Record trash haul from New Jersey beaches
In their Annual Beach Sweep report for 2010, released Tuesday, the environmental organization Clean Ocean Action, paints a grim picture of New Jersey beaches. The report broke down the 475,321 pieces of trash its 8,372 volunteers removed from New Jersey beaches during two statewide clean-up events last year.
Indonesian wins international prize for river clean-up
A biologist who enlisted schoolchildren in his fight to clean up an Indonesian river that led to an international prize said he hoped young people will do more for the environment.
It’s Official: There’s Plastic in All of the Subtropical Ocean Gyres
Journalists and 5 Gyres Institute sail to the South to study plastic pollution in the South Pacific. Despite the lack of a theatrical spectacle, it’s still a surreal thing to see some of the results of the sampling.
Flotsam From Japan’s Tsunami to be Carried by Currents and Pushed Onshore
The biggest haul of floating debris will likely be carried by currents off of Japan toward Washington, Oregon and California, then turning toward Hawaii and back again toward Asia, unless wind and ocean currents eventually push some of the massive debris from Japan’s tsunami onto the shores of the U.S. West Coast, said Curt Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has spent decades tracking flotsam.
Sea of Expansion, a Subtly Ironic Reminder of Our Environmental Impact
Julie Brookman‘s work uses photography and glass to explore the dichotomous nature of plastic bags: their unsuspected malleable beauty and staying imperfection, the ease in which they are acquired, and the difficulty in which they are discarded.
5th International Marine Debris Conference, in Hawaii
The conference brought together over 440 participants from 35 countries to discuss the most pressing issues surrounding plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways.
The Plastic Found In a Single Turtle’s Stomach
This collection of hundreds of coloured, jagged shards could be a work of abstract art. But the objects in the photograph are the contents of the stomach of a sea turtle, found off the coast of Argentina, that lost its battle with plastic pollution.
Kenya Bans Plastic Bags
In January, Kenya outlawed the manufacture and import of plastic bags for damaging the environment, effective in March.
Plastic Pollution and Chile Coastline, The Latest 5 Gyres Mission
5 Gyres, an organization that seeks to study plastic pollution in waters around the world, has embarked on a new mission exploring the southern coast of Chile to document any and all incidents of plastic pollution.