Posted on 05/16/2019 5:48:56 PM PDT by chief lee runamok
who counted it and were they paid union wages?
Unfortunately people in Asia do throw their trash into rivers, which ends up in the ocean. Teaching them not to do so would be helpful to the marine ecosystems.
The original research paper describes the process of trash being reduced to smaller particles, and basic geology teaches us that erosion grinds up larger objects, including rocks, into fine particles. That is how sand beaches are created in the first place. Fine particles, whether they are from rocks, sea shells, dinosaur bones, dishes, or plastic trash end up as sand or sediments and ultimately are buried.
Storms and erosion can put all of the materials on the beach back into the ocean, at least temporarily. But trash on a remote beach, particularly the buried trash, is less of a hazard to wildlife than floating trash. Put simply - if you find a bunch of buried trash on a beach don't throw it into the ocean since buried in the beach is a better place than the ocean for it to be.
Does the article say how big the pieces are? I could generate that many pieces of trash by myself using a paper shredder.
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