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North America consumer plastics do not end up in the ocean in large numbers. Plastics in the ocean generally come from waste from the fishing industry and from

North America consumer plastics do not end up in the ocean in large numbers. Plastics in the ocean generally come from waste from the fishing industry and from South East Asia.

metalman 2y ago
I live on an ocean front property in Nova Scotia, and spend an inordinate amount of time at the waters edge. And there is massive amounts of plastic washing up, and a lot of it is not from here, its mericun plastic. The major current (gulf stream) brings it from the US, everything, and I mean everything that will float, and some that doesn't. I have a growing collection, of, hats, just the nice ones mind, and as anything that has spent days, weeks ,or years in the ocean, is more ir less sterilised, I am happy to keep, pass on, or use.My favorite pillow case, which started of as a lucky find, used to bring MORE, treasures home is just one thing amongst many. That does not mean that I dont find eagle feathers, agates, fossils, perfect walking sticks stripped, sharpened, and lost by beavers, but there is a lot of plastic and sundry junk. Some of the plastic is admitedly beautiful, fragments of lost toys, polished and worn smooth by the wind, waves, and sand. And historical plastic, mint shape, that must have been dumped, burried somewhere and then floated anew, and washing up now.
- jvanderbot 2y ago
  If I read "America" as the western hemisphere, then this comment makes sense. If I read it as "USA" I doubt your attribution a little. Undoubtedly you get a lot of it.
squigz 2y ago
Do you have any data on this?
dahart 2y ago
I went deep sea fishing in Mexico a few years back, and the number of water bottles floating out in the ocean was very alarming. That’s not fishing industry waste, it’s definitely consumer plastics, and it was the only visible waste.
- asdff 2y ago
  Water bottles floating in the ocean definitely sounds like fishing industry waste. Or whoever is boating and just chucking bottles off the side. I mean think of consumer recycling; only a little fraction of it is probably plastic bottles yet thats all you see in the ocean? Seems hard to believe. There are people who go out and collect seaglass, an industry that exist because boaters throw just that many green brown or blue bottles of beer off the side of the boat to lead to appreciable yields on shore.
  - dahart 2y ago
    No, you’re misunderstanding the scale and making assumptions. It’s widely reported and well known that water bottles polluting the ocean is coming from consumer goods - the volume of plastic trash in the ocean is far far bigger than the entire fishing and all boating industries combined globally. https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/ https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/ Maybe you never heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch It’s a bit shocking to see first hand. Get out there and look around, and you’ll realize this isn’t a tiny problem caused by boaters.
    - asdff 2y ago
      From the wikipedia: “An open access study published in 2022 concluded that 75% up to 86% of the plastic pollution is from fishing and agriculture“ And also in that article it mentions you can’t really see or detect the patch yourself without specific tooling for it as the fragments are often quite small and dispersed. You can’t use satellites to see it either as such.
      - dahart 2y ago
        The preceding paragraph says the exact opposite, but I can take the point that multiple sources are saying fishing trash is significant. It doesn’t sound like the trash visible near Mexico is the same as what they call the Pacific Garbage Patch. Either way, I cannot believe that what I saw was fishing boat trash, there was far, far too much of it. Maybe it’s beachgoer waste, maybe it’s industrial waste. Anyway, you should go look yourself before forming an opinion!
lurking_swe 2y ago
that’s true. But IMO it doesn’t really matter where it comes from. once it’s in the ocean it travels and affects everyone eventually. Having people in north america pay less for plastic just because we do a better job not throwing it out isn’t fair either. That would basically be north america “outsourcing” our problems to the poorer countries that don’t yet have the infrastructure in place to properly deal with garbage.
sudahtigabulan 2y ago
> North America consumer plastics do not end up in the ocean in large numbers. Yes, they end up in South East Asia. https://eastasiaforum.org/2019/06/26/southeast-asias-plastic-waste-problem/ https://eastasiaforum.org/2019/06/26/southeast-asias-plastic...
- nostromo 2y ago
  That's no longer the case as the US no longer sends plastics to Asia under the guise of recycling. None of this would be an issue if we put our no-longer-usable plastics in landfills where they should be.
  - anon7000 2y ago
    Which is what cities tell you to do (Seattle is relatively specific about what kinds of plastic to put in the landfill vs to recycle), but that makes it complicated for consumers.

North America consumer plastics do not end up in the ocean in large numbers. Plastics in the ocean generally come from waste from the fishing industry and from South East Asia.

metalman 2y ago

I live on an ocean front property in Nova Scotia, and spend an inordinate amount of time at the waters edge. And there is massive amounts of plastic washing up, and a lot of it is not from here, its mericun plastic. The major current (gulf stream) brings it from the US, everything, and I mean everything that will float, and some that doesn't. I have a growing collection, of, hats, just the nice ones mind, and as anything that has spent days, weeks ,or years in the ocean, is more ir less sterilised, I am happy to keep, pass on, or use.My favorite pillow case, which started of as a lucky find, used to bring MORE, treasures home is just one thing amongst many. That does not mean that I dont find eagle feathers, agates, fossils, perfect walking sticks stripped, sharpened, and lost by beavers, but there is a lot of plastic and sundry junk. Some of the plastic is admitedly beautiful, fragments of lost toys, polished and worn smooth by the wind, waves, and sand. And historical plastic, mint shape, that must have been dumped, burried somewhere and then floated anew, and washing up now.

jvanderbot 2y ago
If I read "America" as the western hemisphere, then this comment makes sense. If I read it as "USA" I doubt your attribution a little. Undoubtedly you get a lot of it.

squigz 2y ago

Do you have any data on this?

dahart 2y ago

I went deep sea fishing in Mexico a few years back, and the number of water bottles floating out in the ocean was very alarming. That’s not fishing industry waste, it’s definitely consumer plastics, and it was the only visible waste.

asdff 2y ago
Water bottles floating in the ocean definitely sounds like fishing industry waste. Or whoever is boating and just chucking bottles off the side. I mean think of consumer recycling; only a little fraction of it is probably plastic bottles yet thats all you see in the ocean? Seems hard to believe. There are people who go out and collect seaglass, an industry that exist because boaters throw just that many green brown or blue bottles of beer off the side of the boat to lead to appreciable yields on shore.
- dahart 2y ago
  No, you’re misunderstanding the scale and making assumptions. It’s widely reported and well known that water bottles polluting the ocean is coming from consumer goods - the volume of plastic trash in the ocean is far far bigger than the entire fishing and all boating industries combined globally. https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/ https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/ Maybe you never heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch It’s a bit shocking to see first hand. Get out there and look around, and you’ll realize this isn’t a tiny problem caused by boaters.
  - asdff 2y ago
    From the wikipedia: “An open access study published in 2022 concluded that 75% up to 86% of the plastic pollution is from fishing and agriculture“ And also in that article it mentions you can’t really see or detect the patch yourself without specific tooling for it as the fragments are often quite small and dispersed. You can’t use satellites to see it either as such.
    - dahart 2y ago
      The preceding paragraph says the exact opposite, but I can take the point that multiple sources are saying fishing trash is significant. It doesn’t sound like the trash visible near Mexico is the same as what they call the Pacific Garbage Patch. Either way, I cannot believe that what I saw was fishing boat trash, there was far, far too much of it. Maybe it’s beachgoer waste, maybe it’s industrial waste. Anyway, you should go look yourself before forming an opinion!

lurking_swe 2y ago

that’s true. But IMO it doesn’t really matter where it comes from. once it’s in the ocean it travels and affects everyone eventually. Having people in north america pay less for plastic just because we do a better job not throwing it out isn’t fair either. That would basically be north america “outsourcing” our problems to the poorer countries that don’t yet have the infrastructure in place to properly deal with garbage.

sudahtigabulan 2y ago

> North America consumer plastics do not end up in the ocean in large numbers. Yes, they end up in South East Asia. https://eastasiaforum.org/2019/06/26/southeast-asias-plastic-waste-problem/ https://eastasiaforum.org/2019/06/26/southeast-asias-plastic...

nostromo 2y ago
That's no longer the case as the US no longer sends plastics to Asia under the guise of recycling. None of this would be an issue if we put our no-longer-usable plastics in landfills where they should be.
- anon7000 2y ago
  Which is what cities tell you to do (Seattle is relatively specific about what kinds of plastic to put in the landfill vs to recycle), but that makes it complicated for consumers.