The European Union is launching a pilot program in the Mediterranean this month that will pay fishing fleets to collect and then recycle the plastic waste littering the ocean.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Falken
The European Union is taking an innovative approach to dealing with the growing problem of plastic litter in the ocean – paying fishermen to collect the trash.
Starting this month in the Mediterranean, fishing fleets will collect the plastic waste, using EU-provided nets and equipment, and then take it to processors for recycling. The EU plans to pay for the initial costs of the pilot program, but hopes the revenue from the sale of the collected plastics will eventually make the program self-sustaining.
Fish and other marine life can become injured or die when they ingest plastic. Marine litter also threatens the fishing industry by depleting fish stocks, damaging fishing gear and contaminating the catch.
“Preserving the Mediterranean Sea is not only a matter of environmental sustainability. It is also a matter of considerable economic and social implications,” wrote EU fisheries commissioner, Maria Damanaki, in a blog entry about plastic marine litter.
The EU’s pilot program will provide a much-needed second source of income for fishermen who have been losing profits due to diminishing fish stocks.
Peter Benchley, author of Jaws, and a man who knew a thing or two about oceans, once said: "If we kill everything in the ocean, and if we pollute the ocean to a point where it can't sustain life, we're committing suicide." Perhaps the most important aspect of Benchley's warning is his use of the word "we." Human decisions have led us to where we are now and new human decisions are needed to forge a new, more logical and compassionate path. After all, the health of the ocean reflects the health of the planet.
For over 37 years, Ocean Conservancy has helped set the national conservation agenda for the ocean. Their mission is to promote healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and oppose practices that threaten ocean life and human wellbeing. Through research, education and science-based advocacy, they seek to inform, inspire and empower people to speak and act on behalf of the ocean. See Ocean Conservancy's mission.
The Natural Resources Defense Council holds itself to one goal, but that goal is monolithic: safeguard the Earth. The organization works to ensure that the planet's human inhabitants, plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends is protected. Watch NRDC in action.
The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. See more from Nature Conservancy.
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers in Malibu, CA, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over 50,000 members and 90 chapters worldwide. Catch the Surfrider video wave.
Oceana is the largest international non-profit dedicated solely to protecting and restoring our oceans. At a time when the Gulf of Mexico is facing an unprecedented crisis and the perils facing the world’s oceans have never been more pronounced, we want specific and concrete policy changes to protect sea life and important marine habitats. Sign the petitiondon't miss more from Oceana. to stop offshore drilling, and
Blue August is a month to celebrate, value and promote conservation of our waters in all their forms, and one of the primary places we can help is in our own local watershed. It’s important to be aware of the water quality in your watershed so you can keep the land around your home free of pollution.
Swim with the Dolphins (SWTD) programs at resorts and get-aways seems like so much fun, right? ut there's a few big problems with these programs that take the green shine right off the activity. If you're thinking of adding swimming with dolphins to your vacation itinerary, check out why you may want to reconsider the idea.
Just released today is the National Resources Defense Council's Testing The Waters 2009 report. It's a great guide for knowing which beaches are safe, and which need our help to get cleaned up.
As part of Blue August, Planet Green'sBan the Bags, Butts, and Bottles works to keep litter away from our oceans and waterways, so that we can enjoy beaches for years to come. Below are 5 tips to follow to help you protect the beach you love most when you come for a visit.
G Word Correspondent Summer Rayne Oakes visits with Captain Charles Moore of the Oceanic Research Vessel the Alguita. Moore and his crew research study trash collecting in the Pacific Vortex. They concentrate on the sources of the trash, how it migrates hundreds of miles to the vortex, and how it affects the environment.
Our first World Ocean's Day on June 8 came and went so quickly that it was just over the weekend when I remember thinking to myself; I wonder if anyone actually gives a damn? That was until yesterday...
Adoption is almost synonymous with magnanimity. Taking in a child and raising it as your own is oft heralded as a selfless and noble act. Children aren't the only thing that you can adopt. You can adopt and highways. And now, you can adopt a watershed.
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The manatee is an aquatic mammal - three species of which are found in both North and South America along with western Africa. Often called "sea cow," a manatee can weigh up to 1,500 pounds and grow to 10 feet long. The manatee has no known predators other than humans but—as you can imagine—that's more than enough. Habitat destruction, water pollution, and hunting have put all three manatee species in danger of extinction.
Fresh water dolphins in the Ganges River are in dire straits according to a recent study by the IUCN Sir Peter Scott Fund project.This dolphin is among the four freshwater dolphins found in the world - the other three are the baiji found in the Yangtze river in China, the bhulan of the Indus in Pakistan and the botto of...
It's easy to forget that the ocean provides us with much of the food we eat and the air we breathe, and that ocean wildlife and habitats are facing extinction. Luckily, we have Planet Green's non-profit partner The Ocean Conservancy on the scene to help us.
Researchers and activists are constantly working on learning more about the extent of the Pacific Garbage Patch (and others) and find ways to clean up the damage. And we're constantly keeping you updated on what their efforts yield. Check out below for news on estimates about the size of the Pacific trash vortex.
What is the Pacific Garbage Patch?
Simply put, it's a swirling mass of plastic in the middle of the Pacific ocean that is big enough to qualify as the planet's largest landfill. Roughly located in an area between 135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N, much of the world's trash has accumulated into this part of the Pacific Ocean based on the movement of ocean currents.
A rose any other name applies to the Pacific Garbage Patch - you'll also hear it called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," the "Pacific Trash Gyre," the "Pacific Trash Vortex," and the "Oh My...What Have We Done!?" among other names.
How does all that plastic get to the ocean?
The simple answer: Humans + Ocean Currents = Trash Vortex.
People create, consume, and carelessly toss plastics and the litter ends up in the water ways. As the plastic reaches the shoreline, currents carry it out into the ocean and a convergence of currents swirl the plastics into one general area.
No one is guiltless when it comes to the Pacific Garbage Patch - if you consume and discard goods, you are responsible for some portion of the plastic that is ending up in the ocean, even if you live hundreds of miles from the seaside. All rivers lead to the sea, as they say. Trash that ends up in a stream in the middle of the US can end up in the ocean and, with the help of ocean currents, find itself in the middle of a trash vortex.
What's the impact of marine litter on wildlife?
The plastics found in the ocean have a dire effect on marine life. Turtles confuse plastic bags for jellyfish and birds confuse bottle caps for food. They ingest them but can't digest them, so their stomachs fill with plastic and they starve to death, even though they continue trying to eat.
Additionally, fish on the low end of the food chain consume tiny bits of plastic, and they're in turn eaten by larger fish which we catch and eat. So we're now quite literally eating the plastic we produce. Not an appetizing thought.
Charles Moore gave an excellent TED talk about the floating vortex of death:
How much plastic is in the Pacific Garbage Patch?
We have no idea. We have estimates on the size of the patch, at least in terms of surface area. Researchers peg the trash gyre to be as large as the continental United States, and according to HowStuffWorks.com, every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic and plastic constitutes 90 percent of all trash floating in the world's oceans.. But exactly how many pieces of plastic is impossible to say, and researchers are still stunned at how much they findwhen they get out there to assess the damage we're doing to one of our most precious resources.
What's worse - the Pacific Garbage Patch is not the only trash vortex out there. There are five - yes FIVE - trash gyres. Located in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, the trash gyres represent what we're doing to our planet on a global scale.
Everything from fish nets to bottle caps, from the tiny pellets of plastic that are in your exfoliating face soap to old toys are all ending up floating in the sea.
UPDATE: Stiv Wilson of the 5 Gyres Project has released a preliminary attempt at an estimate on how much trash is floating out there. According to Discovery News, he estimates that there are 315 billion pounds of plastic in the ocean right now.
The point of the calculations is this: cleaning up the plastics in the ocean ain't gonna happen. Well-intentioned programs designed to take the fight to the high seas, like Project Kaisei and the Environmental Cleanup Coalition, for example, are exercises in futility.
"I'm not trying to call them out," Wilson told Discovery News. "What I really fear is a barge full of plastic coming in under the Golden Gate bridge, the media taking pictures and people thinking 'oh good, we've solved that problem.'"
A real cleanup would be astronomically expensive, both in terms of dollars and equipment.
Can we clean it up?
Not really. But that's not for lack of desire to try. Many research teams have sailed out to the middle of the trash vortex to try and determine the scale of a cleanup effort. And basically, there's no practical way to do anything about it. At least not yet.
Some of the factors getting in the way of clean up include: the area of the trash vortex is HUGE; the plastic is in various states of break down and some pieces are too tiny to collect; the ocean is deep and the plastic is floating from the surface all the way down to the murky bottom; the amount of fuel it would take to get ships out there to capture the plastic would emit so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that the pros of a clean up are greatly reduced by the cons; the types of plastics are mixed so recycling them into anything usable would be difficult if not impossible.
However, some ideas for what to do with the plastic include incinerating it for power generation. That could potentially offset the amount of energy spent on hauling it in from the middle of the ocean, but for now, it's still just a concept idea.
But basically, we've over-produced, over-consumed, and over-wasted ourselves into a rock-and-a-hard-place situation. Still, that doesn't stop some people from trying!
What can we do to stop it from getting worse?
Leah Lamb is one activist who has made a pledge to remove every piece of plastic she's responsible for from the Pacific Garbage Patch. She's a diver and each time she goes out on a dive, she tries to bring back as much plastic as she can find mucking up the waters where she swims.
It's a great idea and a great start, but there are loads of ways to help keep the garbage patch from growing that have nothing to do with heading out to sea.
gives a list of 10 tips for helping out: