5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

I always seem to find a toilet seat--  this one (above) was tumbling in the surf.  It had just arrived.  Ming and I took a long walk along the shore to see what was washed up.  We're both preparing to embark on a voyage to the North Pacific Gyre - within hours now, but figured we would go see what the gyre had delivered to the beach.  We were stunned to see a confetti of multi-colored plastic on the surface of the entire beach, from end to end, and from the waters edge to the high tide line.

Kahuku Beach is on the Northshore of Oahu, Hawaii, and collects plastic pollution that sweeps through the gyre. This is what likely happens to most of the trash in the gyres.  Islands, like the dozens in the Hawaiian Archipelago, are the natural nets that collect plastic, but that’s doesn’t account for all of it.  The complete lifecycle of plastic pollution is unknown, but some ideas include sinking to the seafloor, photodegradation to the point of biodegradation, and beaching.    

What's clear to us is that if you want to clean the plastic in the gyre you simply have to clean your beach.  BEACH CLEANUP IS GYRE CLEANUP!  If you haven't been on a beach/river/street cleanup lately, try organizing one on your own.  Keeping plastic off the land keeps it from the sea.  It's that simple.

We left the beach with two boxes filled with plastic.  Tomorrow, we sail into the gyre to see if there's more. We know there will be.