The Great Garbage Patch, rivers clogged with plastic, trash tossed into waterways, no trash pickup equals plastic disaster

  The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", a spot between Hawaii and California, is where the Pacific Oceans currents form an eddy, the plastic collects there as well as 4 other "Garbage Patches" in the world. Plastic is everywhere, we see it on the side of roads, in our rivers, lakes, open spaces, as well as the ocean to name a few places. Plastic Pollution, bottles, bags, fishing gear, where does it all come from and where does it all go? 

This is not the half of it.

  The theme for this year's Earth Day is, "End Plastic Pollution", during the past 60 years plastic manufacturing has become a growth industry, Globally. (Earth Day 2018 is today Sunday, April 22). Give a few minutes to think of all of the places, we use plastic, and all of the products we use that are made of plastic. We drink water from plastic bottles, carry purchases home in plastic bags, unpack the items we purchase that are shipped in "bubble packs", car parts, clothes, and millions of other products. During the past 20 years, the volume of plastic production has doubled, it may quadruple by the year 2050. Worldwide more than 2 billion pounds of plastic are produced every single day, bottles are made at the rate of 20,000 per second. At that rate, a new bottle could be placed in every resident of California every 1/2 hour, approximately 40 million bottles. Plastic has made our lives easier, production of goods less expensive than steel, wood, or aluminum of which it took the place of in many instances. For which Countries produce the most plastic worldwide, I have listed them below:

1)  China produces 29% of the supply of the world
2)  Europe, with 19% of the supply of the world
3)  North America, makes 18% just behind Europe
4)  Asia minus China and Japan ships 17% of the supply
5)  The Middle East and Africa equals 7%
6)  Latin America is 4% of the supply of the world

  The plastic industries production employs a lot of people worldwide as well as it being used in all industries, as an example in Europe the use is by industry (rounded off to the nearest whole percentage):

1)  Packaging accounts for 40%
2)  Construction uses 20%
3)  Automotive 10%
4)  Electrical 6%
5)  Household and leisure sports 4%
6)  Agriculture 3%
7)  Other uses 17%

  Plastic production is an unbelievable wealth and employment generator, it is used extensively in our society, and it is everywhere, the flip side of the coin is it is a great cause of pollution as well. Plastic does not decompose completely, taking hundreds of years to completely decompose. In the meantime, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, from very large to microscopic. 150 million tons of plastic pollutes our ocean, gathering in one of 5 spots in the oceans of the world where the currents drive the floating plastic. These areas are called "Garbage Patches", the largest known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", located half of the way between Hawaii and California it is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. Researchers report most of the plastic debris consists of the fishing line, nets, and other gear. (There are questions whether it is actually 2x the size of Texas.) It is estimated that the amount of plastic in our oceans will weigh more than all of the fish in them by the year 2050 unless we address the problem. Fish eat it, Plankton get mixed up in it and it sticks to their bodies, larger Zooplankton eats the smaller plastic coated Plankton, they get eaten by small fish to be eaten by larger fish and finally it lands on our tables.

Plankton gets covered in microplastic then is eaten
by larger Zooplankton, then by small fish, they are
eaten by larger fish, then finally we eat them.

  More than 2.40 million tons of plastic go into our oceans every year, most of it is not as dense as water so it floats, and it won't sink out at sea. They join the Garbage patches after floating with the current sometimes for years. As more plastic is produced the larger the patches will become unless the world acts. One survey of a patch consisted of among other "things", 30 boats, and 652 surface nets, aerial surveys were conducted at the same time. 80,000 tons make up the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", equalling the weight of 500 jumbo jets, the center is heaviest and the outer edges less thick. Almost 2 million pieces of plastic are estimated to be floating in the largest Garbage Patch, that is 250 pieces for each man woman and child that occupy the planet. Plastic is being fetched out of the Garbage Patch, with the majority of retrieved plastic being hard or rigid polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), derelict fishing gear, nets, and ropes ranging in size from boats to small fragments. 90% of the trash is larger than 0.5 cm, 3/4 of the objects total mass is made up of macro and mega plastics, but in terms of objects, 94% are micro-plastics. It's a bit confusing, I understand it as the visible debris is the 90% over .5 cm, the 94% is microscopic and can not be observed or photographed. 46% of the mass is fishing nets.

One team has developed a classification:

*Type H; consist of hard, sheet or film plastics
*Type N: consist of plastic ropes, fishing nets, and fishing lines
*Type P: are plastic blanks cylinders, spheres, disks, and blanks
*Type F: Foam, packing foam, and product foam

  Whales have died from the consumption of plastics, bags appear to them as jellyfish, a young Sperm Whale washed ashore in Spain had 64 pounds of plastic inside its stomach. April 17, 2018, it is very current, The 33-foot mammal died due to plastic lodged in its intestines and stomach, a painful death. Another Whale found on the beach of Cabo De Palos (Spain) died when its digestive system jammed up with plastic ruptured wide open.
  Sea Turtles have been found with as much as 75% of their diet consisting of plastic, in the area of the Garbage Patches. Laysan Albatross chicks diets consist of 45% of their diet, from Kure Atoll and Oahu Island. With the plastic they consume Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic (PBT), it is in 85% of the plastics tested. The Ocean creatures also get entangled in nets, lines, ropes, bags, and get their heads stuck in buckets and bottles. The Toxic PBT eventually finds its way onto our dinner plates, along with the micro-plastics the fish had ingested.
  Where does it all come from? The short answer is "Us", you and I, our neighbors, industry, cruise ships, cargo ships, and military ships. An example of gross pollution was reported in the UK news company's daily newspaper "The Sun", included in the April 20, 2018 edition, (read it here Link)
  In the city of Bandung, West Java, piles of garbage, plastic bottles, bags, packaging, and everything else made of plastic is clogging up the waterways. The officials have declared "War" on plastic, the Army was called out to deal with the mass of pollution. The local leaders determined the problem is so extensive they needed help from the Countries highest officials, the people can not (or will not) remove it themselves. During a cleanup episode the trucks did not arrive to haul off the trash, so the Army got in barges and pushed the stuff further downstream, it was no longer their problem it now belonged to those other people. Indonesia, as well as other developing countries throughout the world simply toss their trash in the waterways or pile it on roads outside of their homes where it also ends up in the water. There is no way to deal with trash in Java, there is no garbage collection, nor is it required, I ask you how deep is the problem? It's much like the situation in Europe during the middle ages when the Black Plague was busy causing the demise of 1/4 of the population, they simply tossed the bodies in whatever river was handy, helping to spread the disease. We have tossed garbage in our waterways since the time of our ancient forefathers.

A photograph of a boat on a river in Java, it's a bad situation.

I don't like spelling out problems without a trace of a solution, I have one, it's a monumental effort that thousands of people are working on, self-awareness, self-reliance, and self-responsibility, all three of my personal tenets come into play here. Every person on the planet has got to take responsibility for their consumption, nobody wants to pick up other peoples trash, we need to pick up after ourselves every time. After we unpack or consume food or other trappings, we should look at the packaging and with a clear conscience toss it in the recycle bin, or the trash.  It may seem fruitless in light of some Countries dumping into the waterways willy-nilly, it can and will change the direction of pollution, 20% of our population is capable of motivating the other 80% to throw in with us. More laws may help, but it is so widespread it comes down to you and me, everyone, if we don't I do not know what the outcome will be. That bottle of water we drank today, or that bubble wrap will be around when my grandkids-grandkids are my age, (67), that is depressing to me, I don't want to leave it to them to clean up, unlike the Army in the Country of Java. We must not make excuses for pollution. (Follow this Link for information pertaining to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch)
  Thank you for reading, this is a serious situation, one that our survival depends upon, we cannot and must not keep fouling up our planet, it is not "Climate Change", it's "Human Change", the Governments of the world, for the most part, are not helping, we have to take the bull by the horns and do something on our own. What are your thoughts? Are we able to do this for the survival of the planet?
jacquesandkate  EmergencyKitsPlus.com