Millions Of Pieces Of Plastic Are Piling Up On An Otherwise Pristine Pacific Island

[EspressoBuzz]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/15/528470657/millions-of-pieces-of-plastic-are-piling-up-on-otherwise-pristine-pacific-island

Millions Of Pieces Of Plastic Are Piling Up On An Otherwise Pristine Pacific Island

[Jeremy K]

Does the national propaganda radio have any insight as to who is responsible for said trash ?

[Nomad]

Perhaps a more effective way to gather plastic for recycling then then present system .

You don't need to pay crews of guys to drive trucks burning fossil fuels around all day to gather it .

Toss it on the ocean let nature bring it to one location . They should build a big recycling plant beach side .

[The_Real_TCIII]

I gotta say I'm no bleeding heart, and do buy bottled water on occasion, but it's so incredibly wasteful. Billions of plastic bottles getting tossed

[turkeyfeathers]

First thing I thought of was Beaver Island on Grand Island. We call it "plastic beach" as all the plastic tampon applicators wash up on the beach shore

[Core]

Yuck

[Jeremy K]

17 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

First thing I thought of was Beaver Island on Grand Island. We call it "plastic beach" as all the plastic tampon applicators wash up on the beach shore

Those are actually called beach whistles. 

[Elmo]

I think the cause isn't responsible users who recyclers and/or properly disposes of their trash.  The recycling system has been fairly good about gathering and recycling plastic.  I believe most of what we see in the ocean comes from litter bugs, illegal dumping, and open trash containers when hit by storms.  Also. 3rd world countries that don't have any form of recycling/sanitation systems.