Here is the first blog written by one of our newest emlpoyees Ash Forshaw, he’s only been here 6 weeks and he continues to progress and gain more confidence, we would be greatful for your feedback on Ash’s first blog, thanks.

In the broad expanse of the Northern Pacific Ocean there exists the northern Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high pressure system of air currents. The area is like a oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to a lack of large fish and light breezes, it is not a hot spot for fishermen or sailors, so they rarely travel through the Gyre. But there is something besides plankton that lurks the pacific: TRASH, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It’s the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

The Gyre has actually formed two large masses of ever-accumulating trash, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, sometimes collectively called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Eastern Garbage patch floats between Hawaii and California: scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas other scientists say it is 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 sq mi). The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii. Each swirling mass of refuse is massive and accumulates trash from all over the world. The patches are connected by a thin 6,000 mile long current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone. Research flights showed that significant amounts of trash also accumulate in the Convergence Zone.

Most of the trash floating in the pacific is plastic.  To be exact 90% of trash floating in the world’s oceans is plastic. The United Nations Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. In some areas, the amount of plastic outweighs the amount of plankton by a ratio of six to one. Of the more than 200 billion pounds of plastic the world produces each year, 10 percent ends up in the ocean. Seventy percent of that eventually sinks, damaging life on the ocean floor. The rest floats, much of it ends up in the Gyres and the massive garbage patches that form there, with some plastic eventually washing up on a distant shore.

This obviously has an effect on the wildlife some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young, including sea tutles, and the black-footed albatross. Besides the particles danger to wildlife, the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from the seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. Aside from toxic effects, when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animals. These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals. Marine plastics also facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastics in one region and draft long distances to colonize other ecosystems. Research has shown that this plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide and a few of the 267 species reside in the North Pacific Gyre.

Personally I think this should have been dealt with earlier instead of letting it escalate into an environmental disaster. They only started the cleanup in 2008 where they were able to gather 6.8 million tonnes of trash, mostly from inland waterways, in 104 countries which just shows how many countries this is affecting.

LET’S TAKE ACTION NOW

Landfill sites have a number of associated problems including high emissions, ground and water contamination as well as being unsightly and smelly. One problem that an innovative landfill in Beijing is looking to solve is the bad odours created by landfill following a barrage of complaints from local residents bemoaning the unsavoury stench.

Beijing has a population of 17 million which is developing a more and more westernised throw away attitude, the city generates 18,000 tonnes of waste every day. This has led to a number (reports suggest around 200) of poorly managed tips on the city outskirts, many of which are illegally operated.

The landfill in question which is adopting a new strategy to reduce bad odours is the Asuwai dump site; they are set to install 100 large deodorant guns on the site. The giant deodorant guns can spray dozens of litres of deodorant each minute over a 50 metre radius. There are also plans to add more plastic covers over the landfill site to reduce the number of bad odours from becoming airborne.

Now local residents will be able to wake up to the smell of a combination of garbage and l’eau de toilette. Let’s just hope that the Beijing residents approve of the choice of deodorant, maybe a poll could be undertaken to determine a favourite fragrance.

Of course this can only be a temporary fix (if indeed it can be called that), China is developing a massive consumer economy and the statistics above tell us that longer term solutions are required. Less than 4% of rubbish in Beijing is recycled compared to 35% in the UK. Further to this only 2% is burned and the remainder is sent to landfill.

China faces a big challenge in order to ensure that its economic growth and success does not come at the cost of society and the environment. Consumer growth over the last 10-20 years has meant that the problem of waste has emerged too quickly to deal with effectively. The Chinese Government now realises this is an issue that will need to be actively addressed with plans to invest in a number of new incinerators, although this has been met by some strong local opposition as concerns have been raised regarding the safety of these. I assume that strangely they do not have similar concerns over the safety of the giant deodorant guns?

Source – The Guardian