Plastic Floating in the Ocean

A recent report on the state of Texas size flotilla of plastic bottles and bags floating the Pacific suggests it's even bigger than Texas and it's not just the Pacific.

Think of this when you toss out your bottle

 When we toss our plastic bottles and bags into the recycle been, most of us think it's being recycled into sweaters, new bottles and bags, but apparently not. Plastic does not biodegrade readily and rendering it back into yarn or usable material is costly, so ordinarily it does not go to a factory, but it finds its way to the ocean. How exactly, the Phantom is not clear. We need, of course, more images of what this stuff looks like in the ocean. It is out of sight, out of mind.  But the images of Wall-E, an earth which has become a junkheap well up and are not far from reality.  The ocean is vast, but it ends at the shore, as Maud once observed--she was quoting Dylan of course. It is now likely it ends at the plastic heap, or at least is defiled by it.

What is the back story here?

We have only one Earth and apparently it is not in any company's interest to make an effort to remove this trash from the seas. That is, there is no profit in cleaning up the mess. There is profit in making plastic bottles and bags.

Currents swirl the plastic into a vast junk heap

The Phantom is hoping someone smart might think of a way of profiting from saving the planet.  

There is some precedent.

Remember Jane Goodall?  She wasn't in business. She could not make a profit center out of chimpanzees.  But she somehow captured the imagination and good will of enough people with money to protect some chimps. 



Where is Jacques Cousteau when we need him?