Comments on: Garbage Island: Massive Floating Plastic Refuse

By: marc r frantz

marc r frantz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:16:37 +0000

why dont we put this floting island in a large net and ancor it off shore in the gulf.
when a hurricane starts to head tword shore,
we tow it close to shore and use it as a temporary wetland substitute to help knock down the power of the storm .
when its all over we tow it back out to sea and ancor it down untill the next storm

By: Michael Campbell

Michael Campbell — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:28:01 +0000

I love the bit when they’re proselytizing the evils of the found plastic by washing off the plastic with …. a plastic bottle. Nice.

By: RoNoKo

RoNoKo — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:30:06 +0000

Whats an epoch or two between friends?

By: Posco

Posco — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:51:53 +0000

Not to diminish the value of the post, but the garbage hardly forms a floating island, as the title seems to suggest. On the other hand, some estimate it to be closer to the size of AFRICA (that’s the continent!).

Anyway, you can read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_debris

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:48:04 +0000

My father went to sea all his life. He was a Merchant Marine captain, licensed for any tonnage, any ocean. He occasionally would comment on the amount of trash and garbage they would see on the high seas.

But wow! He never described anything like this. It must have developed relatively recently, over the past 30 or 35 years since he retired. Heaven help us.

By: Stephanie PTY

Stephanie PTY — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:33:16 +0000

That’s… horrible. I’ve heard of it before, but the video is really the first thing that shows the scary magnitude of it. I think everyone should be required to live with their trash for a time – people need to learn that when they say they’ll just throw something “away,” … well, there is no such thing as “away.”

By: mbhunter

mbhunter — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:09:32 +0000

Oh well, things will slow down when oil passes $500/barrel and we can’t afford to buy cases of bottled water anymore. The days of cheap plastic containers are coming to an end soon, along with most other disposable crap we make.

By: EN

EN — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:55:43 +0000

Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class? Oh the irony.

I just got around to watching WALL-E last night and this post totally reminded me of the world portrayed in that movie. That earthly future of inhabitable trash doesn’t look too preposterous now does it?