50 Tons of Litter Pulled from Pacific

[pixy0stix]

news.yahoo.com/50-tons-litter-pulled-pacific-222349281.html

Scientists loaded their ship to the max this month off the coast of Hawaii, but their bounty wasn't fish or coral or any other scientific specimen. It was garbage.

The crew of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Oscar Elton Sette pulled 50 metric tons of marine debris out of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the northwestern Hawaiian Islands last month, part of an ongoing mission since 1996 to clean up the shallow coral reef environment.

"What surprises us is that after many years of marine debris removal in Papahanaumokuakea and more than 700 metric tons of debris later, we are still collecting a significant amount of derelict fishing gear from the shallow coral reefs and shorelines," Kyle Koyanagi, the chief scientist for the mission, said in a NOAA statement. "The ship was at maximum capacity and we did not have any space for more debris."

NOAA has been sending out garbage-removing ships every year since 1996. On the mission that ended Saturday (July 14), 17 scientists cleaned up the coastal waters and shorelines of the Kure Atoll, Midway Atoll, Pearl Atoll, Hermes Atoll, Lisianski Island and Laysan Island, all in the northern section of the Hawaiian Islands.

About half of the marine junk was broken fishing gear and plastic from Midway Atoll. Though the researchers looked, they found no evidence of debris from 2011's tsunami in Japan. Some debris from that disaster has shown up on the west coast of North America, including an enormous floating dock covered with marine organisms.

Marine debris such as discarded nets can trap sea turtles, seals and other marine animals.

"[M]arine debris is an everyday problem, especially right here in the Pacific," Carey Morishige, the Pacific Islands regional coordinator for NOAA's Marine Debris Program said in a statement.

The massive amount of garbage pulled from the ocean will now be put to use as fuel for electricity generation. Hawaii's Nets-to Energy program removes metal from broken-down nets and cuts them up for combustion. The steam from the fires runs a turbine to create energy.

[pixy0stix]

Jul 18, 2012 9:59:56 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

Why isn't this done more often? It seems like an easy enough thing for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or something similar to fund. There is an oversupply of boats in the ocean since the global crisis and they know where all the floating junk is... wouldn't Greenpeace be all over coordinating something like this?

Are you talking about the floating barges of junk? Part of it is that no port wants to take that trash and dispose of it. You'd have to pay extra money to coerce a landfill/government to dispose of the trash that's pulled up.

Also, some of the worst offenders of floating plastic you just can't pick up. It's broken down into tiny particulate that just floats suspended in the water. There's no way to effectively strain it out.

[smock]

This is so depressing. Next you'll tell me that NOAA funding is on the chopping block.

[pixy0stix]

Jul 18, 2012 10:15:33 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

Huh. It's surprising to me that it would be that hard to get people to take it. Plastic can be recycled, and I know the US ships trash (rags, paper trash) to India all the time.

I didn't realize that some of this trash isn't easily picked up. Is anyone (NGOs, government agency?) working on this?

It takes money to recycle items, plus money to pay for the end product.

No, not really. Most of the really bad dumps of trash are out in international water. No one wants to touch it. Again, mostly because of the money issue and the red tape to get the trash on land again.

[pamela]

Jul 18, 2012 10:15:33 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

Huh. It's surprising to me that it would be that hard to get people to take it. Plastic can be recycled, and I know the US ships trash (rags, paper trash) to India all the time.

I didn't realize that some of this trash isn't easily picked up. Is anyone (NGOs, government agency?) working on this?

It costs money to separate out the recyclables from the non, and then to actually do the recycling. And money to dispose of the rest of it. I don't see how it's surprising at all.

[pixy0stix]

www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch

This talks about it in somewhat greater detail.

[josieposy]

Wow. Unfortunately that job will never be finished.

[pixy0stix]

Jul 18, 2012 10:36:50 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

Jul 18, 2012 10:22:51 GMT -5 pamela said:

It costs money to separate out the recyclables from the non, and then to actually do the recycling. And money to dispose of the rest of it. I don't see how it's surprising at all.

Surprising that they are fine with taking other types of our trash, but that we couldn't get them to take some of this trash (which isn't all ours, but whatever). Seems like it should be able to be sold like the other trash.

We pay them to take our trash. We pay for the final products back. I'm not sure what is so hard to understand about this.

Making recycled items is much more costly than make virgin products.

[pamela]

Jul 18, 2012 10:36:50 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

Jul 18, 2012 10:22:51 GMT -5 pamela said:

It costs money to separate out the recyclables from the non, and then to actually do the recycling. And money to dispose of the rest of it. I don't see how it's surprising at all.

Surprising that they are fine with taking other types of our trash, but that we couldn't get them to take some of this trash (which isn't all ours, but whatever). Seems like it should be able to be sold like the other trash.

Who is "they"? And I don't know of any other trash that is actually sold. Yes, there are a few facilities that can burn trash to create energy, but very few, they are overwhelmed and still have requirements on what they can burn typically.

[basilosaurus]

:-( :-( :-(

It depresses me so much, and I feel so helpless because I can't think of a single thing to do about it.

I did a beach cleanup last weekend. We got about 5 bags of trash from a relatively small area, and that's a beach that actually gets regular cleaning. I felt like yelling at everyone who was there that day.

And then we generated another bag of trash with our cookout. I was pretty pissed at that, too. Red solo cups, paper plates, plastic water bottles. :@ Next one I do I'm going to request everyone bring something reusable. They looked at me like I had 3 heads when I had my own water bottle and was hunting for a water fountain when they had bottles in the cooler.