Help Stop Trashing Our Beaches and Oceans
Annual Oregon Beach Cleanup nets 110,00 Pounds of Trash in Beach Cleanup (kgn.com)
Did you know most of the trash on beaches is not local but from ships and super ships far out at sea. They still think the ocean is one big dumping ground because they are in international waters with little law and order. The trouble is they don’t break glass or throw steel that floats to the bottom but rather toss everything—especially plastics.There is now so much garbage out there that mindfully.org calls one place “the eastern garbage patch”—the size of Texas off the west coast. Plastic does disintegrate into smaller particles but is hardly gone. Basically this alters the ecosystem for different species and most likely creates those “dead zones” we hear of. “Science Daily” also says “marine pollution is linked to cancer and lung disease “. Here an animal actually died eating plastic: Courtesy: Trashed.
Massive environmental cleanup is not a good option for the taxpayer (like the Hartford cleanup) or anyone so why don’t we start new by making these ships store their trash if they want to do business with the western world. One container in a large ship that holds hundreds and hundreds of them is all it needs for their trash need, especially if it has a compactor.
Did you know most of the trash on beaches is not local but from ships and super ships far out at sea. They still think the ocean is one big dumping ground because they are in international waters with little law and order. The trouble is they don’t break glass or throw steel that floats to the bottom but rather toss everything—especially plastics.There is now so much garbage out there that mindfully.org calls one place “the eastern garbage patch”—the size of Texas off the west coast. Plastic does disintegrate into smaller particles but is hardly gone. Basically this alters the ecosystem for different species and most likely creates those “dead zones” we hear of. “Science Daily” also says “marine pollution is linked to cancer and lung disease “. Here an animal actually died eating plastic: Courtesy: Trashed.
Massive environmental cleanup is not a good option for the taxpayer (like the Hartford cleanup) or anyone so why don’t we start new by making these ships store their trash if they want to do business with the western world. One container in a large ship that holds hundreds and hundreds of them is all it needs for their trash need, especially if it has a compactor.
A couple thousand dollars can buy one from buyerzone but the ships that come here simple have to keep one empty one usually, or one on a return trip. So it costs nothing except a little manpower throwing garbage in the container.
Enforcement is simple:
1.The pilot makes inspection before port—they better have a container of plastics and hazardous wastes.
2.Companies that don’t comply will also don’t sell any their products here.
3.Very small ships are exempt.
Let’s start complaining:
Unfortunately the US lags behind the rest of the world in this kind of prevention. (Probably to keep the economy going at all cost, and giving us cheap products from overseas)
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David Best--PSU Student
Very informative. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteexcellent article and well done - it cuahg my attenion! I did not knwo the depth of this probelm nor how easy it could be to make a change. r. bremmer
ReplyDelete