The Plastic Ocean

In 2010, on almost any beach, at almost any time of the year, there is a constant: plastic. From the Jersey Shore to the distant paradise of Midway, plastic pollution has reached nearly all corners of the planet. We've done this all within a few generations. And the big question seems to be "Why is there so much plastic in the ocean?"

So I put together a little chart.

Recycling is wonderful. But it is not endless. Once a piece of plastic comes into the world, the only way it is known to end -- really end -- is in the fires of an incinerator. Until it meets that fate, it will persist. And given half a chance, it will enter a gulley, a roadside ditch, a culvert, a storm drain, a rill, a brook, a stream, a river, a floodplain. And eventually the ocean. Where it will remain plastic, even as it photodegrades to a microscopic soup.

So the question isn't "Why is there so much in the ocean?" It's "How did we not think this was going to happen?"