Why Is It Important To Keep Our Trash Out Of The Ocean?

The ocean is so vast that you would believe you could throw a piece of trash in it and it would disappear forever. As a matter of fact, too many think that, and that coupled with trash getting into our drainage system has caused the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ which is also known as the Trash Vortex and possibly many other names.

This area is located in the North Pacific Gyre which is a clockwise swirl of currents that houses little more than phytoplankton and our garbage. In fact there is so much trash that it is estimated that there is six times more trash than there is plankton.  It is estimated that over twenty billion pounds of plastic trash finds its way from our hands to the ocean each and every year. Plastics are horrible for the ocean because they are toxic, they don’t biodegrade.

They break into smaller pieces that may disperse over a wide area, clogging gills of fish and other filter type feeders. Aquatic birds tend to ingest them and turtles who love the taste of jellyfish end up ingesting plastic bags as well. The ocean only looks big, even the vastness of the ocean can’t swallow up our garbage without a trace. Recycling these items saves the animals of the ocean and keeps it healthy for generations to come.

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