Can the oceans be cleared of floating plastic rubbish?
Scientists are investigating ways of dealing with the millions of tonnes of floating plastic rubbish that is accumulating in our oceans. They are a quirk of ocean currents — a naturally created vortex known as a gyre — where floating rubbish tends to accumulate. The largest is in the North Pacific and covers an area twice the size of France. Others have since been discovered in the North Atlantic and most recently the South Atlantic. Scientists now fear the same process is probably taking place in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. As well as damaging coasts and killing marine life who mistake the plastic for food, contaminants in the water, which attach to the plastic debris, are transporting waste chemicals across the world’s oceans. At the UK’s University of Sheffield, scientists are investigating how they could accelerate the speed at which the plastic breaks down by looking at micro-organisms already found in the sea that naturally feed on plastic. Promising results have already
