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DeepFrz · 07-08-2015, 18:21

Hundreds of Tons of Garbage picked up on the Alaska shoreline made small dent in the problem.

Alaska shoreline cleanup makes small dent in marine garbage - North - CBC News

Cheechako · 07-08-2015, 18:57

"99% of shoreline remains

The mass of debris collected and loaded onto the barge, which is roughly the size of a football field, represents just 1 to 2 percent of the cleanup work that remains in Alaska, said Chris Pallister, president of the cleanup organization Gulf of Alaska Keeper, which coordinated the project."

and rest assured, there is still a lot out there floating. As well as ~1679 avg. shipping containers lost each year.

klmmicro · 09-08-2015, 08:00

Watched a short documentary on Midway Island and the volunteer crews that clean up the beaches there. This issue has been building for decades and the "throw away" society does not seem to be in any hurry to address it through their behaviors. The problem of garbage, a lot of it plastic, is not what you can see...but what has broken down to the molecular level. It is effecting the base of the oceanic food chain.

This is well beyond a political issue. Left or Right, no answer is forthcoming and neither side appears to care. The only real solution to any of this is going to be addressed if we learn to ignore "politicians" and do something ourselves as a people. Silly division based on useless ideology often prevents any chance of coming together though.

hodgmo · 09-08-2015, 08:33

A Dutch-led cleanup and research project aimed at understanding and eliminating the pacific garbage patch is underway:

http://www.theoceancleanup.com/

Part of the project involves returning transpac boats who are collecting samples as they return to the mainland from Oahu.

**nigel1** · 09-08-2015, 09:00

I think we can all agree that garbage in the sea, on the beach, in fact dumped anywhere is not nice, but lets keep the politics out of the discussion.
Thanks.

Roy M · 09-08-2015, 09:24

Slightly changing the tone and the current drift, I have occasionally thought of what I might do on an isolated island or beach if I encountered garbage, particularly plastic stuff that could entangle, choke or poison the critters nearby. My belief is that the lesser of several evils might be to dig a hole in the sand, pile the stuff that will burn, and set it aflame using some old used
motor oil or solvents. It would make a smoky mess, and momentarily pollute the nearby atmosphere with toxic chemicals, and probably make a poisonous goo at the bottom of the hole, but it would remove the stuff that would otherwise immediately cause harm. Later, when things had cooled down and the goo had congealed, I could load it into a heavy duty trash bag and carry it aboard for later disposal. If anyone out there would rather talk about what we can do about this actual problem, as opposed to calling each other out for some pretty pointless arguments, please feel free to contribute, offer some actually constructive criticism or other thoughts. As for me, despite the smoky mess in a pristine paradise, I will probably keep doing this (oops, I admitted it).

And for those who say it would be far better to load it on my boat, how would you handle an mass of drifting gill net that came ashore?

model 10 · 09-08-2015, 09:37

Pay people for garbage. They do it in Honduras and that is the most dangerous place in the world but yet they try. What is weird though, almost everybody in Central America still tosses their trash out the window.

cjsfsm · 10-08-2015, 05:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by klmmicro

Watched a short documentary on Midway Island and the volunteer crews that clean up the beaches there. This issue has been building for decades and the "throw away" society does not seem to be in any hurry to address it through their behaviors. The problem of garbage, a lot of it plastic, is not what you can see...but what has broken down to the molecular level. It is effecting the base of the oceanic food chain.

This is well beyond a political issue. Left or Right, no answer is forthcoming and neither side appears to care. The only real solution to any of this is going to be addressed if we learn to ignore "politicians" and do something ourselves as a people. Silly division based on useless ideology often prevents any chance of coming together though.

Thanks for your message. This is really not a political forum, however, as cruising sailors we all share the concern about polluting our oceans. In my cruising world nothing goes overboard. I know that all those on this board share the need to keep our oceans and waterways clean.

jmczzz · 10-08-2015, 19:47

I don't think any topic referencing something that affects us all should not be ok in a thread that is related to the monumental problem human kind faces for its survival. No solution will be forth coming unless there is a tipping point reached when all agree that the solution has to be an understanding and return to the goals of "our species’ original instinctive orientation was to living in a psychosis-free, peaceful
and harmonious state of cooperation, love and selflessness." *
*page 72, Freedom, Jeremy Griffith, FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition - The Book That Saves The World | HumanCondition.com
James

DeepFrz · 11-08-2015, 16:37

Personally I think that one of the best things we can all do is to not buy bottled water. Bottled water is a scam and one of the largest sources of pollution on the planet. Only use refillable containers. And talk the walk...spread the word even.

I know when shopping it is very difficult to buy anything that isn't wrapped in plastic but there are bulk food alternatives.

model 10 · 11-08-2015, 16:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Personally I think that one of the best things we can all do is to not buy bottled water. Bottled water is a scam and one of the largest sources of pollution on the planet. Only use refillable containers. And talk the walk...spread the word even.

I know when shopping it is very difficult to buy anything that isn't wrapped in plastic but there are bulk food alternatives.

Soda bottles too.

jmczzz · 13-08-2015, 20:29

Everything it seems is plastic wrapped. All containers now have some sort of plastic "security" seal over the opening once the lid id taken off, thanks to the nut that put poison in a talenol bottle on a store shelf.
But I don't understand when fuel injector cleaner as well as most other non-human consumable has those plastic seals. Why?
Do some people drink the stuff?

klmmicro · 14-08-2015, 17:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmczzz

But I don't understand when fuel injector cleaner as well as most other non-human consumable has those plastic seals. Why?
Do some people drink the stuff?

It goes to your original thought about the "tamper resistant" reasoning. If people see a seal, they assume that the product is whole and intact before they purchase it. It would be interesting to see how many people would avoid a product that is clearly not for human consumption based on the lack of a plastic tamper seal.

I guess the chemical industry could make the claim that the seals are also important in keeping product spills to a minimum in transit to retailers.

Plastics have become so ingrained into our lives that I would bet most people do not even realize it. I purposely avoid products that have plastic in the packaging that is not necessary, but bet most people do not given the volume of items that do contain it.

I am also not in to banning things, but recently brought my dad to a halt with some raw "data". He was against the "plastic bag ban" that came about in our town. He said it was just a way to increase prices, and I do agree with him on that (considering how the ban to effect). While out fishing/sailing a few weeks ago, we gaffed about 30 plastic grocery bags that were floating around in the coastal waters. I brought them to him and asked why they were there? He could not really come up with a good explanation as to why making access to them harder was a bad thing any longer.

Political leaders in my town enacted a bag ban that actually turned out to be a bag fee. The cost fo the bags were already factored in to the cost of the groceries, and after the ban nothing has changed in that arena. What has changed is that the stores still supply plastic grocery bags, but charge separately for them now. Ban? Nope...a lazy person tax.

THis sort of thing is why waiting for politicians to do something about the issue is useless. They will not do anything that does not benefit them, so this leaves it up to each of us to make the adjustments ourselves and spread the word as best we can.

We are sailors, boaters, beach-goers and water people. We should be doing all that we can to protect a resource. It is OUR element and we have an understanding that is unique. Do we really need someone to tell us this?