Plastic Will be the Death of Us

The North Pacific Gyre, occupying an area of about 34 million square kilometres in the northern Pacific Ocean, is a swirling vortex of ocean currents that sweeps up waste material, creating a garbage dump that is estimated to be twice the area of the state of Texas. Most of the material in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it is lovingly known, is plastic. Plastic that is making it's way into the food chain -- rapidly. Forget the images of marine life and birds digesting the visible plastic trash. Tiny pieces of plastic, estimated by Charles Moore of Algalita Marine Research Foundation, to outweigh plankton in North Pacific Gyre by six times, is making its way insidiously into us. At the genetic level, the toxins from plastic are messing with out collective biochemistry. And it's too late to do anything about it. At best, we can stop adding to the wasteland our world and bodies have become -- that's because plastic doesn't decompose, and worldwide, less than 5% of what is created annually is being recycled. That means, just about all the plastic that has ever been manufactured, is still with us.

Related reading:

• Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we? -- Best Life Magazine
• Global Marine Litter Information Gateway -- UNEP site