Trash Islands

[sillylucy]

Due to the Earthquakes in Japan last year, a bunch of trash is starting to spring up in different parts of the world. I was just wondering if anyone knew what progress was being made to get rid of the junk floating around in the ocean.

[supergirl]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPgreOZzXlo

This is an interesting video that discusses these topics. I can't actually answer this question myself but now you've brought it up, it will be something that I investigate further. I would how much damage this causes to wild life every day.

[justusforus]

Wow that is an eye opener.  It seems that this is not a singular problem but one that is going to need to be addressed by all nations since it will affect all of us.  The scope is amazing and I am glad to see issues like this raised so that they will gain proper attention.

[pot_star]

I read an article yesterday about this 19 year old guy, I think he's a diver from Greece, who developed a way to clean up the Pacific Ocean in 5-10 years time. I just can't remember the site where I saw it (I think in Facebook or some other blog) but I remember him telling that he uses the current to his advantage to sweep off the trash in the ocean and pile it all up to use as an alternative source of energy.

[Lennox]

Trash islands haven't only been around for a couple of years, though, right? As long as there have been garbage going into the ocean, and currents to collect it somewhere, then there have been islands forming made out of garbage that, I guess being in international waters, or off the coast of some nation that can't be bothered, or it doesn't seem to be an immediate threat to biodiversity unlike an oil spill because trash islands form so gradually, or all sorts of excuses--nobody does anything about it.