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

Walking Kahuku Beach on the North Shore of Oahu, I found the typical gyre debris: Fishing buoys and nets, light sticks, toothbrushes, bottle caps, knots from plastic bags, toy wheels, and a polyethylene pen. Sitting at the high tide line among millions of tiny multi-colored bits of microplastic, was your typical single-use, disposable plastic pen.

I took out my Papermate biodegradable pen to make a note of it. What if all plastic was made NOT to last in the ocean for decades?

A company named Metabolix produces a bioplastic called Mirel, short for “Miracle of Nature”. The polymer is polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), made for the bacterial fermentation of corn sugar, which according to standards American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM) will degrade by half its volume in 18 months while floating in the ocean.

Solution-minded citizens recognize that there is no single solution to plastic pollution, but implementing solutions as we find them, like bioplastics, improved recovery systems, and smart legislation, will collectively make all the difference.

(Marcus Eriksen reports from the North Pacific Gyre)