Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

IT has been described as the world's largest rubbish dump, or the Pacific plastic soup, and it is starting to alarm scientists.
It is a vast area of plastic debris and other flotsam drifting in the northern Pacific Ocean, held there by swirling ocean currents.

Discovered in 1997 by American sailor Charles Moore, what is also called the great Pacific garbage patch is now alarming some with its ever-growing size and possible impact on human health. The "patch" is in fact two massive, linked areas of circulating rubbish, says Dr Marcus Eriksen, research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, founded by Moore.

Although the boundaries change, it stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the coast of California, across the northern Pacific to near the coast of Japan.

(From: news.com.au)


http://www.madcaow.com/blog/2008/02/04/ ... stic-soup/

Worth watching the video above too.

theres also alot of aussies collecting fishing nets drifting in our local oceans and caught up on the beaches that have proven to be threatening to local species....also the crap Ian kiernan n clean up australia are finding in our bays and water ways.

cleanup oz

............maybe we should all buy a t-shirt from joel n join up clean up oz to show we give a shite

I was not the slightest bit impressed by "clean up Australia" this year. They have sold out to mcdonalds, it's just turned into a big marketing ploy..

I'm not helping some freaky clown clean up anything.

(I don't mean you BK )

thats cool, i helped out the last 2 yrs...........lol am depressed again.......Mcd's are a sad bunch. but I already knew that...............lol@100% export grade beef................100% to USA import standards....aka remove the skin n hooves n we will take the rest

HAhahahahahhahaahaahahahhhahaahaa that some funny shit

oh...lmao....shite i cant stop laughing dude

i pictured the mac Ds clown picking up garbage and Joel there wacking him with a garbge can for those that maby confuze( i live in my own world and i find humor in every thing. life is short, so laugh while u can)

i submit that this is one more thing we are being told to worry about, which really isn't anywhere near the disaster it's being made out to be.

and i agree clean up australia day is a gimmic. does anyone think they will save the world picking up bottle tops? why can't all the money being spent on advertising this event go to funding research on how to make better landfills or putting more rubbish bins in public places? hell i had to pay for a skip to take my rubbish away because the retards in my local council can't see the value in a local dump site. take a guess where people less responsible than me dump their rubbish? swan river and parklands.
rant over

:sigh:

:groan:

The trash could be caught in nets and recycled?

Beyond netting I think Coyote..... here's the original article and accompanying oceanograhic modeling....

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master ... ature.html

I fear the real issue is not so much cleaning up, but getting people to trash less in the first place. Excess, non-recyclable, non-reusable packaging cost money on both ends. Manufacture and transport to stores and then again to haul away and landfill as trash.

Attempt to avoid buying the big heavy duty clam shell packaged goods. Not only are they a waste (except to the stores where they are the cheapest way to try and thwart shoplifters) but they are freaking dangerous to open.

I try and buy products that either come in recyclable containers, containers I know I have a use for, or packaging that is compostable.

Clean up oz...been years since I helped, when I was at school.
If it helps kids think about their impact on the world, then it's worth spending money on.

I went to Bali last year. The villagers use dumps on hillsides leading into the river. Traditionally the waste would break down as it worked its way down the slope. Now there is plastic instead of banana leaves for wrapping things, and so forth...so the system breaks down. But they keep dumping there, because that's what they are used to.

I spoke to a guy who, when he was a child, saw a netherlands tourist putting rubbish in his pocket to put in a bin later...it stuck with him, and he's been trying to change people's view ever since, but he's convinced the real answer is in educating the next generation.

We need to help kids form lifetime habits of responsible waste management.