World's Biggest Landfill is in Pacific Ocean!

We are Slowly and Almost Unknowingly Killing the Planet and Ourselves.

Had to buy a new electric toothbrush** and while attempting to cut the damned thing loose from its huge plastic packaging, got cut by the sharp edge of that packaging. So, as I sat here bleeding I started to wonder why such a huge amount of hard plastic is used to encase so many smaller items. I know that retailers claim it's to prevent shoplifting, but come on, the toothbrush stands 7" tall (with the charger base) and the packaging is 18" high and 10" wide.

It made me think of how much plastic we consume every day without realizing it. Then I found this and it really brought it home for me.

In the broad expanse of the northern Pacific Ocean, there exists the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The area is an oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and­ s­ailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It's the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

The gyre has actually given birth to two large masses of ever-accumulating trash, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, sometimes collectively called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas [source: LA Times]. The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii. Each swirling mass of refuse is massive and collects trash from all over the world. The patches are connected by a thin 6,000-mile long current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone.

Read the rest HERE.

At least where I shop the fruit and vegetables are loose, not pre-packaged in Styrofoam and sealed in plastic wrap. I'll wager that most everything else involves hard or soft plastics. My market also charges a 5 cent deposit on their brand of soda and mixers, such as tonic water. With no effort on my part I return 10 empties at a time and pocket the change.

I consider myself a pretty green kind of guy - 6 reusable grocery bags (for which 5 cents each is deducted from the final total; recycling cans, glass, and plastic weekly) - and now I am going to be more careful about packaging when I shop.

**Shopping for the best price on the model brush I wanted, I checked out two local pharmacies, my super market, and finally, Wal*Mart. Guess where the lowest price was found on that exact model? The Supermarket, and no, it wasn't on sale! Wal*Mart was a whopping $5.00 higher, that's 25% higher. So much for the "we're lowering prices everyday" hype.

And so it goes.

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