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Science/nature/environment

Plastic polluting the sea.

(6 Posts)
durhamjen Sun 06-Mar-16 12:05:41

ecowatch.com/2016/02/19/seavax-vacuum-ocean-plastic/

I have just been reading about this. It seems an absolutely brilliant idea.

Luckygirl Sun 06-Mar-16 12:29:16

A good idea.

But I am not sure where the waste goes once hoovered up - it cannot all be recycled. And, as the article says, we need to avoid creating the waste in the first place.

I belong to a choral society and in the break we can have a drink - all in plastic cups - and someone goes round afterwards with a bin liner and collects them all. It gives me the shudders, so I take my own non-disposable plastic beaker - I am sure they all think I am a bit bonkers! But a whole bin liner full of plastic waste just for 5 minutes of drinking!

Tegan Sun 06-Mar-16 12:42:14

I was beachcombing last week, looking for driftwood and shells but I was horrified at the amount of plastic there was on the waterline. Although I picked up some of it I resolved to make a point of only clearing the plastic on some days.

durhamjen Sun 06-Mar-16 12:43:00

I did wonder, Luckygirl. The idea is not to kill off all the birds and fish in the sea.
The email I got about it said that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. That's a frightening thought.
Fortunately now, lots of plastic is biodegradable, made from corn starch or other food waste. It still does not mean it can't kill fish if it goes in the sea.
However, we still have to bother about the plastic that is around. With depleting oil stocks, there should be no more longlasting plastics ending up in the sea.

Can you not get paper cups for those who cannot bring their own? That must be a big choir.

Elegran Sun 06-Mar-16 13:12:12

www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/10/full-scale-plastic-worlds-oceans-revealed-first-time-pollution
More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans

Elrel Sun 06-Mar-16 13:37:33

I wish people would realise that there is no such place as 'away' where rubbish of many kinds can be sent and the sea is not a refuse bin.