{"id":3753,"date":"2018-10-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-prod.greenpeace.org\/usa\/campaign-updates\/3753\/will-take-clean-great-pacific-garbage-patch\/"},"modified":"2024-11-22T04:49:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T04:49:30","slug":"will-take-clean-great-pacific-garbage-patch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/will-take-clean-great-pacific-garbage-patch\/","title":{"rendered":"What Will It Take to Clean Up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arctic Sunrise is visiting the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a soupy mix of plastics and microplastics, now twice the size of Texas, in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. What is Greenpeace doing in the Garbage Patch and how do we solve the root causes of this problem?<\/span><\/p>\n

Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Debris from a fishing net seen underwater with MY Arctic Sunrise ship in the background.
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One of Greenpeace’s foundational principles is bearing witness. We use our bodies and our voices to shine a spotlight on injustice and to tell the story of what we see in a powerful way that makes inaction no longer possible. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why right now, <\/span>Greenpeace and the Arctic Sunrise is visiting the Great Pacific Garbage Patch<\/span><\/a> to investigate the impacts of plastic pollution on our ocean and coastal communities. <\/span>The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a soupy mix of plastics and microplastics, now twice the size of Texas, in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every minute of every day, the equivalent of <\/span>a truckload of plastic enters our oceans<\/span><\/a>, finding its way to the middle of the garbage patch. That\u2019s about 7 truckloads of plastic in the time it takes you to read this article. Put another way, there are as many as <\/span>51 trillion microplastic particles in the sea<\/span><\/a>, 500 times more than the number of stars in our galaxy. It\u2019s difficult for the mind to comprehend that magnitude of plastic, so how do we deal with this problem? <\/span><\/p>\n

While cleanup efforts are commendable, in order to truly tackle this crisis, corporations have to stop producing so much plastic and pushing an unsustainable throwaway culture. Think of it this way: if your bathtub was overflowing, you wouldn’t immediately reach for a mop. You’d first cut off the water at the tap \u2014 the source \u2014 which is what we have to do with plastic production.<\/span><\/p>\n

Communities worldwide are already fighting back against the single-use plastics that are forced upon us by corporations like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever. Folks are <\/span>auditing their communities<\/span><\/a> and naming the corporations who are most responsible for the plastic pollution they find. Cities and states are passing laws to transition away from single-use plastic and some companies are already taking steps to reduce their plastic footprint.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Greenpeace diver holds a banner reading “Coca-Cola is this yours?” and a Coca-Cola bottle found adrift in the garbage patch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Our work in the Great Pacific Garbage patch is to shine a light on the nature of the problem, and the true culprits. We’re collaborating with scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Hawai\u2018i to further our understanding of the devastating consequences of the spread of single-use plastics.<\/span><\/p>\n

As ocean conditions permit, the crew are doing comprehensive investigations of what they find in the Garbage Patch. Here’s a bit more on what they’re up to.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Plastic debris tangled in a retrieved fishing net. The crew of the Greenpeace ship MY Arctic Sunrise voyage into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch documenting plastics and other marine debris. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a soupy mix of plastics and microplastics, now twice the size of Texas, in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n