Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
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Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#2So the problem is not bad habits from consumers or the over-use of disposable plastic containers, it's some rogue Chinese ships. How convenient.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#3Wonder if this will have an impact on plastic straw bans on land. It was always a feel-good hi-viz, low-impact measure given little evidence behind the measures.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#4So the problem is not bad habits from consumers or the over-use of disposable plastic containers, it's some rogue Chinese ships. How convenient.
here is a breakdown of the country of origin under the waterways theory: https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WO-AV462_OCEANS_9...
I am not sure the new research is letting consumers completely off the hook. their garbage could well show up in the big whirlpools in a few years. but the new data is suggesting that there is another source of how the plastics entered the ocean and it's probably ships, yes.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#5Most of this comes from a single type of ship waste:
"Half of the great Pacific garbage patch is made up of fishing nets, by weight, according to a report published last year in Scientific Reports."
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#6So the problem is not bad habits from consumers or the over-use of disposable plastic containers, it's some rogue Chinese ships. How convenient.
The question is not if those are bad, the question is where does that plastic come from.
over-use of disposable plastic is bad independently from whether it ends in the ocean or not. But if you want to reduce this specific pollution you need to actually understand where it comes from.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#7Anyone that lives in a city next to a river/lake/sea knows that all the small pieces of trash on land end up in the water.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#8Anyone that lives in a city next to a river/lake/sea knows that all the small pieces of trash on land end up in the water.
Mostly in places with no regulation or poor regulation enforcement —at least since the “Don’t mess with Texas” days.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#9Wonder if this will have an impact on plastic straw bans on land. It was always a feel-good hi-viz, low-impact measure given little evidence behind the measures.
Or even the context. A coffee shop in my neighborhood started keeping straws behind the counter, so that you have to ask for them.
And yet, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that there's less plastic in a straw than in a disposable coffee cup, let alone the doubled cups that they serve the coffee in in lieu of using those paper sleeves. Certainly after they've stuck one of those plastic sippy lids on top of the whole affair. If they're worried about their waste stream, that's the place to start.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#10Anyone that lives in a city next to a river/lake/sea knows that all the small pieces of trash on land end up in the water.
That's still a small amount of trash compared to what gets intentionally dumped in the ocean, plus abandoned commercial-scale fishing equipment.