Plastic Soup…it grows and grows

 

by Deborah Miarkowska

The swirling mass of plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean, known by a handful of names — the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, North Pacific Gyre, Trash Vortex, and Plastic Graveyard among them — has been gaining notoriety lately, for all the wrong reasons. It’s ballooned to twice the size of the continental U.S., causing a variety of problems, but what does it really look like out there and what does it really mean? This satellite photo is just the beginning; get up close and personal with the patch in the rest of the slideshow. Treehugger and Discovery News revealed some interesting insights.

Among Other Toxins, BPA is Released…
Plastic. Plastic everywhere. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now in the spotlight, but we’re still just figuring out what’s the impact of all this plastic in our oceans. A team of researchers from Nihon University in Chiba, Japan, have released a study showing that all this plastic isn’t just an eyesore.

“Most people in the world believe that this plastic is indestructible for a very long time,” said Katsuhiko Saido, a chemist at Nihon University. In their lab, Saido and colleagues used a new chemical technique to simulate the decomposition of polystyrene plastic in the oceans at 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). The process produced some potentially toxic chemicals, including bisphenol A (BPA) and PS oligomer.

 Ocean samples revealed some plastic byproducts that aren’t normally found in nature. Among others: including styrene monomer (SM), styrene dimer (SD), Bisphenol A (BPA), and styrene trimer (ST).

It is not known yet what impact this will have on marine life and on the ecosystems that depend on the oceans, but it certainly isn’t a good thing. Emily Sohn,  Discovery News Video Aug. 20, 2009  highlights how amidst waves and wildlife in the world’s oceans, billions of pounds of Styrofoam, water bottles, fishing wire and other plastic products float in endless circles.

This bobbing pollution is more than just an eyesore or a choking hazard for birds. According to a new study, plastic in the oceans can decompose in as little as a year, leaching chemical compounds into the water that may harm the health of animals and possibly even people.

“Most people in the world believe that this plastic is indestructible for a very long time,” said Katsuhiko Saido, a chemist at Nihon University in Chiba, Japan. He spoke this week at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C.

“We are now concerned that plastic pollution is caused by invisible materials,” Saido said through an interpreter. “This will have a great effect on marine life.”

Patterns in ocean currents create conglomerations of swirling trash that have received a burst of attention recently. The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for one, is a mound of waste, mostly plastic, that’s about twice the size of Texas. It lies some 1,000 miles off the west coast between California and Hawaii.

In Japan, Saido said, up to 150,000 tons of plastic wash on shore each year. Much of it is Styrofoam, a type of polystyrene plastic.

In their lab, Saido and colleagues used a new chemical technique to simulate the decomposition of polystyrene plastic in the oceans at 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). The process produced some potentially toxic chemicals, including bisphenol A (BPA) and PS oligomer.

« back to previous page

One Response to “Plastic Soup…it grows and grows”

1. Top Tips For Green Living | EcoChic Magazine says:

   November 7, 2009 at 12:34 pm

   [...] why do we think this is important? Recently we featured a disturbing story on Plastic Soup. Even the biggest sceptics can no-longer ignore the reality of environmental damage and how climate [...]