Solutions proposed by Governments:
A crucial aspect of resolving the issue of the trash islands is that it is located in international waters, so no country is willing to take responsibility for the garbage patch, let alone funding the clean-up of the extreme levels of waste. In some cases, the governments have been at fault for the swirling vortex of trash in the Pacific and Atantic Oceans as they may dump plastic and other trash into the sea in an area where they feel it would be unnoticed. In rare cases, this could be unintentional and be an accident by this still has the same severe impact on many marine ecosystems. If it were not for several international NGO's then the garbage patch would be ignored and thus the issue of the increasing amounts of waste in the trash islands would grow more out of hand.
Nonetheless, there have been a number of solutions that have been proposed by governments namely the U.S government who have decided to spearhead the challenge of resolving an issue that has been straining the minds of the some of the most renowned ecologists. It was in October 2006 that the U.S government established the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Monument. This was set up after it was noticed that the long string of islands was frequently coming into contact with the Trash Islands namely the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Following the creation of the monuement, the Congress passed key legislation for clean up efforts and ordered several government agencies to expand their forms of clean-up work. This has been a major step in stimulating awareness about the severity of the issue of the Trash Islands of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Potential solutions that I have proposed
The solutions that I have proposed include:
Local solutions
- that more seminars and community meetings are held to let the local populations understand the true extent of the issue
- advertise the issue more through brochures and pamphlets that can be collected at participating stores
- advertise the problem with posters in community halls
- broadcast the issue on television and the internet so that people can understand the importance of recycling and reusing a number of materials
National solutions
- form a petition that has enough signatures the prompt the federal government into action
- create a 'National awareness for the Trash Islands' week in which a state would win a prize of they were to launch the most appealing and successful campaign in attracting the interest of citizens statewide
- form a national goal to help remove a certain level of trash and increasse this every year
-develop appealing recycle, re-use and reduce campaigns that would result in widespread support of the issue
Direct solution
As the solutions proposed above would take several years to take effect, there is a faster and more direct approach of tackling, yet it is complicated. The solution that I have proposed to overcoming this issue is to pool the waste using a barrier that floats on top of the water, thus having no effect on marine life, and to establish a recycling plant near the coast of the Hawaii islands. In this way, the trash could be removed gradually and moved to the shore before being recycled in the recycling plant nearby to be used for more useful things. A gaping hole in my solution is that it doesn't accomodate for the significant amount of trash that is lying in the bottom of the ocean that is affecting a number of organisms that exist on or near the sea floor.
However, my idea is a starting point and could be further developed in the future. As know the fate of the islands of trash present in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans rests in the hands of 19-year-old Boyan Slat and the U.S government who have been cooperating with a number of organisations to help resolve this severe issue.
This graph contrasts the generation of waste in the trash islands in comparison to the recovery. It is noticeable that the issue only truly becomes severe around the 1990s when Captain Charles Moore first understood the nature of the waste present in the trash islands. This graph highlights the need for more work to be done to recuperate larger amounts of waste and recycle them before the issue becomes even more further out of hand.
This graph highlights how all the different types of waste produced builts up in the trash islands, namely the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This suggests how the 250 tonnes of waste that was present in th trash islands was accumulated with yard, food, plastics, metals, glass and paper in 2010.