Garbage Patch in Atlantic Ocean

[deblen]

I have followed several facebook beach cleaning groups from Ireland,UK & France. The amount of plastic debris that can be traced to North America alone is mind boggling. The west to east Gulf Stream & other gyres plaster their beaches with our N.A. trash.
From comments made by N.A. west coasters, on these groups,the same problem exists on N.A. west coasts from Asian litter.
They actually sift test the beach sand to measure the percentage of nurdles in the sand.
Google nurdles. They are the final remains of ground plastic & are being injested by about everything from sardines up.
I don't have a magic cure,but I know the truth when I see it.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-of-uk-beaches

Len

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by deblen

I have followed several facebook beach cleaning groups from Ireland,UK & France. The amount of plastic debris that can be traced to North America alone is mind boggling. The west to east Gulf Stream & other gyres plaster their beaches with our N.A. trash.
From comments made by N.A. west coasters, on these groups,the same problem exists on N.A. west coasts from Asian litter.
They actually sift test the beach sand to measure the percentage of nurdles in the sand.
Google nurdles. They are the final remains of ground plastic & are being injested by about everything from sardines up.
I don't have a magic cure,but I know the truth when I see it.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-of-uk-beaches

Len

first off nurdles are not the final remains of ground up plastic waste
Quote from the article you linked to states.

The lentil-size pellets known as “nurdles” are used as a raw material by industry to make new plastic products

the article you linked also states that the nurdles found come from the UK . There was nothing in the article that stated how much plastic is from north America.
It just speaks about what was from local sources.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by deblen

...
They actually sift test the beach sand to measure the percentage of nurdles in the sand.
Google nurdles. They are the final remains of ground plastic & are being injested by about everything from sardines up.
...

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-of-uk-beaches

Len

Just to confirm Newhaul's correction of your misconception, this directly from your link:

Nurdles are one of the main sources of primary microplastics – small pieces of plastic that have not come from larger items broken down into little bits

[wolfgal]

Don C L, Steady, Barnakiel (sp?) and others, thanks so much for contributing to this thread as you have. I appreciate your input.

[GordMay]

A new study* suggests there are more than 79,000 tonnes of ocean plastic, mostly made up (1.8 trillion pieces) of microplastics that measure less than 0.5 centimetres in diameter, in a 1.6 million square kilometre area of the North Pacific Ocean, often referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That's 16 times more than previous estimates.

* ➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w

[aye-aye-captain]

Originally Posted by GordMay

A new study* suggests there are more than 79,000 tonnes of ocean plastic, mostly made up (1.8 trillion pieces) of microplastics that measure less than 0.5 centimetres in diameter, in a 1.6 million square kilometre area of the North Pacific Ocean, often referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That's 16 times more than previous estimates.

* ➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w

This is what they called the 8th continent, right ?

[Cheechako]

It is totally out of hand. UW finished research of shell fish and found that 100% have micro plastic in them, and more amount than they thought they would.

[aye-aye-captain]

It is getting out of hand indeed.

Hopefully, some people are actually doing something about it..it doesn't have a huge effect but it's a start!

[Cheechako]

Plastic should be banned from single use applications.

[boatman61]

Plastic for everyday use should be banned period.. food, water, packaging.. especially bubble wrap.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Plastic should be banned from single use applications.

that will never happen its the cheapest mass packaging medium.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Plastic for everyday use should be banned period.. food, water, packaging.. especially bubble wrap.

bubble wrap. Oh come on you can't get rid of a product that protects items in shipping and then entertains everyone so much when the items are unwrapped.

[boatman61]

Keep eating the shell fish n shrimp guys..

[seandepagnier]

Something like 45% is fishing gear?

Would it be feasible to pull this gear onboard a suitable vessel, and cook it in a pressure cooker to reduce it to liquid fuel?

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by newhaul

that will never happen its the cheapest mass packaging medium.

Plastic is currently the cheapest mainly because the current pricing structure does not include the cost of collecting/recycling/processing discarded plastic.