About one thousand miles off the coast of California, in an isolated area of the north Pacific ocean known as the North Pacific Gyre, a slowly rotating whirlpool of water swirls in a giant clockwise spiral. At the center of the swirling mass of water sits a relatively still center, inviting the accumulation of whatever debris swirls into it.
Created by a high pressure system of trade and westerly winds, all the oceans of the world have massive, slow-moving gyres. While oceans across the globe have accumulated debris, the north Pacific Gyre is known to have amassed at its core the largest. This giant debris field, commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is estimated to be as large as the state of Texas (some sources say twice the size of Texas).
Scientists and researchers from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography have begun new research on the nature and origin of the Great Pacific Patch, as well as its effect on the local ecosystem and global food chain.
Now that Oprah has turned her spotlight on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that great mass of garbage floating in the ocean has finally caught the public eye. An upcoming ocean garbage expedition to the patch, dubbed Project Kaisei, should draw even more attention when it launches this summer. Project Kaisei’s aim is to explore the feasibility of collecting and recycling the garbage patch, which mainly consists of plastics, into diesel fuel. How feasible is it? A modest derelict fishing net recycling program in Hawaii provides some tantalizing clues.
While Ecologic Designs (one of my previous posts) is thriving by making practical products out of various waste streams – demonstrating green innovation and up-cycling – some artists around the world are working with a new medium: trash. These artists are coming together, actively gathering vast quantities of debris floating up on shorelines or collecting waste wherever it might be piling up and turning it into beautiful pieces of art.
On a trip to Santa Monica, California, a friend treated my family and I to an amazing – if not also disturbing and mind-opening – display of crocheted sculptures created from trash. The exhibit, Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reefs by the Institute for Figuring, was displayed in several rooms of the Track 16 Gallery at Bergamot Station. The Institute For Figuring (IFF) is an organization dedicated to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics and the technical arts.
Created and curated by Christine and Margaret Wertheim, the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef exhibit was a stunning display of an ingenious use of waste materials, creativity and community, bringing together various reefs created by artists from around the world. The exhibition also brought attention to the plight of our oceans and the depository for our trash that it’s become, accidental or otherwise. The Crochet Coral Reef Project of the Institute For Figuring is conceived as “a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world.”
Despite her recent gaffe with factory-farmed chicken and KFC, Oprah is great for one thing: bringing otherwise overlooked news to the masses. Sure, you and I might know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and wring our hands over the fish and birds that consume the nodules of plastic, but I’m sure that the average American does not.
That’s why I was pleased to hear that Oprah brought up the matter on her Earth Day episode.
Kids like straws, and it is actually good for their oral motor development and speech articulation to use them. As a green parent, I hate plastic straws.
They can’t be recycled, they are used one time, and they are a waste of resources. I have purchased the thicker plastic kind before and attempted to wash them, but it is impossible to get them entirely clean. I can only imagine what germs you would see if you cut one open and put it under a microscope! Plastic straws can’t go in the dishwasher, or they melt or release toxic chemicals, and who knows about BPA in straws? I have finely found the eco-alternative to the plastic straw: GLASS!
