The “Great Atlantic Garbage Patch” is almost something of a myth – a giant area of plastic debris the size of a large state, perhaps even more, floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Years of studies have shown that despite the amount of growing plastic waste from humans the garbage patch has not grown in size, so where is the plastic going? The answers may be grim.
A collaborative study between the Sea Education Association, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Hawaii have collected data over the last 22 years at different locations around the Atlantic and have recorded more than 64,000 individual pieces of plastic. One of the highest concentrations of debris was discovered east of Bermuda in an area called the North Atlantic Gyre which is hundreds of miles in size, according to Wired. In that part of the ocean the water is sinking down to the seabed, and currents point inwards like a very large, slow moving, whirlpool. Because of the buoyancy of the plastic, the majority of it stays at the surface and increases in large quantities over time. This is very similar to its sister garbage patch, the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” where there is estimated to be 100,000 tons of plastic.
Over the past 22 years researchers have found that the Atlantic Garbage Patch is not increased in size. But even taking increase recycling rates into account, humans’ plastic use over the past two decades has increased, according to the National Geographic. There are several theories of where the plastic has gone. First, it is possible some of the trash is just too small for researchers to catalog. Researchers use a net that only captures pieces larger than a third of a millimeter in size, some pieces of plastic can break down to even smaller than that. Researchers are also finding fragments of plastic in sea creatures, that mistook the plastic for plankton. Another possibility is that the plastic pieces could be sinking from the weight of colonies of marine bacteria, which posses another problem all together.
Alien species have been using trash in the ocean to move locations for years, such as wood, pumice from volcanic eruptions or coconut shells. However, plastic is much more durable, longer lasting, and organisms like colonizing on it. Scientist believe that this has to do with the surface of the plastic which is not slippery like glass or rots away like wood. These foreign organisms can cause severe problems to the ecosystems they end up in. The newly adopted habitats of the non-native species often lack enemies, allowing them to multiply and spread quickly. They can devastate ecosystems by eating the native species, competing with them for food or habitat or introducing fatal diseases.
Unfortunately, there is no way to track the origins of the plastic, but a computer model of ocean circulation suggests that the fastest route to the patch begins at the U.S. East Coast. Also, researchers can’t tell the ages of the individual plastic bits, since there are no chemical techniques for dating petroleum-based products. According to the National Geographic, the lack of dating the plastic makes is nearly impossible to tell if the trash is actually due to turnover. In any case, the best way to fight against these garbage patches it to responsibly recycle and reduce the amount of recyclable waste ending up in landfills, on our beaches and in our gutters.
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Lack of Growth in the Great Atlantic Garbage Patch is Cause for Concern
The “Great Atlantic Garbage Patch” is almost something of a myth – a giant area of plastic debris the size of a large state, perhaps even more, floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Years of studies have shown that despite the amount of growing plastic waste from humans the garbage patch has not grown in size, so where is the plastic going? The answers may be grim.
A collaborative study between the Sea Education Association, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Hawaii have collected data over the last 22 years at different locations around the Atlantic and have recorded more than 64,000 individual pieces of plastic. One of the highest concentrations of debris was discovered east of Bermuda in an area called the North Atlantic Gyre which is hundreds of miles in size, according to Wired. In that part of the ocean the water is sinking down to the seabed, and currents point inwards like a very large, slow moving, whirlpool. Because of the buoyancy of the plastic, the majority of it stays at the surface and increases in large quantities over time. This is very similar to its sister garbage patch, the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” where there is estimated to be 100,000 tons of plastic.
Over the past 22 years researchers have found that the Atlantic Garbage Patch is not increased in size. But even taking increase recycling rates into account, humans’ plastic use over the past two decades has increased, according to the National Geographic. There are several theories of where the plastic has gone. First, it is possible some of the trash is just too small for researchers to catalog. Researchers use a net that only captures pieces larger than a third of a millimeter in size, some pieces of plastic can break down to even smaller than that. Researchers are also finding fragments of plastic in sea creatures, that mistook the plastic for plankton. Another possibility is that the plastic pieces could be sinking from the weight of colonies of marine bacteria, which posses another problem all together.
Alien species have been using trash in the ocean to move locations for years, such as wood, pumice from volcanic eruptions or coconut shells. However, plastic is much more durable, longer lasting, and organisms like colonizing on it. Scientist believe that this has to do with the surface of the plastic which is not slippery like glass or rots away like wood. These foreign organisms can cause severe problems to the ecosystems they end up in. The newly adopted habitats of the non-native species often lack enemies, allowing them to multiply and spread quickly. They can devastate ecosystems by eating the native species, competing with them for food or habitat or introducing fatal diseases.
Unfortunately, there is no way to track the origins of the plastic, but a computer model of ocean circulation suggests that the fastest route to the patch begins at the U.S. East Coast. Also, researchers can’t tell the ages of the individual plastic bits, since there are no chemical techniques for dating petroleum-based products. According to the National Geographic, the lack of dating the plastic makes is nearly impossible to tell if the trash is actually due to turnover. In any case, the best way to fight against these garbage patches it to responsibly recycle and reduce the amount of recyclable waste ending up in landfills, on our beaches and in our gutters.