Article - Sea of Trash

In Sea of Trash - Pollution in the World's Oceans, Donovan Hohn tells a story of volunteer efforts to clean up marine debris (mostly plastics) from remote Alaska shorelines and forest. The debris arrives there via ocean currents, just as it gets to the Pacific Gyre. In two weeks, a crew of ten bagged over 30 tons of debris.

But, he says ...

As nearly everyone I spoke to about marine debris agrees,
the best way to get trash out of our waterways is,
of course, to keep it from entering them in the first place

Hohn provides an excellent overview of the many people who are working this problem - from understanding its dimensions, to raising public awareness, to the complex issues of political reality.

Source: NY Times