow up. This said, it is necessary to bear in mind that pollution may come from very far away following currents and wind.
Good for you to point this out. We all need to point this out. I’ve just purchased reusable mesh bags on Amazon to bring our veggies home from the market. I remember my parents using a reusable grocery bag in the 50s. We have to stop being a throw-away society, because as you point out there are catastrophic consequences from our collective stupidity.
Hi, please tell me that again. My sister, a strong Trumper, throws out EVERYTHING into her trash compactor. Wine bottles. Recyclable soda cans. food cans. She does not care. Your argument that this is the cause of “liberalism” is totally illogical and insulting to your intelligence.
Reading this made my stomach hurt. My family has an aggressive campaign to eliminate single-use plastic from our homes. Shame on those people who don’t care and who think it’s someone else’s problem. Thanks for the article, Chuck!
“90% of plastic polluting our oceans comes from just 10 rivers” [Alex Gray, Senior Writer; weforum.org] –> None of which are in the US.
“Canadians Want Liberal Government to Take Real Action on Plastic in Our Oceans” [ndp.ca]
“Conservatives Are Now Drinking From Plastic Straws to Own the Libs” noted New York Magazine’s The Cut this morning. [theguardian.com]
The point is that there is little evidence that “liberals” cause filth and litter, but ample the other way around. Regardless, this is not the forum for trolls. Responsible people must put a stop to the trolls.
The main cause of most worldly problems
“OVER POPULATION” Fix that and the world will be a much nicer place.
Absolutely Barry, thank you for being brave enough to mention it.
Far too often, when someone suggests that we *voluntarily* slow, stop, and reverse population growth, they are accused of being a racist, xenophobe, misanthrope, etc.
Barry is correct of course, there is no way around it — overpopulation is the root cause of most of our serious problems — that, and consumption levels.
Both America and the planet are well beyond their sustainable population level.
ABSOLUTELY agree, Barry! Many folks here are blaming China – guess what, folks?! WE send our plastic trash to CHINA – yep! AND… China HAS population control, they have had it for many years!
We took a cross-country trek in our RV this past summer, from Oregon to Florida. It blew me away (and disgusted me!) the number of states that don’t recycle, especially the “touristy states” like FLORIDA. California recently started charging consumers ten cents per bag, at the grocery store (encouraging folks to bring their own!); good for them!!
And RVers who use paper plates, PLEASE STOP!! Seriously, how long does it take to wash a few dishes?! Styrofoam cups, bowls & plates are even worse – please, please use lightweight, washable plastic. Walmart has plastic plates, for hardly nothing – (like these; everyone can have their own color!) walmart.com/ip/MW-Plastic-Netted-Plates-6pc-10in-MW1914/54439900 I have these, got ’em @ Amazon – 8, for less than $14: amazon.com/gp/product/B005P0VQZI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
First person to tell the truth congrats if you look at the earth today from a satelite at night you can see that over population is getting bigger the lights from the cities is not letting the earth revel in its cool down more people more heat more people more food and plastics ha ha who is going to stop having children I believe the earth will cleanse itself when the tablesun turn probably from a new disease history tells this story.
I suspect a high % of this pollution is being dumped in the ocean by land fill companies or companies that contracted to dump in China, and find it much easier to dump in the ocean. Then turn around for another load. And the government turns a blind eye without any monitoring of shipping, or use of satellites.
No sorry but you’re mistaken. Almost all of the plastic in the ocean is from household/personal use. We each need to do our part. It only takes a ripple effect to spread out, so even one person makes a difference.
Thanks Chuck for this article. Although I agree with many of the comments regarding Asia, your article inspired me to be more aware of my own plastic use. As many pointed out, when We were kids, we had bottles and paper bags, and I wouldn’t be opposed to more efforts limiting the use of plastics. We can all do our part and the rest of the world needs to do theirs. I can’t control what China does, but I can control what I do!
Are you claiming that poverty in the USA is only in “liberal U.S. States?” If that were true, the five states with the most people on Food Stamps wouldn’t be (in alphabetical order) Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon and West Virginia.
Wow! Reading the denial and blame others. Most plastic comes from Asia. Well folks. US and Canada send their recycling there. Where it often ends up polluting anyway. How about you do your bit and STOP using single use plastics! I even choose my purchases based on the container. Then I take 30 seconds out of my day and email the offending company. ‘I did not buy your product today and chose XYZ company instead because it wasn’t in single use plastic’. Enough of us send that message and change will happen. Use mesh bags for produce. Stop buying prepared salads, etc that are in plastic bags or plastic clamshells. Take your own containers to bulk food stores. They will weigh them and deduct the weight of the container when you check out. Lots of RVers and campers I have seen are using disposable plates and cutlery. BE THE CHANGE!! STOP blaming others.
Platinum Silicone. Farmers Markets. DIY gardens.
………..and the changes you have seen Storm M. Tell us.
I have read that plastic is shipped to China for recycling and that a lot of what we’re seeing in the ocean has fallen off container ships. Clearly recycling is not the answer, nor is the California law mandating heavier “reusable” plastic bags. If we changed our logging laws in the US we could go back to paper bags as most people will not bring their own.
China used to accept billions of tons of US recycling (plastics). They became overwhelmed and decided to begin their own clean up by stopping US imports of recycling. This has caused a huge problem for US communities that deal with recyclables (not to speak of plastics in trash, that’s another story). Because of this, you may have seen changes in what you can recycle – the US has nowhere to put this stuff. Recyclers are trying to make money just like everyone else and plastics are expensive to deal with, yipes, this is an horrific situation.
Lots of “blame” on Asian nations. Perhaps a look into our own country would be more productive! WE are among the worst polluters anywhere!!
Really? You have never been outside the US then.
Agree John, and RiverRat doesn’t have to travel far for the evidence. Next time you’re in Mexico or Guatemala, try out one of the off the beaten track “colonial tours” then report back what you saw.
Besides doing our individual part to make a change, this is a great organization to support in the effort to clean up our oceans.
https://4ocean.com/mission/
It is disgusting, very much so. Although their are many alternatives, mankind has chose to look away.
Local,state,federal & world governments have a large part to creating this problem & should have a huge part in solving the problem. Instead of worrying about climate change in the world, mankind should start at the local level.
Toxins in the waterways are everywhere and today everything consumes plastics, you & i.
We find this here to on Vancouver island, debris from Japan tsunami is also adding to the amount of plastic in the Ocean.
Scientists are also finding micro plastics in core samples of ice in the arctic.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-arctic-plastic/punch-in-the-gut-as-scientists-find-micro-plastic-in-arctic-ice-idUSKCN1V41V2
Heartbreaking. I carry a plastic bag (!) with me to pick up debris… can’t keep up! When you proceed south to Bandon, there’s many striking public sculptures made of beach plastic. Check out Washed Ashore Gallery in Old Town Bandon.
I hate what the food industry is doing….want to buy a half-dozen muffins at the grocery store…you also get a large plastic container….same deal with most items in the produce department. Packaging has become the majority of the bulk in my garbage…can’t find any simple cardboard containers…and don’t blame the plastic bags…didn’t see any in your beach photos….I’ll start a list…buy yogurt…get a plastic container….buy sour cream get a plastic container…buy milk and yet another plastic container….the list goes on forever !
Add China’s total disrespect of our planet…the rivers and ocean in China are their garbage dumps…same can be said for many other countries.
Any effort by Americans to clean up the environment will not even scratch the surface of
This global problem.
China is the problem….they are the environment’s enemy.
Now they are dumping diseased pigs into the rivers and oceans by the thousands.
Wake up America.
Patrick I agree, the effort must be worldwide, not just “China”
In Canada where the carbon footprint of 37 million of us (=/-) represents 1.6% of the world total, the loons running the Socialist agenda here are imposing carbon taxes that impact not only Canadians but trading partners and those coming to this country to visit.
The impact is immense, but will taxing the petro used to heat our homes or get us to work each day, solve anything, when 98.4% of the problem lies elsewhere, a very large portion in places there is no will/desire or effort to change?
The answer is nothing is going to change. If every Canadian dropped dead tomorrow stopping the pollution, the needle would not move. Same with ocean pollution, if America stopped all pollution from plastic sources tomorrow, the needle would definitely move, but so little you’d need a machine at NASA to register it.
Daniel Imhoffs book “Paper or Plastic” is a good one if studying this subject in detail. Mine is well used.
You really need to look around you (and visit China). Let’s skip over the speculations that mass quantities are floating across the ocean from China and focus on the plastics and packaging produced, consumed and disposed of in the US. Do you think any of the cups at Starbucks you visited in South Dakota are coming from China? Or the bottles formed and filled at the Dasani /Coke bottling factories across the US? Or the packaging and wrapping at every deli counter and bakery you visit while traveling through Omaha or Orlando? I would venture the majority of the plastic bags you haul out of Walmart, the neighborhood grocery and the Dollar Tree, and then unpack 250′ later into your RV were not imported. No, it’s pretty likely most of our domestic plastics were made from domestically produced materials. You have heard POTUS boast how the good ol’ US of A is now a net exporter of petroleum and petroleum by-products? That means we are dumping our stuff on other countries.
Thanks for posting this. It is disgusting that we have plastic. I simply try to avoid using plastic as best I can but the packaging companies own the world. Why are they not held responsible for this travesty?
Good article and discussion, I was not aware of the size of the problem in the Pacific.
One thing I’ve learned from fellow RVers is to keep an eye out for drinking water machines which sit in or outside of grocery stores. You can keep 3 or 4 empty gallon jugs and refill them for anywhere from 20 to 50 cents. It doesn’t make me plastic free ,but it’s a good start and saves some bucks if you’re used to buying clean drinking water.
RVs already have a water storage tank. Proper filtering and adding treatment will make it as fresh tasting and sanitary as any city water supply. I have a hot tub. At those temperatures, if untreated, lots of nasty microbes would grow, rapidly. You have to learn to treat hot tub water, continuously, to ensure it is as free from microbes and matter as your tap water. It is much easier in the RV. Also, UV (ultra-violet) light systems are now starting to make their way into the RV. UV lights have been used in hot tubs for a long time.
There’s hope https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/23-year-old-invents-a-way-to-break-down-unrecyclable-plastic-film-into-valuable-liquids/
There’s also the guy who invented a way to sift the ocean for plastic to gather it up
If you travel to Hawaii on a clear day you can see one of the plastic island areas mentioned from the window. So very sad and so serious. I am very conservative, do not believe the global warming hype, but have seen this problem myself. This IS a man-made problem that we all can agree must be cleaned up and stopped. We clean up oil spills, so we should be able to clean up this mess and change how we use and dispose of plastic products.
Being conservative has nothing to do with the simple fact that most of the glaciers have melted in Glacier National Park. They are gone. They only exist in photographs from decades ago.
You may not believe that man is to blame for that melting activity, but if you can see the global impact of plastics and oil messes, is it really a big stretch to conclude mans’ activity has altered the face of the oceans, the lands and the skies? The difference about the skies is it is gas. You don’t see it, but just like excessive carbon monoxide can kill an RVer, excessive carbon dioxide can choke the planet.
And BTW, we don’t clean up oil spills to any significant extent. Following the Deepwater Horizon spill, it is estimated 11-17% was recovered. Doing the math, that means 83-89% ended up polluting. Until the oil spills are the size that can be seen from outer space, nobody pays attention and then our cleanup is mostly hoping it dissipates or settles on the ocean floor where nobody can see or fathom the effects over time.
We continue to spill oil, every day, along with polluting waters sources while fracking, and spewing by-products into the air while refining. I too have conservative values, but those values have nothing to do with the actual amount of oil spilled, the observed amount of plastic floating or dissolved in our oceans and how much carbon dioxide is being released by using fossil fuels.
Someone else who thinks science is “hype”
Am I mistaken or does New York city still barge all it’s garbage to the ocean and dump it.
R.R.Tones- quick search. Google “garbage ship no one would take”
This was from 1987
Sure, it’s both the Chinese and the New Yorkers. Everybody but us.
I was driving in Louisiana last February. For some reason, they seem to have a penchant for foam beverage cups, maybe a little more than other areas. The sides of the highways were littered with foam cups and plastic bags. Unfortunately, because of the swampy nature on the side of many roads, no regular cleanup is possible by transportation workers or Adopt-A-Road volunteers. Can we blame that on Asia, too? Maybe it was the New Yorkers that go to Mardi Gras.
People, it’s all of our disposable purchases that blow out of trash cans, trash trucks, blows away from you or you just heave out the window.
Mark, your last sentence reminds me of something I witnessed on the freeway in Seattle many years ago. I was heading to work on I-5 on a very warm day and a woman driving a car next to me threw her cigarette butt out the driver’s window. It somehow got sucked back into the open back window on the driver’s side! She noticed it and had to pull over to get the burning butt out of the back seat. Yay, Karma! 😆 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Sad there is so much pointing fingers at other nations, as if it somehow excuses personal responsibility and the need for our country to take aggressive actions to eliminate single use plastic and pollution. It strikes me as the equivalent of, well since most violent crime is in Chicago and St. Louis, it’s OK for me to gun down women and children in Sedona and commit armed robbery in Lake Tahoe.
Change starts at home, one person at a time being thoughtful and deliberate. It’s unfortunate that we are at a point in time in this nation that we refuse to see existential threats to our children, country, and the entire species and out of selfishness cannot rise to the occasion as our forebears did in WW2, in the Johnson/Nixon era clean water and EPA, or in the determination as we did in putting a man on the moon and we were a model of a nation that could do anything if we thought big put our mind to it. Instead, it seems folk now are waiting for China to lead, and we’ll follow if and when they get around to it
This article breaks my heart but it’s just one part of the contempt we seem to have for our world, other species and our posterity.
That’s a little dramatic Joseph. Surely it is reasonable to try to determine the source of the plastics in order to try to solve the problem. Before your forebears went to the moon they figured out where it was and how to get there. They didn’t just jump on a rocket and drive around. Where I live we have banned plastic straws and next year bags will follow but I’m pretty sure the debris in the ocean and on the beaches will continue. As Chuck points out it isn’t picnickers making this mess so don’t we need to know where it comes from? If it’s being dumped somewhere else on the American coast that can be stopped. If it’s coming from another country then fingers will have to be pointed.
If you want to know where it’s from, look around. We consume, consume, and quickly throw away. Pretty much every damn thing is either packed in plastic or made of plastic. Per capita, we consume and discard more than any other country on earth. I’ve traveled all over Asia and it is disgusting; but you know what? Upwards of 50% of the plastic consumed in Asia has the label of an American company on it. I don’t excuse other countries, but I have no time for those who point fingers in order to excuse our own inaction.
The first step in reducing what’s being dumped there is to stop producing and using so much of it in the first place.
Our generation has done a much better job of recycling plastic than companies have done finding uses for that recycled plastic. We have shipped our unrecycled plastic to Asia where they have run out of room to store it. Our plastic has contributed to the problem, so let’s not just blame the problem on Asia – we have contributed a great deal to this issue.
To find out how to help, follow the link below:
https://4ocean.com/mission/
Pretty sad that Chuck had to bring this to our attention. This has been happening for over 100 plus years, if not more. If you were to account for all the wars and conflicts on this earth. Government’s are truly the blame at least 90%. Corporation’s maybe 9% with their greed for natural resources and energy production. Fisheries and canneries. The list is unlimited.
Stop these practices immediately or phase out quickly
Cease all nuclear energy. Thorium is a alternative
Stop all overseas recycling period of everything. Do it in their own community. This will create jobs and a tax base.
Hemp. It is for everything mankind needs.
Stop all foreign aid to these nations that are polluting the rivers and oceans.
Force local government to give credits to people that want to clean the beaches, the parks, the highways, the communities. These credits are reimbursed for money or deductions off of property taxes. Just the monies saved off fringe benefits would b a no brainer.
Legalize gardens and orchards.
Encourage alternative energies and alternatives for no petroleum plastic. There are many, already.
When u destroy the rain forests of Africa, S.E.,Asia & the Amazon- then it is almost irreversible. Palm oil and cheap hamburgers. And yes I am quilty of hamburger and bacon.
Radiation in the oceans.
Plastics the size of 2 Texas’s floating in the Pacific.
Crude oil in the major currents of all Oceans.
The Hopi nation has a prophecy of the oceans and the spider- net of the skies.
The ocean is also a lung of the earth.
The problem is beyond unacceptable but can be solved.
Solutions is the answer, not the problem. Last one, here go’s
Quit relying on government to solve the problem,that will never happen. Solve the problem yourself and do your part, as much as u can.
D.W. I’m with you ALMOST to the end. You got one thing wrong totally wrong. Change is going to come from government acting on our behalf. That what democracies of this earth elect people for to act in accordance with sensibilities and greater public good, etc!
This is not happening, and sadly your single voice is nothing but a fart in the breeze.
Alvin- thank you so much for your point of view! Before you think that any government is going to enact action from the voice of the people, please don’t hold your breath! Change? I hope I am completely wrong and that you are 100% correct.
As for the last paragraph- I believe that you got derailed off the tracks to the point of contradicting your first statement. My voice is a fart in the wind, just as yours is.
When democracies start to implement world wide salvation of the people, and not corporations- please by all means send me a box of chocolates
Happy trails for you and nothing but sunshine always on your back
The beauty of all this and rvtravel is that they do allow a forum and let us freely and respectfully interact solutions.
Easy to be mean and deranged, but alot more invigorating to actually have a soloution.
Without minimizing the problem, my observation is that “recycling” was supposed to save us from all of this plastic pollution; it has not! Simple solutions rarely solve complex problems. Environmentalists whose solutions are superficial, have no credibility with me.
We have become a “throw away” species. Until we become, again, a species that can get our broken things fixed without having to buy new, can buy only what we need, etc., we won’t find our way out of this mess.
If recycling were a worldwide effort, we’d likely notice a difference Gs9219, but it isn’t and North Americans are being shamed (as one other person aptly put it) into believing crap the Gorons of the political side of this mess, are feeding the public who for the most part get their info from 45 second clips on the evening news – how sad!
How does it get into the oceans to begin with, Cruise ships, cargo ships, do they dump their wastes at sea? Seems the world could get a better handle if this is even only ONE source.
That plastic on the Oregon Coast washed up, so mostly it’s coming from some where else. I call it Sea Plastic. That being said there’s plenty of slobs here that leave their crap on the beach after having a fire and party. When I mention it to them it falls on def ears. Hate to say it but it’s mostly young people. I’m old so someone else will have to figure it out.
AIRLINES. just one example. No one even mentions the pollution of the skies. From emissions of the airplane to the dumping of garbage and sewage in their travel. Airlines are corporate and government regulates these airlines.
If the plane dumps in between their destination, they save expenses on maintenance fees of sewage and garbage fees. Government turns a blind eye. Corporations reward stockholders.
It is truly a sad scam of earth and its dwellers, whether human, plant or animals. Mankind is earths worst enemy.
Finished with my rants, cause even I know rants are not the solution. I try my best to b aware of my contributions to earths destruction. And yes I am guilty, even for the wrapper of a stick of gum.
Sorry, but your comments are simply wrong. Commercial airliners can and do dump raw sewage on rare occasions when something internally, malfunctions. However, no crew member has the ability to intentionally dump sewage while inflight or on the ground. The dump system is controlled from the exterior of the aircraft by ground crews. Please do not fall in to the trap of some bogus articles, such as the chemtrail conspiracy theory.
GeorgeB- your opinion is very much respected and taken as positive remark. My rebuttal ok. Any system in a airline can be overridden. Safety factors mostly triggered for increase in weight.
Many airlines have been fined for dumping and using and selling- jet fuel A.
Now as far as chemtrails and conspiracies- I am not a fan of. Since u brought it up, kindly explain the vapor trails. Surely not condensation of hot exhaust and moisture? Ha ha.
I do know the emission standard of a commercial airline is not even close to a vehicle in todays streets.
Everyone should b concerned about the earth. It is also good to be not fanatic but be reasonable and question everything
I doubt any of us here are experts, yet we all have opinions. CA forced us to go to plastic bags to save the trees. CA now forces us to buy heavier plastic bags so we can be charged 10 cents each. I suspect the OR coast trash is coming across the Pacific from who knows where. Some say the US exports our plastic to Asia and infer Asia then dumps it in the ocean. That makes n sense to me. There are 3rd world countries that pollute because the have no infrastructure to deal with their trash.
I am not going to allow anyone to shame me or America for ocean trash. ALL my plastic is recycled, period. Before any of us get on our high horse, look around your own home. You will see many many electronic devices that use materials, including batteries that contribute to our waste problems. Look in your fridge or food cabinets and see how many items you buy packaged in plastic.
Americans for the most part are responsible citizens of the world. Inner cities, not so much so.
Totally agree. GeorgeB I’ll bet you’re thinking the same as I when the corporate giant charges me 10 cents for a plastic bag, under the guise of “saving the environment, Bad for environment if you don’t buy – good if you do. They’re thrilled to sell me any quantity of plastics garbage bags etc etc,, filling rows of their shelves – no conscience – none whatsoever -ZERO!!!!
The 50th Earth Day will be April 22, 2020.
That plateful is all you gathered in 20 minutes? Possibly time for a vision check?
13 years ago, I took my children to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (Lake Michigan). We were at a slightly protected inlet. Rather than fill their buckets with sand, my children filled their buckets with plastics swirling at water’s edge, non-stop for 2 hours, and then we left. That was their first personal eureka moment as to what Earth Day is all about.
They had to use their shovels, not hands, because it wasn’t just pieces or whole bottles, bags, the occasional piece of siding, deli or bait container and plastic tampon covers; there were biohazard items.
I really enjoyed Sim Rim State Park in Texas last year. They had 55 gallon barrels every few hundred feet, so I didn’t have to carry my loads of trash far. Over the years, I have found walking at waters’ edge to be very good exercise because you have to bend and scoop every few steps.
The Great Pacific Plastic Patch measures 1.6 million square kilometers. It’s not the only repository. Waters and beaches all over the world are filled with this stuff.
So yes, you are right. Stop using plastic bags for groceries, trash, shipping envelopes/packing and lunches. Stop buying little tiny take-out containers and beverage cups made of plastic. Insist cups, straws and containers are paper, cardboard, corn silk or materials we can put in compost piles. Tell the retailer you won’t buy from them until they have an alternative, or will refill your personal container. Prescriptions could be dispensed in envelopes, not plastic bottles. Plastic use is so pervasive we have been desensitized. Stop buying plastic bottles. And why are people drinking water from plastic bottles? It’s been proven over and over it is no better than city water, and often comes from the same source.
Happy 50th Earth Day!
Reading others’ comments. No, the trash on Lake Michigan did NOT come from China or island nations. We are immense producers and consumers and OUR plastic is polluting our country and we send as much trash into the ocean as we receive from elsewhere.
Stop China bashing and start doing your part. Just watch how much plastic you “consume” in a given day.
PS China has novel recycling programs that makes ours look like child’s play.
Mark B. We consumers one at a time can demand retailers stop filling their shelves with plastic waste, but until your government implements something resembling what the Germans did in the 1990’s with their EPR program, you’re words are totally wasted.
Change of a wroldwide scale needed to make a difference needs to come from governments recognizing the need to save this planet from decaying from the outside in.
Unfortunately “your government” is undoing pollution laws, granting mineral rights in sensitive areas and seems to be focused on how many flushes it takes to empty the gold toilet bowl. (probably will also sell National Park property rights to Trump – Park Hotels division.)
Choose wisely at election time, y’all.
What can i say? Did this trash originate in japan? Are you saying that we should accept this as our responsability? Chuck tell us did you test for cesium contamination?
I’m saying everyone, wherever they are in the world, should take it as his or her responsibility.
Good article Chuck. You recommendations and statistics are pretty accurate. What you fail to mention is the source of the trash and instead infer that as the US, we are somehow responsible for this. As an Oregonian, this is something we have been dealing with for some time now. This is not trash originated from the US and consumers in the US. While it is a great idea to follow the recommendations you have listed, most are already in place here. You can’t use plastic bags and have to bring your own to the store. You don’t get handed straws without asking. The trash washing up on our coast is from a large mass floating in the Pacific being dumped in the ocean by China and other Asian countries. If people would really like to make a difference, they should take actions to stop China and other Asian countries from dumping this trash into the ocean.
Totally accurate Dale Huitt, thanks for weighing in.
Thank you for the alarm, Chuck. This is not new news, of course, but it’s a great reminder to stop buying water in plastic bottles, and using plastic bags. For Winter Solstice gifts this year, I’ll give friends stainless steel water bottles that have the ability to purify both the bottle and the water.
Joe Mueller, can you tell us what percentage of the plastic waste stream currently causing great harm to the environment is attributable to plastic water bottles and plastic grocery bags?
That most of the plastic comes from Asia is just pure BS. It may be dumped in Asia, but it gets to Asia from all over the world. It is the source of the plastic that is the culprit, not the dumpers. Go to your local super market right here in the good old USofA. Except for the canned goods almost everything is connected to plastic in one way or another. It is either made of plastic or is packaged in plastic or both. Even packaging that looks like paper, e.g. milk cartons, are plastic coated paper or pasteboard. It’s handy. It’s cheap. It’s easy to throw away or “recycle.” “Recycle” these days means ship to China so we can blame them for dumping it. YOU used it. YOU discarded it in the chain that dumps it, wherever that chain leads. If YOU hadn’t used it China wouldn’t have dumped it.
I have been doing the Coast Savers cleanups here in WA state the last few years and each year I see more plastic. And each year I see more tiny pieces. A quarter of an inch or less. The stuff never goes away. After years of being exposed to the sun and being battered by the waves it just disintegrates into smaller and smaller pieces. Finally it is such small bits it is invisible to the naked eye, but it is still there. The “filter feeders”, from the smallest shellfish to the biggest whales, ingest the stuff and up the food chain it goes. Some of it is so small it actually goes through the wall of the gut and gets into the blood stream and flesh of the fish. Then we eat it. It’s microscopic, but chemically it is still plastic. Some of it might be from that deli clam-shell (or “disposable” diaper) YOU (or I) tossed out or “recycled” six years ago. Bon appetit!
Oh bs Asia pollutes the whole world, go to 8ndia the pollution is insane.
I buy your passion Wil, but not your claim regarding the source of the largest proportions of plastic in water borne or land borne plastic waste stream – the science does not support you.
Can North Americans do better, of course. So where does it start? Not you or I the consumer, but with governments banning seemingly inert poisons in the marketplace. They are not doing so!
Removing them, would eliminate them – Eventually.
Next time you sit in your car/truck motorhome whatever, imagine the interior in front of you existing without plastic, then imagine what happens to imbedded PLASTICS in the hundreds of thousands of decommissioned items of transportation every year on this earth. Then consider how much longer we can continue to do this to our home!!!
You’re from coastal Washington so you may have read, or maybe personally know, Bonnie Henderson and her 2008 book “Strand” – An odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris”
For anyone with the stomach I highly recommend this 216 page book. It will wake you up to what is going on in JUST one of the worlds great oceans – multiply all you learn by two since the book came to market.
The problem too, is there are NO CURRENT companies recycling plastic, bags bottles etc ,milk jug type plastic,etc. They were ALL shipped to Asia for recycling but they’ve stopped accepting it. It’s piling up and spilling out of storage places. Should be turning into building blocks imo
I used to pride myself on using minimal plastics, but in recent years, I’ve generated more plastic waste than ever because I have difficultly shopping for myself. I can no longer walk the grocery store aisles, so I have most of my groceries and other purchases delivered. The amount of plastic I now receive with my purchases is staggering! When plastic shopping bags replaced paper many years ago, I carried my own reusable shopping bags to the grocery store with me, chose produce that wasn’t packaged, and was able to avoid a lot of plastic when I shopped in person. Do you remember, as I do, when stores asked “paper or plastic” when they bagged our groceries? Now my groceries are delivered in multiple plastic bags and much of my produce is packaged in plastic. I confess that also use a lot of Ziplok bags, so I’m trying out some reusable products to reduce my dependence on them.
I do drink from a reusable water bottle, and take my reusable coffee mug with me if I go to a coffee shop, but that’s not enough. I do sometimes buy bottled water, but only in gallon jugs that I pour into my reusable bottle. But I still have gallon plastic jugs to recycle! Mostly I drink tap water so I won’t feel guilty, but I really prefer to drink pure spring water for my health. So that’s a real Catch-22.
Also, Waste Management, my long-time garbage pickup service, has suddenly increased their recycling charges (for individuals and municipalities U.S.-wide), and stopped taking some previously recyclable items. I dropped them the day I got the notice, and chose another provider with more liberal recycling, but they don’t take glass! I feel really guilty throwing away glass jars!
I will resume traveling in my camper this week and spending the winter beside the ocean, so I’m working on more strategies to reduce plastic waste. The week I arrive, I will attend a class on ocean cleanup, and join a kayaking trip to do some river cleanup. I will shop at farmer’s markets for groceries when possible, but I won’t be able to avoid all plastics. I hope I can learn how to do more to reduce my own dependence on plastic. I’m definitely a big part of the problem, but the rapid takeover of our food and product packaging by plastic can only be stopped by governments. So I guess lobbying my Congress people is my next step.
This article describes the world-wide problem, the few solutions, and the future dangers better than any I’ve read lately. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/china-has-stopped-accepting-our-trash/584131/
Thank you for all that you do to help the environment and the world, Lelia! If everyone did even a fraction of what you do to help, it would be a huge improvement! 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Like DW’s comment about mankind being earth’s worst enemy. Sure true. We haven’t been paying the full cost of our “garbage” for a long time. Just been “kicking it down the road”. Wonder how much effect that Pacific garbage patch (and others!) is having on “global warming”? Wonder how much less oil we’d have to pump/frack out of the earth, if we didn’t use some much plastic? And how much air and water pollution would be cut back, by less manufacturing of the stuff? (Not to mention the energy used in the manufacturing!) Getting old enough that I haven’t been on one of “our” beaches (I’m a native Oregonian) for some while – guess I’m missing out. They were still clean (or at least the ones I was on) a few years back. A scary comment on our society’s ways, both personal and corporate.
F.DONALD PARSONS- thank u for the kind words. Although I do not consider myself a environmentalist, I do feel each and every person on this earth has a responsibility to try their best to respect Earth. One thing I do believe is to not make mother earth angry.
Happy trails, whether part-time or full -time, may the road be kind to u!
F. Donald Parsons. I propose you start a petition, acquire ten million names then send it to the Donald in Washington. That petition would ban ALL DOLLAR STORES, and all but the most essential use of Plastic in modern transportation – that’s YOUR and my automobile.
Humans of this planet all to some degree have blood on their hands my friend, some we have control over (STOP SHOPPING AT dollar stores which are full of plastic crap most of which we can do WITHOUT) and some we cannot easily control, like using a vehicle for transportation.
@F.Donald Parsons ,The beaches on N.Ore Coast are pretty pristine most days still. We take my garbage bags on our walks when the tides start bringing in trash. Some days we’d drag 200 lbs or better off the beach, Each ! Fisherman garbage during bouy 10 is ATROCIOUS. During tourist invasion it can be bad on clatsop Beach’s, lots of careless pigs leave unbelievable &disgusting trash behind. Makes me wonder how they live at home. The rest of the time Beautiful lol Thx
Type “plastic Indian beaches” into your browser. Select images. You can blame the US for many things, but these problems are not predominately due to our trash. Can we do better? Yes, and we should, but unless their is global support to deal with this issue our efforts wIll do little besides make us feel good.
DaveH you are actually 100% correct. Banning straws and bags are one thing, but the notes above should include the percentage of plastic in the waste stream is due the American and Canadian coasts and that of the rest of the world.
Check it out then, rest assured that the problem is big, but until those WE”S on the other side of the planet get their crap together and stop using the water ways of the world for their personal ash tray and sewer dump, WE will never solve the problem in the proportions necessary to make a difference.
Suggested reading on the topic is Capt. Charles Moore’s 2012 book “Plastic Ocean”- may it serve as a primer. Then continue to learn from that point on, that WAYYYY too many of us do not realize what is going on around us until we actually stumble upon the tragedies – invisible until they make us sick. Quite often by that time it’s way too late to do anything about it. Peace. Alvin.
I’ve heard of the oceans acting as carbon repositories, but this goes beyond the pale.
We are killing our home. At some point we will be past the point of no return
This is a video I recently saw showing people in India dumping garbage into one of their rivers:
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/after-clip-of-trucks-dumping-waste-in-vellar-river-in-cuddalore-goes-viral-two-suspended/article30171400.ece
We flew into Santiago, Chile a few years ago for a cruise. Our first evening we took a walk up the street from the hotel. While standing on a bridge over a rushing river we watched an endless stream of full garbage bags floating down the river. The contents certainly ended up in the Pacific eventually.
Big article in Nat. Geographic early this year about this. Had maps showing origins of the plastic and drift patterns. Very informative.
Thanks for the article Chuck, and agree that everyone can do their part. I was just reading about a young man named Boyan Slat (https://www.boyanslat.com/) who founded a company to clean up the garbage in the ocean. This kid started The Ocean Cleanup company at 18 and is making a difference. https://theoceancleanup.com.
I agree somewhat with what Boyan has done and is doing, BUT, this kid didn’t start this thing on his own with his own money. It will cost a fortune for him or anyone else to make a difference when billions of people on this planet keep filling in the hole he’s evacuating. It’s like sending a brigade out to clean up doper needle debris, while on the other end of town a do gooder outfit can’t keep up “saving lives” supplying (most of it at public expense) the doper with more and more dope paraphernalia . It’s a losing battle fighting this from the end Boyan is, but I applaud him anyway.
Thank you G Pfister for the link to Ocean Clean Up. I donated my $50 to help fund the effort. It will take us all changing our habits and pressuring corps to change their packaging in order to solve the plastic problem. I see changes for the better with more paper products and more recycling efforts. We can do it!
I had not heard of Boyan until Time named Greta Thunberg its Person of the Year. I saw a lot of social media comments about how it should have been Boyan instead, because he’s DOING something to help.
Thank you for speaking out Chuck. Unfortunately, speaking “truth to power” these days, seems to be in short supply; and, believing in science as “fake facts” to be in vogue.
No one denies that plastic waste is becoming a big problem. I am seeing a lot of movement in the way of reducing plastic waste everywhere I go, this gives me great hope but it will take time. The big problem comes from the fact that most of this waste comes from overseas. I liked the old days when most items were packaged in reusable glass. This is not science, it is just poor choices in the past. Some plastic is engineered to decompose at a much faster rate. Food items need to be packaged in much safer materials. We can change it, I’ve seen it in the past.
Agreed. This administration is making the planet dirtier, not cleaner. That’s what’s disgusting.
My wife and I were at Seaside the same week you were at Newport, we take bags to collect plastic and non organic junk. There was not a piece of plastic or any other junk on the beach. We walked about two miles. Stuff seems to collect in certain places.
In the past we have picked up quite a bit at other Oregon and Washington. Most of the larger pieces have Asian and Russian writing on them. Studies have shown that most of the plastic comes from jut 10 rivers in the World, none of them in North America. (Cosmos magazine daily web newsletter for October 12 – 2017)
Yes the plastic issue is a big problem. In Brownsville, TX they passed a ban that if you wanted to use the plastic bags it would cost you a dollar. It could be one plastic bag or twenty and it was a dollar. In the two years it was in place it was so nice. No plastic bag blowing around. The problem is people would complain because they could not afford the dollar and refused to bring their own or recycle. Now it’s back to plastic blowing in the wind. We have quit using single use plastic as much as possible but it is hard to get away from. Like someone mentioned so many products are in plastic. I hate styrofoam as well.
So in Brownsville like many other jurisdictions plastic is AOK if you pay. This thinking makes absolutely no sense to me. Like as if a tax solves the problem. A government or jurisdiction with guts bans bad things period, not impose a tax on them eliminating the poor and middle, giving the go ahead to those who can afford to continue to pollute.
Just think of all the products that used to be in glass…..mayonnaise, pickles, mustard, relish, etc, etc. Now all of these containers are plastic. Not to mention years ago we washed diapers, never did use disposable diapers! I live in Washington state and enjoy going clam digging when we are able. Now we have very few times when it is open for digging because of toxins in the clams. Oregon is the same way. It makes one wonder if the plastic has something to do with this too.
But then we had to hear about phosphates in laundry detergents, and broken glass from restless teenagers causing flat tires. It’s always something.
This situation is indeed a real problem. The evidence concerning the source of the pollution in the oceans is well documented. Not that we in North America could not do better at recycling, but some areas in Asia and Africa are just terrible. A few years we visited Egypt on a tour. The Nile in and around Cairo is unbelievable. It looks like one could walk across the river. Even though there are campaigns to recycle, people use the Nile as their dump and as their sewer. I was amazed that boats could navigate the river without clogging their water intakes – maybe they close all intakes while they are in the area. Pictures do not do justice to this terrible practice. Thanks for making us aware and hopefully more proactive in managing our waste and recycling wherever we go.
There are floating ISLANDS of pure plastic and other trash. It’s sickening. And it’s not just on the beaches – that’s just what people see. These trash islands float all over our oceans.
It seems that most of the discussion is to blame some other county for plastic in the oceans. What about starting by limiting the amount of plastic we use. Growing up – not that terribly long ago – Straws were made of paper. Coffee and soda cups were paper, Grocery bags were paper. Meat from the grocery store was on paper trays, Take out was on paper trays. Eggs came in paper cartons. None of it coated in plastic. Then, as I recall, came the “save a tree” campaigns, which I could not understand. Trees to make paper are an agricultural crop, just like corn and soy beans. Drive through the south east. North Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, thousands or millions of acres of trees grown for paper – a RENEWABLE CROP! The “the save a tree” campaigns have just plainly backfired. Giant Oaks, Redwoods, etc. were not cut down for paper. The “save a tree” campaigns forced grocers and other stores to go to plastic so they were “good citizens”. Now we find we have goofed and handed the Plastics, and OIL Industries another way to profit. Now that we find out that we misguidedly goofed, we just need to go back to paper like I just mentioned above. It worked then, (paper cups, straws, etc.) so why not now? Did we forget the plastic (OIL) is not renewable AND that paper is renewable as well as biodegradable? I don’t understand how we as a nation get so easily get duped into wrong (I read stupid) thinking. Just starting with the everyday plastics would be rather easy and smart. The Fed and Sate governments don’t seem to do anything, so down here where I live Cities are now passing laws outlawing plastic straws for a start. If it takes US and our cities and counties to wake the Feds and Sates up, that is where we need to start.
By the way – our grocery store no longer asks “paper or plastic” but when I request paper, they have no problem complying with my request. The paper bag just fits my kitchen garbage can so I don’t have to purchase another plastic bag to fit it. Save the OIL – support our TREE FRMERS.
When they used to ask “Paper of Plastic?” I would answer: ” it make no difference to me, I’m bi-sacktual.” I needed to end on a lighter note – sorry.
LOL, chem trails, LOL. Please remove your aluminum foil hat before posting.
I also wonder about all of the cruise ships and what they do with all of that raw sewage. You can’t tell me that they all responsibly dump when in port.
I was recently on a Royal Caribbean ship. They had palates of broken down cardboard boxes ready to be taken to a recycling center upon docking back in a US port. Nothing was put overboard. There were signs in our rooms not to throw anything overboard.
I think we should all go back to being farmers, grow our own food and stop shopping at grocery stores. Everyone has great comments and claims to be doing their part to make the beaches and environment cleaner, but if we were all truly doing our part – we wouldn’t have the plastic problem. I believe the solution lies in finding ways to re-use our plastics whether the answer is profitable for “corporations” or not. Today, many people are busy trying to figure out how to survive everyday and they don’t have the luxury of paying more to buy milk for their kids in a non-plastic container. As RV’ers we are probably a bit more financially stable and can bemoan the condition of the beaches we are lucky enough to visit. In the meantime, I try to pick up what I can (whether it be plastic, trash, broken glass, or dog droppings) and leave the places I visit just a little bit cleaner than they were when I got there. Thank you for your article and Happy Holidays.
I also pick up what I can. Been doing that for decades. It is not only just a drop in a bucket, it isn’t even a drop in a bathtub. But at least I’m doing my part to make a tiny piece of this world a little cleaner.
Thank you for the article Chuck. Sad but true. I saw the same thing at Lake Superior in Oct 2018. It will take a coordinated effort of clean up and waste reduction to solve our plastic problem. We must ALL do our part.
Thought I’d offer this here: If you aren’t able to be oceanside and pick up the trash yourself (I’m not), then take a look at 4ocean.com . It’s NOT a non-profit – it’s a business that cleans up the ocean in all waterfront countries around the world, using locals to do the labor, and then with recyclable plastics and glass, create beaded bracelets for sale to pay the locals and continue their operations.
You’ll get no tax benefit, but your purchases will help people all over the world clean up the plastic disasters that should be clean, sandy beaches and water.
Better then the sharp needles that go into your feet in Asbury Park, N.J.
This falls under government’s negligence not doing anything, just like UL. making light bulbs and lamps burn out too early that goes into landfills containing mercury contaminating the water tables , alkaline batteries too , instead of simple fixes they say driving electric vehicles that charge from power plants that run on fossil fuels, and charging us a taxes to recycle plastic wich they fail to do and pocket the tax money . The Kate Brown says raising fuel prices is the solution, I could go on but I want to think about something that makes sense , this is upsetting.
Yes, I’ve heard the government is holding guns to peoples’ heads forcing them to buy plastic products, especially all those disposable plastic bottles for water. No, that’s wrong, it’s the Chinese government. Yeah, that’s it.
The government had nothing to do with light bulb planned obsolescence. It was an Industry cabal. http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm
You do realize WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT in a sense. It’s up to us to say and do something. Business needs to do their share as well. This might seem like a lost idea but maybe if the UN asked all nations to pay a very small fee they could build ships to collect garbage at sea to be disposed of at incinerators or recycling plants. There have been stories that there is floating patches of garbage as big as some states floating in the ocean. I know that this is an after the fact act and we do need to stop polluting as well.
…and people think “sea salt” is an healthier alternate to common mined salt? Trying to do our bit, but it seems like a drop in the ocean.
This is a Worldwide problem. I saw an article from Australia using huge nets around large drainage outlets. It may not be the solution, but it is a start.
Australia has found a great way to eliminate plastic pollution from its waterways, which we should be guided by
By Phillippe Blot
I heard about a plastic eating bacteria some time ago…it sounds encouraging…. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles
As R.R. Tones said below;
Check out where most of the larger coastal cities in North America dump their raw garbage.
All those barges you see heading out to sea are full of garbage.
Let’s clean-up our own backyards before we bi*ch and complain about Asia.
I live in a large coastal city on the Atlantic (Virginia Beach/ Norfolk) and we have landfills and waste to energy plants, we don’t send our trash out to sea. (Google Mt. Trashmore) New York does….doesn’t surprise me that NY wants to legislate everything and not take responsibility for their own waste –
Isaiah 51:6 pretty much sums things up.
Here’s my response to the person who observed trash on the shores of Lake Superior.
I always try to tie my comments back to RV travels. I camped at a nice, city owned campground on Lake Superior’s edge in Two Harbors, MN, Burlington Bay. It is a nice stopping point as you visit all the beautiful sites along Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior.
That area has a dumping history. We won’t go into the ramifications of mining waste produced just up road at Sliver Bay, where we Americans for 25 years dumped the equivalent of a railroad car of waste every minute into Lake Superior and the fibers in that waste made their way to nearby town of Duluth’s drinking water. This was an American family run company since the 1890s. Nope, no Chinese involved in that mess. You can read more of how Americans pillaged our waters here:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2003/09/29_hemphills_reservehistory/
But wait, could China be involved with garbage on Lake Superior? The Chinese invested in a joint operation with the Cleveland-Cliffs Mining company in 2003 (for 5 years) so I am sure we can blame them for something.
And, the Great Lakes are connected by canals all the way to the Atlantic, despite Lake Superior, our planet’s largest fresh water lake, being bordered by Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Boats easily navigate to pick up the ore from the harbor on Lake Superior. In fact, I am might have seen a boat with a Chinese looking flag (there was some red in it) on Lake Superior dumping garbage. Maybe it was before they loaded the boat with iron ore pellets? Or maybe it was fishing nets? And maybe it was Canadians, their flag has red and you know a lot of Asians live in Canada. Do the facts really matter?
Yes, China has a waste problem, as does every industrialized country with a reasonable standard of living emulating our consumer throw-away society.
China became the world’s dumping ground and had to turn off the spigot. And yes, they have dumped trash into the ocean (and are cleaning it up). Our environmental record is pretty bad…no really, really bad. We have our own trash to pick up. Now we have even more of our own trash because China no longer accepts ours.
Please stop repeating some reference to a headline grabbing sensational story and focus on what YOU can do to prevent and eliminate all the waste YOU create.
Excellent finish to your article and one we should all endeavor to follow. I, for one am happy to pay .25 cents a glass to drink out of biodegradable plastic Margarita glass (and do, when I go to the Cayman’s). However, are you trying to make a point that a 20-year pollution history 50 years ago has anything to do with who is polluting today? I, for one am PROUD of what we did in the 1970’s and 1980’s to clean up the environment. Today, no one even knows what “acid rain” is. Nor have I heard of any rivers that have caught on fire. Let’s stick to Plastic and the article in question. Oregon is subject to the California Current, fed by the North Pacific Current, fed by the Kuroshio current from China. My family in Alaska complains about the same thing. This North Pacific current splits and feeds the California Current to the South and the Alaska Current to the North. We can outlaw every bit of plastic in America and it will have the same effect as spitting into a bonfire and the beaches of Oregon will continue to fill up with plastic.
The answer? In my imperfect and humble opinion, cleanup technology to reverse the trend coupled with making the countries that pollute pay through Tariffs on their exported products. This is similar to space junk (this is the junk that will make it impossible to have a satellite in orbit by the year 2090 even if we did not launch one satellite between now and then) imagine that?
Please checkout https://washedashore.org/ My family visited their Hometown Exhibit in Bandon, Oregon during our families annual vacation Made big impact on us We will now carry bags to the beach to help clean up. Love how they make beautiful art out the trash found
What about huge, have to be paid, fines for corporations and individuals for tossing trash?
I saw a documentary about the countries that are causing this mess. Indonesia has no regulations or dump sites to bury the trash, so the villages dump it on the side of rivers. when they have floods this trash goes in the river and out the ocean. But its not only them. China, India, and the Philippines just to name a few. This poor countries are always left out of any U.N. treaties and the problem can’t be solved unless they change their ways.
I wouldn’t consider China, India and the Philippines as poor countries. This trash is being dumped intentionally into the oceans by those countries because it is cheaper to do so than building sanitary landfills. Everybody in the US could refuse to buy anything with plastic and it wouldn’t make a dent in the problem since it is not the US doing the dumping.
I won’t write a tome. I will say I am in favor of our country using less plastic. I would love to see fewer plastic bags, less plastic containers, etc.
I know. Nothing is perfect.
If you appreciate Chuck’s comments about plastics pollution and are near Bandon, Ore, a must-stop is a non-profit called Washed Ashore where you can see some spectacular art, all made from plastics and other refuse picked up from the nearby beaches, and you can help make it if you wish. Some for sale, but the large pieces are used for national and international exhibition about waste plastics.
Who is throwing plastic into the ocean? Doesn’t trash go to a local landfill?…. To be buried? I take all my plastic to recycling. Are the Cruise ships dumping plastic into the ocean? Military ships? China? I am sickened by this destruction. But I would like to know just exactly how this plastic waste is getting into the ocean.
that beach (and many others) needs a raking and pick up with a huge scoop shovel (snow shovel) in a huge garbage bag, probably daily!!
🙁
Until we get smart and return to paper and glass for our disposables there will be no stopping plastic pollution. Our beaches, oceans, woods and neighborhoods will only get worse. That is the harsh reality of our future.
My area doesn’t offer recycling. To recycle you have to take it to the one dumpster I know of in the area to do so. There some people use it to drop off their regular trash so they don’t have to pay for trash removal. Very frustrating. Aluminum can recycling bins are common because they can be turned in for cash. If there was a means for doing that with paper, plastic and glass we’d see more recycling.
Here’s a fact for you 90 percent of that plastic comes from Asian countries not the USA.
Yes all kinds of trash is a problem. Too often we want it cheaper and faster. When you buy something I bet you never consider looking at the packaging. I see little effort being made to switch from single use plastic package and if the product costs a bit more then most refuse to buy. My wife discovered https://www.4ocean.com/ and we support their efforts even though they are small. Every little bit adds up. Many times the only way this gets addressed is when we are forced to do what is right because most are too lazy or simply un-thinking. The US has gotten much better compared to much of the rest of the world but that doesn’t absolve us from working to address the problem. We just switched to laundry detergent https://www.tru.earth/ that has zero plastic packaging and the package it comes in is little more than a flat card board envelope. This would be good for RV owners as it takes up almost no space.