Ten percent of plastic products end up in the ocean!
The largest amount of waste in the ocean is currently in the northern Pacific, where a blanket of garbage, the so-called Pacific garbage patch, has been driven together by ocean currents, causing it to rotate clockwise, and has reached the size of Central Europe.
“From plastic and wood pallets, rubber ducks, bottle caps, disposable lighters, TVs, toothbrushes, plastic bottles and bags through to entire transport containers that have fallen off a ship, there are all types of garbage of all sizes there” says Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack, describing the state of the patch of a garbage floating in the Pacific, which he investigated in 2006 while on board the research vessel Esperanza. “A ghostly location far away from any civilization–filled with garbage from civilization.”
Read the entire article here at FAZ.net
(Source: FAZ.net Meeresforschung Das alte Meer und der Müll vom 24.01.2011)