Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Pacific Trash Vortex To Become Habitable Island?

Posted by samzenpus on from the welcome-to-malignancy-island dept.

thefickler writes "The Pacific Ocean trash dump is twice the size of Texas, or the size of Spain combined with France. The Pacific Vortex, as it is sometimes called, is made up of four million tons of plastic. Now, there's a proposal to turn this dump into 'Recycled Island.' The Netherlands Architecture Fund has provided the grant money for the project, and the WHIM architecture firm is conducting the research and design of Recycled Island. One of the three major aims of the project is to clean up the floating trash by recycling it on site. Two, the project would create new land for sustainable habitation complete with its own food sources and energy sources. Lastly, Recycled Island is to be a seaworthy island. While at the moment the project is still more or less a pipe dream, it's great that someone is trying to work out what to do with one of humanity's most bizarre environmental slip-ups."

3 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Where are the Pictures of Garbage Island? by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Seconding this. If this thing is THAT BIG and horrific then why is it that there are as near as I can tell no pictures of it whatsoever? Everything I've seen is either an example from some lake or harbor or something similar.

    Why is it that of all the people tht must have seen this there isn't so much as a simple picture of garbage going out to the horizon? Why is every picture extremely zoomed in and narrow, or obviously not of this specific garbage patch?

    Someone somewhere must have at least taken a CELLPHONE picture ffs. How can something supposedly this astounding be so utterly undocumented?

    --
    A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
  2. Does it really exist? by gjcamann · · Score: 0, Redundant

    So if this thing is so huge, why can't i find any pictures of it? I'd love for someone to point out a satellite image of this thing. Does it really exist or is like global warming - something scientists dreamed up to justify their jobs. (I actually believe in global worming, but where are the pictures of this trash vortex?)

  3. doesn't work by yyxx · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Although people picture this as a gigantic, compact floating mass of plastic, it isn't. It's mostly tiny particles floating in the water, with one a small fraction of the junk floating on top. From Wikipedia:

    The patch is not a visibly dense field of floating debris. The process of disintegration means that the plastic particulate in much of the affected region is too small to be seen. Researchers must estimate the patch's overall extent and debris density from samples

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

    Sorry, but recycling plastic just doesn't get easier by throwing it into the ocean and having it swirl around for a while, sadly it gets harder.