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Remote Pacific Island Is the Most Plastic-Contaminated Spot Yet Surveyed (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the great-pacific-garbage-patch dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Plastic is durable -- very, very durable -- which is why we like it. Since it started being mass-produced in the 1950s, annual production has increased 300-fold. Because plastic is so durable, when our kids grow up and we purge our toy chests, or even just when we finish a bottle of laundry detergent or shampoo, it doesn't actually go away. While we're recycling increasing amounts of plastic, a lot of it still ends up in the oceans. Floating garbage patches have brought some attention to the issue of our contamination of the seas. But it's not just the waters themselves that have ended up cluttered with plastic. A recent survey shows that a staggering amount of our stuff is coming ashore on the extremely remote Henderson Island. Henderson Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Pitcairn Group of Islands in the South Pacific, roughly half way between New Zealand and Peru. According to UNESCO, Henderson is one of the best examples we have of an elevated coral atoll ecosystem. It was colonized by Polynesians between the 12th and 15th centuries but has been uninhabited by humans since then. It is of interest to evolutionary biologists because it has 10 plant species and four bird species that are only found there. Despite its uninhabited status and its extremely remote location, a recent survey of beach plastic on Henderson Island revealed that the island has the highest density of debris reported anywhere in the world: an estimated minimum of 37.7 million items weighing 17.6 tons. This represents the total amount of plastic that is produced in the world every 1.98 seconds. Further reading: Here And Now

7 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. It's not plastic that's the problem... by iMadeGhostzilla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Plastic has great utility (as long as it's safe), it's disposable plastic that's the problem. And much of it is just for convenience that's not necessarily all that convenient.

    As an example -- I've been drinking water from disposable plastic bottles for over a decade and just recently switched to refilling water at my local store. At 50 cents a gallon I pay less for higher quality water in a BPA-free container. I had thought that's too much of a hassle but with "double buffering" it's actually less hassle than the bottled water, it's cheaper, tastier, and supposedly healthier.

    1. Re:It's not plastic that's the problem... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      just recently switched to refilling water at my local store. At 50 cents a gallon ...

      Could please you explain your rationale for doing this instead of just getting water from the faucet in your kitchen?

    2. Re:It's not plastic that's the problem... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Most tap water is poisoned with fluoride.

    3. Re:It's not plastic that's the problem... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Most tap water is poisoned with fluoride.

      The water sold in the grocery store is usually filtered tap water. The filtering does not remove fluoride. In fact, there is no evidence that it removes anything other than money from your wallet.

    4. Re:It's not plastic that's the problem... by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We have unimaginably good tasting well water here. Good enough that I sometimes ponder if bottling and selling it would be practical. Our well is the deepest on the highway we live on.

      A lot of 'natural' well water has a lot of fluoride in it. Fluoride in water is not something unnatural. It's just that some water doesn't have an adequate amount of fluoride to discourage tooth decay.

      In our case, we just brush with a fluoridated toothpaste ("Pepsodent", a paleo-brand of toothpaste that they sell at Walgreens for $1 a tube) to be sure.

    5. Re:It's not plastic that's the problem... by sheramil · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Plastic has great utility (as long as it's safe), it's disposable plastic that's the problem.

      Disposable plastic isn't the problem. It's partly dumbshits who think plastic should be disposable, and other dumbshits who treat it like it is.

      Having worked in the plastics industry.. it's weird how plastic is incredibly durable, unless you need it to be, in which case it degrades and breaks down almost immediately.. although that could be observation bias.

    6. Re: It's not plastic that's the problem... by dbIII · · Score: 4, Interesting
      From the totally correct but doesn't matter department.

      The "bring-your-own-bottle" machines at the grocery store do not use reverse osmosis. They use cheap activated charcoal filters, which do not remove fluoride even when they are changed regularly

      The fluoride doesn't matter (which is why the obsession was used to make a character look ridiculous in "Dr Strangelove") so the charcoal is enough to get rid of annoyances. I've been to places where people live off artesian water with a bit of fluoride and they don't get poisoned by it and die young (good teeth too, but maybe that's diet instead of fluoride).
      Seriously guys, unless you live somewhere like Flint with lead compounds in the water boiling is enough (though reverse osmosis is great for camping).

      The bottled water craze keeps reminding me that Evian is naive spelled backwards.