Largest Plastic Landfill on Earth!!

A few days ago, I asked: True or False?? The largest collection of plastic waste on earth is in the North Pacific, spanning an area twice the size of the U.S.

The answer, true!

Here's today's Weather Matters Segment.

What happens to your plastic bottles or any plastic that you throw away? You may be surprised to learn that you may be eating it.

There's a remote area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean called the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Also sometimes referred to as the North Pacific Gyre. It's northwest of Hawaii and takes about one week to get there by boat. It stretches from 575 miles off the coast of California all the way across to almost Japan. Why are we concerned about it? It is the largest landfill on Earth and has the most plastic trash anywhere. And it's growing!

Thomas Morton is a journalist for a web-based network called vbs.tv. He's making a documentary on the North Pacific Garbage Patch to raise awareness. The following is from the documentary:

"The area is literally infested with bits of plastic along with bottles, hockey sticks, tires, and lots of other garbage. The problem with plastic is that it doesn't biodegrade, it photodegrades. That is a process in which plastic is broken down by sunlight into smaller pieces. But the smaller pieces remain pieces of plastic. There is a shocking 6 to 1 ratio of plastic to plankton. And plankton is a main source of food for the marine animals."

About 80% of trash in our oceans comes from land and river runoff. And that's how the trash food chain begins. It breaks down and gets eaten by small fish. The small fish get eaten by bigger ones. And eventually we eat the fish. Scientists have linked this to numerous public health problems.

What can be done? Well plastic is everywhere! Some estimates say there could be as much as 100 million tons of waste floating in our oceans. So there is no quick fix. But simply put, we need to use less plastic and learn ways to dispose of it better. For more information and shocking videos (including a piece from the vbs.tv documentary), just head to our website and click on 47 weblinks.