July 2008 | On Our Radar
Whatcha Gonna Do with All That Junk...?
By Summer Bowen
Two strapping young activists are redefining what it means to recycle, recently setting sail on a 2,100-mile journey from LA to Hawaii atop a massive pile of trash. Their aptly named vessel, “Junk,” is an old airplane body tied down to a raft, which floats on pontoons made of 15,000 used plastic bottles.
The raft’s voyage is step two in a three-part plan by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) to raise awareness about the massive amounts of petroleum-based plastic polluting our oceans. Junk is the brainchild of Gulf War veteran Dr. Marcus Eriksen, who is accompanied by researcher and filmmaker Joel Paschal. The third member of the team, Anna Cummins, is heading up the land operation, updating the world via the JUNK blog (junkraft.blogspot.com) on day-to-day happenings of the two-man crew.
Sound precarious? Well, Eriksen has his fears. “Besides falling in or getting run over,” says the rafter, “the worst case scenario is that plastic trash continues to fill our oceans.” The amount of plastic debris currently clogging the world’s oceans — 3.5 million tons and (exponentially) growing — is certainly frightening. AMRF has already made several trips to the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a swirling vortex of plastic twice the size of the continental United States.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any life vests for the sea — the plastics in our oceans will never biodegrade. “Instead,” writes the AMRF, “plastic goes through a process called photodegradation, where sunlight breaks it down into smaller and smaller pieces until there is only plastic dust.” No matter how small, the plastic remains a polymer within the ecosystem, endangering the lives of the 300 animal species consuming it.
Eriksen concedes some types of plastic are necessary — for pacemakers, car seats, and the like — but disposables are the target issue of the trip. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot with this disposable culture,” says Eriksen. “We use these things once and throw them away, but there is no such thing as ‘away.’ Where is ‘away?’” Increasingly, “away” is sea bound — 80 percent of the plastic soup in the ocean
arrives via storm drains from landlubbers like us.
You can help by checking AMRF’s research, encouraging and voting for legislation that bans and taxes disposable plastic, and for goodness’ sake, making the easy choice to carry a reusable bottle and bag.
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