plastic in the oceans

One of the biggest stories in the news lately is all of the plastic trash in the oceans. From what I see and hear, it very potentially is a serious problems. Perhaps more than just the greenies making a mountain out of a molehill. But, now me being a hick from the sticks, I can't begin to fathom how all of this plastic makes its way to the ocean. Are cities just backing garbage trucks up to rivers and letting it go. ..? I know that lots of careless people throw trash into rivers at times, but how does so much accumulate. They say that the Pacific Ocean garbage pit is the size of Texas. I guess coming from a state that has less people in the whole state than what most of the cities along the coast lines have in them, I probably am just a little out of touch with reality. But don't most of these cities have garbage trucks that pick up everyone's garbage and dispose of it in a responsible manner. Obviously I am missing something here. I am pretty sure that none of my plastic garbage makes it to the ocean, because it doesn't get past my burn barrel. Darrel

Back when I was growing up recycling was hardly ever mentioned but more of it was done back then and very little went into the trash. Glass coke bottles (that's pop bottles for you people up nawth) were collected, washed and reused. Grocery bags were made of paper and were used as school book covers, getting vegetables out of the garden, etc. plus they would decompose. Feed, seed, and fertilizer came in cloth or paper bags, some were fancy enough to use for everyday dresses, aprons, dish cloths, quilts, etc. Coffee, lard, and things like that came in tin cans not plastic and if not reused would rust away in a landfill. And in butchering hogs nothing was wasted if it were cold enough the kids would catch the squeal in a jar and use it for whistles when it thawed out. Now a days just about everything comes in plastic. And like Coke says - a lot of cities just dump their garbage in the ocean.

Dumping in the ocean here on the left would get a longer prison term than murder I would guess. Who knows what gets recycled but I have a nice blue bin from the garbage company, and there are still several places to take approved drink containers to get your nickel back you fronted the state  to buy it. Funny how more bottles come to Caly than they got nickels when the store sells them.

Coke-in-MN wrote: The single source recycling has improved some in down stream recycling - everything into one container and hand sorted later -   Remember the cases of soft drinks and or beer bottles that got returned - a 3 or 5 cent deposit each and some people i know paid or a road trip by picking up bottles along the road to pay for gas .   When milk came in bottles - then later paper cartons , oil came in cans and later in paper quart containers (just don't let them get wet in back of truck)  Then PLASTIC was the new wave and now the wave is overwhelming the landfills and oceans .   Friend now uses shredded tires for back fill around foundations for drainage and also in septic system drain fields - costs less than aggregate and works just as well if not better as it's lighter to handle .

Good morning Coke. That shredded tire idea sounds pretty good. A couple questions about it: Where does he get the shredded tires from? Does he take his own worn out tires in to somewhere and have them shredded, or just buys the shredded tires already shredded? And can they shred steel belted radials, too? I know one time years ago they were grinding up tires and adding them to asphalt to make the oval course for track fields. Catch was that they couldn't use radials. Now I don't think that they would be able to find any non-radial tires. Thanks Coke, Darrel

Are still Steel rings of cable in the Bead regions of tires. Problem with steel belted tires is the steel does not shred well and become needle like. We burned shredded tires at the Portage Des Sioux Power station as a few other Cyclone Boiler plants did, ended up with bad results where the steel grindings adhered and became porcupine-ish inside the boiler cyclone heads. BRUTAL. A few playgrounds are having issues with ground tire as is becoming cumulative illness considerations due to toxic materials found in the tire compounds. Many sites where ground tires were used are being changed back to rock or sand.

Just remember EVERYTHING flows downstream and the oceans are at the end.

Talking about recycling, now in Wisconsin we can’t reuse poly feed bags no longer as they pose to much biosecurity risk. Also on the list is those 250 gal totes that baling preservatives and such comes in. As they are only labeled single use so at my local feed mill they would give them away to be used as a bulk feed tub, by cutting the top off. What a big waste in my opinion.

It's from run off, like storm drains and stuff. City streets would make you sick. I get made when people step over trash on ground. But drive a Prius or put solar on there house.

I guess none of us has the capability to change this problem other than our own due diligence to take care of our own refuse.  And I'm always picking up crap that others don't want to deal with.  I hate driving down Eways and seeing all of the trash.  But here in MI we have a steady stream of visitors going north from Ohio so I guess that's the source of that problem!!

Long time ago when I was still a kid I seen pictures of it on discovery channel and that is a huge driving force in my mind on picking up trash.

Iv also been thinking of going through my farm bureau and coming up with newspaper article with three different pictures, one with a baby, adult, and dog sitting in front of there plate with broken glass, ground up plastic bottle and chip bag on it with some slogan saying if you wouldnt feed it to them then please don't throw it in my fields with a smaller picture of field road front with trash in it.