![]() ![]() Among them is the Microplastics Awareness Project, led by scientists from Dublin Institute of Technology and funded by Science Foundation Ireland under the Discover Programme Call 2017. It is also known as the Pacific trash vortex and spans waters from. #Giant pacfic itrash island PatchIn Ireland, some efforts are being made to get children involved, too. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. There is hope now among scientists and those involved in the Earth Day Network that the spotlight thrown on the crisis by David Attenborough and others this year will encourage policymakers and the public to change their ways. In fact, at its northern beach, the island can see up to 270 items of plastic land on the beach every day. We certainly can’t kid ourselves into thinking that recycling is a. Answer (1 of 6): Original Question: How long has the giant floating 'trash island' in the Pacific Ocean been in existence Well, never, because there is no giant floating trash island in the Pacific. However, since most plastics take almost 1000 years to decompose, plastic use has taken an enormous toll on the environment. They are cheap to produce, convenient, and sanitary it’s no wonder why we produce a little over 300 million tons of plastic globally every year. The uninhabited island is designated as a UNESCO heritage site and is one of the world’s last two raised coral atolls whose ecosystems remain almost unaffected by human contact.īut, as the images taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite show, there is still a substantial amount of plastic waste that has washed up on its shore.Ī study in 2017 looking at several beaches on the island revealed that it has the “highest density of rubbish anywhere in the world” because of its location in the South Pacific Gyre, one of the Earth’s rotating ocean currents.Įstimates suggest that almost 40m pieces of plastic have washed up on its shore, weighing almost 18 tonnes. Single-use plastics plague our modern daily lives. #Giant pacfic itrash island seriesHowever, highlighting the damage already done, the European Space Agency (ESA) has released a video showing a series of satellite images of Henderson Island in the South Pacific. So, as we approach Earth Day (22 April), the world’s focus on plastic waste is being ramped up further, with the Earth Day Network calling on people to drastically curb their use of plastic and help make our oceans and fields clean once again. We may have reached a turning point when it comes to the recycling of plastic waste, but there’s a sense that it will be too little too late for many creatures and beaches surrounding the world’s oceans.įor example, a recent survey of the area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch showed that it contains approximately 1.8trn pieces of plastic, of which 94pc are microplastics invisible to the naked eye. ![]() Ahead of Earth Day, new images taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite show a depressing picture when it comes to plastic pollution in our oceans. ![]()
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