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<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Continent-size
toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of <st1:place w:st="on">Pacific Ocean</st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&type=politics">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&type=politics</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Friday,
October 19, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>At the
start of the Academy Award-winning movie "American Beauty," a
character videotapes a plastic grocery bag as it drifts into the air, an event
he casts as a symbol of life's unpredictable currents, and declares the
romantic moment as a "most beautiful thing."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To the
eyes of an oceanographer, the image is pure catastrophe. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm drain to the
ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a heap
of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:State>, according to marine biologists.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some
3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in
a no-man's land between <st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City> and <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:place></st1:State>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Marcus
Eriksen, director of research and education at the Algalita Marine Research
Foundation in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Long Beach</st1:place></st1:City>,
said his group has been monitoring the Garbage Patch for 10 years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"With
the winds blowing in and the currents in the gyre going circular, it's the
perfect environment for trapping," Eriksen said. "There's nothing we
can do about it now, except do no more harm."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The patch
has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since
the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the
California Coastal Commission in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:place></st1:City>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Ocean
current patterns may keep the flotsam stashed in a part of the world few will
ever see, but the majority of its content is generated onshore, according to a
report from Greenpeace last year titled "Plastic Debris in the World's
Oceans." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
report found that 80 percent of the oceans' litter originated on land. While
ships drop the occasional load of shoes or hockey gloves into the waters
(sometimes on purpose and illegally), the vast majority of sea garbage begins
its journey as onshore trash.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That's
what makes a potentially toxic swamp like the Garbage Patch entirely
preventable, Parry said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"At
this point, cleaning it up isn't an option," Parry said. "It's just
going to get bigger as our reliance on plastics continues. ... The long-term
solution is to stop producing as much plastic products at home and change our
consumption habits."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Parry
said using canvas bags to cart groceries instead of using plastic bags is a
good first step; buying foods that aren't wrapped in plastics is another. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>After the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors banned the use of plastic grocery bags
earlier this year with the problem of ocean debris in mind, a slew of state
bills were written to limit bag production, said Sarah Christie, a legislative
director with the California Coastal Commission. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But many
of the bills failed after meeting strong opposition from plastics industry
lobbyists, she said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Meanwhile,
the stew in the ocean continues to grow. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Great
Pacific Garbage Patch is particularly dangerous for birds and marine life, said
Warner Chabot, vice president of the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Sea
turtles mistake clear plastic bags for jellyfish. Birds swoop down and swallow
indigestible shards of plastic. The petroleum-based plastics take decades to
break down, and as long as they float on the ocean's surface, they can appear
as feeding grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"These
animals die because the plastic eventually fills their stomachs," Chabot
said. "It doesn't pass, and they literally starve to death."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Greenpeace report found that at least 267 marine species had suffered from some
kind of ingestion or entanglement with marine debris. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Chabot
said if environmentalists wanted to remove the ocean dump site, it would take a
massive international effort that would cost billions. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But that
is unlikely, he added, because no one country is likely to step forward and
claim the issue as its own responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Instead,
cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is left to the landlubbers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"What
we can do is ban plastic fast food packaging," Chabot said, "or
require the substitution of biodegradable materials, increase recycling
programs and improve enforcement of litter laws.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Otherwise,
this ever-growing floating continent of trash will be with us for the
foreseeable future."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>How
to help <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>You can
help to limit the ever-growing patch of garbage floating in the <st1:place
w:st="on">Pacific Ocean</st1:place>. Here are some ways to help:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Limit
your use of plastics when possible. Plastic doesn't easily degrade and can kill
sea life.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Use a
reusable bag when shopping. Throwaway bags can easily blow into the ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Take your
trash with you when you leave the beach.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Make sure
your trash bins are securely closed. Keep all trash in closed bags.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Trash is
also a problem in parts of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Bay</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
For an interactive map showing some of the worst locations, go to <em><i><font
face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.savesfbay.org/baytrash">www.savesfbay.org/baytrash</a></font></i></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-style:italic'>- Justin Berton <a href="mailto:jberton@sfchronicle.com">jberton@sfchronicle.com</a></span></font></i>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p id=pageno><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'></span><!--/articlecontent -->This
article appeared on page <strong><b><font face="Times New Roman">W - 8</font></b></strong>
of the San Francisco Chronicle<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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