The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Since 1968, a mass of plastic has been forming in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between the West Coast of the U.S and Japan (Oceanic, 2012). It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and has become a huge environmental worry, because of the affect that it is having on the creatures, and the ecosystem of the ocean. 70% of this waste has been run off from land, 20% has been dumped from ships, and the last 10% of the trash has come from varying components (Oceanic, 2012). The plastic and other trash articles that have been dumped, have been moving along with the oceans’ currents and over time, have ended up in a “vortex” of three different currents, all forcing the trash into the center of the three forces, and it has virtually created an island, (twice the size of Texas), of plastic (Oceanic, 2012). The currents are known as the North Pacific Gyre, and data suggests that the pieces of plastic stuck in the center, outweigh surface zooplankton by a factor of 6 to 1 (Kostigen, 2009). This patch isn’t substantial, and drifts around the ocean, losing some pieces here and there, but the majority of the trash stays together.
It was first discovered when Captain Charles Moore was on a yacht race to Hawaii in 1968. On his return voyage, Captain Moore veered from the usual sea route and saw an ocean he had never known. When being interviewed, he said that every time he came on deck to survey the horizon, he saw a soap bottle, bottle cap or a shard of plastic waste bobbing by. He was in the middle of the ocean and there was nowhere he could go to avoid the plastic." (Moore, 2012) Concerned with what he was seeing, Captain Moore launched an organization called the Algalita Marish Research Institute to help discover, and prevent what was causing this. His creation of this association has inspired many other people to get involved, like the Oceanic Defense Campaign and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Not only are these groups helping clean up the ocean, but they are helping spread awareness all throughout the country, trying to reduce the use of plastic and consumption of man-made materials. Their influence has reached Durango and the city is working on helping reduce the use of plastic.
It was first discovered when Captain Charles Moore was on a yacht race to Hawaii in 1968. On his return voyage, Captain Moore veered from the usual sea route and saw an ocean he had never known. When being interviewed, he said that every time he came on deck to survey the horizon, he saw a soap bottle, bottle cap or a shard of plastic waste bobbing by. He was in the middle of the ocean and there was nowhere he could go to avoid the plastic." (Moore, 2012) Concerned with what he was seeing, Captain Moore launched an organization called the Algalita Marish Research Institute to help discover, and prevent what was causing this. His creation of this association has inspired many other people to get involved, like the Oceanic Defense Campaign and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Not only are these groups helping clean up the ocean, but they are helping spread awareness all throughout the country, trying to reduce the use of plastic and consumption of man-made materials. Their influence has reached Durango and the city is working on helping reduce the use of plastic.
Proposed Management and Monitoring
Lessening use of plastic in Durango, Colorado
1. The day of green
a. Raising awareness about the effects of plastic on the ocean by boycotting any consumption of it for a day. The day of green will require as many people as possible in the Durango community to completely cut any purchase, use, and/or throwing away of plastic out of their day, and for retailers to be absolutely cooperative upon agreements (unless it has to do with medicinal, or health reasoning)
-Not buying/using any sort of plastic item from any retailer, restaurant, business etc.
-Goal of getting at least 40% of the 13,922 civilians living here (Durango, 2000) to participate by making the day very publicized and significant.
-Aims to show it is possible to drastically cut the amounts of plastic use out of daily lives.
-Done throughout all city limits of Durango.
-Fundraisers will occur to pay for this event. It will take place on December 1st at Buckley Park downtown. Local organizations concerning the health of the earth will be spoken to for event funding. There will be a sign up sheet for people who are willing to volunteer for this fundraiser and future events. If donations are made, the donors will receive reusable water bottles, and reusable shopping bags in hopes of reducing waste.
b. Not only will it be a great chance for Durango to see that it is possible to live without so much use of plastic, but it will also raise awareness as to why the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been created, and what can be done to stop the growth of the trash island.
c. Having a goal of getting around a minimum of 5,688 people (Durango, 2000) to completely cut any use or purchase of plastic out of their lives for a day would be extremely challenging due to the fact that everyone would have to fully participate.
2. Putting a fee on plastic bags in retail stores
a. Finding an expensive alternative to completely banning plastic bags in the area by putting a charge on every plastic bag used in a grocery store. It puts a helpful and resourceful incentive on locals shoulders to start being more eco-friendly
-Putting a $.50 charge on every plastic bag used when shopping.
-City of Durango will require retailers to take upon this action. The beginning stages of this law will start with a public petition, asking to support putting a $.50 charge on bags. If a consensus is found, the law could be implemented as soon as a week after the subject was brought up, but if the judicial system doesn’t come to consensus, the law could be made up to a year after. (Matt Hughes)
-Aims to give citizens incentive to bring their own reusable shopping bags.
-Every retailing store in Durango will participate.
-Will be paid for through the direct purchase of plastic bags.
b. Having an incentive to use reusable bags when shopping will help lessen the amounts of plastic use in a day by about 12% of plastic use total (Plastic, 2012)
c. Some people might not be able to afford extra charge on the bags, and don’t have to recourses needed to purchase their own reusable bag.
3. Bring a “go-to” mug to use in place of throw-away articles when going to coffee shops, smoothie shops, restaurants, etc. Instead of these retailers using disposable cups for drinks, they will be made into one’s own reusable cup/mug, but will still cost the same amount as before.
a. It is a great way to reduce the use of plastic cups, lids, straws and/or plastic lined cups that are thrown away after just one use.
-Locals will be informed to bring their own reusable cup or mug to use instead. Restaurants will be spoken to about this plan, and will be talked to about full participation
-Goal of getting at least 40% of citizens in Durango to participate.
-The aim is to reduce the use of excess plastic products that are only used once.
-It will be done all throughout Durango among many different food retail shops.
-Money will not be a matter of worry because of people bringing their own mugs.
b. It will help reduce use of plastic cups, plastic lined mugs, straws, and lids by not throwing away everything after one use
c. Not everyone has their own reusable cup or mug and they can be expensive to buy.
1. The day of green
a. Raising awareness about the effects of plastic on the ocean by boycotting any consumption of it for a day. The day of green will require as many people as possible in the Durango community to completely cut any purchase, use, and/or throwing away of plastic out of their day, and for retailers to be absolutely cooperative upon agreements (unless it has to do with medicinal, or health reasoning)
-Not buying/using any sort of plastic item from any retailer, restaurant, business etc.
-Goal of getting at least 40% of the 13,922 civilians living here (Durango, 2000) to participate by making the day very publicized and significant.
-Aims to show it is possible to drastically cut the amounts of plastic use out of daily lives.
-Done throughout all city limits of Durango.
-Fundraisers will occur to pay for this event. It will take place on December 1st at Buckley Park downtown. Local organizations concerning the health of the earth will be spoken to for event funding. There will be a sign up sheet for people who are willing to volunteer for this fundraiser and future events. If donations are made, the donors will receive reusable water bottles, and reusable shopping bags in hopes of reducing waste.
b. Not only will it be a great chance for Durango to see that it is possible to live without so much use of plastic, but it will also raise awareness as to why the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been created, and what can be done to stop the growth of the trash island.
c. Having a goal of getting around a minimum of 5,688 people (Durango, 2000) to completely cut any use or purchase of plastic out of their lives for a day would be extremely challenging due to the fact that everyone would have to fully participate.
2. Putting a fee on plastic bags in retail stores
a. Finding an expensive alternative to completely banning plastic bags in the area by putting a charge on every plastic bag used in a grocery store. It puts a helpful and resourceful incentive on locals shoulders to start being more eco-friendly
-Putting a $.50 charge on every plastic bag used when shopping.
-City of Durango will require retailers to take upon this action. The beginning stages of this law will start with a public petition, asking to support putting a $.50 charge on bags. If a consensus is found, the law could be implemented as soon as a week after the subject was brought up, but if the judicial system doesn’t come to consensus, the law could be made up to a year after. (Matt Hughes)
-Aims to give citizens incentive to bring their own reusable shopping bags.
-Every retailing store in Durango will participate.
-Will be paid for through the direct purchase of plastic bags.
b. Having an incentive to use reusable bags when shopping will help lessen the amounts of plastic use in a day by about 12% of plastic use total (Plastic, 2012)
c. Some people might not be able to afford extra charge on the bags, and don’t have to recourses needed to purchase their own reusable bag.
3. Bring a “go-to” mug to use in place of throw-away articles when going to coffee shops, smoothie shops, restaurants, etc. Instead of these retailers using disposable cups for drinks, they will be made into one’s own reusable cup/mug, but will still cost the same amount as before.
a. It is a great way to reduce the use of plastic cups, lids, straws and/or plastic lined cups that are thrown away after just one use.
-Locals will be informed to bring their own reusable cup or mug to use instead. Restaurants will be spoken to about this plan, and will be talked to about full participation
-Goal of getting at least 40% of citizens in Durango to participate.
-The aim is to reduce the use of excess plastic products that are only used once.
-It will be done all throughout Durango among many different food retail shops.
-Money will not be a matter of worry because of people bringing their own mugs.
b. It will help reduce use of plastic cups, plastic lined mugs, straws, and lids by not throwing away everything after one use
c. Not everyone has their own reusable cup or mug and they can be expensive to buy.
Reflection
For this project, I chose to study the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is a plastic “island” halfway between the West Coast of the US and Japan. The island is twice the size of Texas and is 1o ft. deep. According to the association known as Oceanic Defense, the amount of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch outweighs surface zooplankton by a ratio of 6 to 1. I wanted to learn about this subject specifically because I was never sure what happens to the trash that isn’t disposed of properly. When I found out how much of it was ending up in to ocean, I was extremely disturbed and wanted to think of strong and realistic ideas to prevent Durango from adding to the waste.
I put a lot of thought into my management plans and out of the three that I came up with, the strongest was to have a day of awareness, “the day of green”. It would take months of preparation, and informing locals about when it was happening, and what was going to happen. The goal was to get at least 40% of the Durango locals and retailers to completely cut the use of plastic out of their lives for one day. That entailed not buying, selling, or throwing away any plastic. If this could happen and we could get the locals to participate, it would raise awareness about why using less plastic is important, and how easy it is for people to drastically cut the use of plastic out of their everyday lives.
I developed many skills throughout the course of this project but the main ones were objective/technical writing, and my research habits. I did not have any past knowledge of writing and perfecting management plans and it required extensive research, editing, and corrections because of how strict the guidelines are for writing one are. Along with learning how to write management plans, I learned how to research reliable sources and scholarly articles. I had always thought that I knew how to do research well until this project. Our ecology unit challenged me to research in ways I had never done before, like going to the library and scouring every shelf for interesting and reliable articles that could be used. Stability=Diversity. That is the number one thing that I learned the most during this project. When an ecosystem is unstable, it will be more likely to lose species. That means that, between the link of diversity and stability, it is likely that losses of diversity could feedback on themselves, causing even more losses of species over time. Ever since learning more about GPGP, I have been much more conscious about how much plastic I use and throw away in a day, I try to take plastic bags for lunch, and when I do, I bring them home so I can reuse them. I also have stopped buying water bottles from the vending machine, and have either brought my own water bottle, or just use the water fountain. I have also been trying to influence my peers to use Tupperware for lunch instead of plastic bags and individually wrapped articles. I will take this different mindset about plastic and carry that with me for the rest of my life.
I put a lot of thought into my management plans and out of the three that I came up with, the strongest was to have a day of awareness, “the day of green”. It would take months of preparation, and informing locals about when it was happening, and what was going to happen. The goal was to get at least 40% of the Durango locals and retailers to completely cut the use of plastic out of their lives for one day. That entailed not buying, selling, or throwing away any plastic. If this could happen and we could get the locals to participate, it would raise awareness about why using less plastic is important, and how easy it is for people to drastically cut the use of plastic out of their everyday lives.
I developed many skills throughout the course of this project but the main ones were objective/technical writing, and my research habits. I did not have any past knowledge of writing and perfecting management plans and it required extensive research, editing, and corrections because of how strict the guidelines are for writing one are. Along with learning how to write management plans, I learned how to research reliable sources and scholarly articles. I had always thought that I knew how to do research well until this project. Our ecology unit challenged me to research in ways I had never done before, like going to the library and scouring every shelf for interesting and reliable articles that could be used. Stability=Diversity. That is the number one thing that I learned the most during this project. When an ecosystem is unstable, it will be more likely to lose species. That means that, between the link of diversity and stability, it is likely that losses of diversity could feedback on themselves, causing even more losses of species over time. Ever since learning more about GPGP, I have been much more conscious about how much plastic I use and throw away in a day, I try to take plastic bags for lunch, and when I do, I bring them home so I can reuse them. I also have stopped buying water bottles from the vending machine, and have either brought my own water bottle, or just use the water fountain. I have also been trying to influence my peers to use Tupperware for lunch instead of plastic bags and individually wrapped articles. I will take this different mindset about plastic and carry that with me for the rest of my life.