3 ms·

I'm skeptical. Most of the plastics in his/her photos are visible. In the actual gyres, most plastics are microplastics, i.e. particles from cosmetics and cloth

by wbhart 12y ago

I'm skeptical. Most of the plastics in his/her photos are visible. In the actual gyres, most plastics are microplastics, i.e. particles from cosmetics and clothes washing that have gone down the drain. There's a pinkie fingernail sized piece every couple of cubic metres or so. Definitely not visible. They also harbour life. How to remove the life and give it somewhere to live without upsetting the ecosystem?

Panoramix 12y ago
Do you have a reference for the main sources of microplastics? My understanding is that they are the result of larger chunks of plastic that just decompose in the oceans. By removing large plastic items we'd make a strong leap forward.
- nraynaud 12y ago
  sometimes they are also directly shipment of small plastic pellets in their production form (ie, before being molded into a toy).
- yread 12y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics It's even in toothpastes!
  - mirehirefire 12y ago
    This is just ridiculous... We need a marketing campaign to shame companies that use these. We ban it or legally enforce labeling of products that use microplastics and create a negative sentiment towards it. Otherwise, this is going to spiral out of control. If we can manage to stop it like ozone depleting CFCs then we'll have a chance to fix this, despite the immense energy cost.
- acjohnson55 12y ago
  That's assuming most of the macroscopic stuff hasn't already broken down by well before it reaches the gyre.
namenotrequired 12y ago
>Most of the plastics in his/her photos are visible. It's hard to show invisible things in photos :) Or artist's impressions for that matter. I volunteered on one of their research trips on a gyre and can tell you that, while you're right that most plastic is invisible from more than a few meters away, there's still a lot of visible plastic as well.
goshx 12y ago
The plastic killing those birds look very visible to me.

by wbhart 12y ago

Panoramix 12y ago

Do you have a reference for the main sources of microplastics? My understanding is that they are the result of larger chunks of plastic that just decompose in the oceans. By removing large plastic items we'd make a strong leap forward.

nraynaud 12y ago
sometimes they are also directly shipment of small plastic pellets in their production form (ie, before being molded into a toy).
yread 12y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics It's even in toothpastes!
- mirehirefire 12y ago
  This is just ridiculous... We need a marketing campaign to shame companies that use these. We ban it or legally enforce labeling of products that use microplastics and create a negative sentiment towards it. Otherwise, this is going to spiral out of control. If we can manage to stop it like ozone depleting CFCs then we'll have a chance to fix this, despite the immense energy cost.
acjohnson55 12y ago
That's assuming most of the macroscopic stuff hasn't already broken down by well before it reaches the gyre.

namenotrequired 12y ago

>Most of the plastics in his/her photos are visible. It's hard to show invisible things in photos :) Or artist's impressions for that matter. I volunteered on one of their research trips on a gyre and can tell you that, while you're right that most plastic is invisible from more than a few meters away, there's still a lot of visible plastic as well.

goshx 12y ago

The plastic killing those birds look very visible to me.