As you may or may not know the world’s largest garbage dump is not, in fact, on land, but rather in the North Pacific Ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which stretches for hundreds of miles.  I had wrongfully envisioned it as an extensive somewhat formed island, but it is more like a galaxy of garbage, made up largely of plastics… and they are finding more of these ‘hot spots’ that exist throughout the entire ocean.  The plastics do not biodegrade and never go away, rather they break down to smaller substances (often eaten by marine life and birds) eventually become microscopic, which makes matters worse as they may then be eaten by tiny marine organisms and in turn enter the food chain.

According to Mother Nature Network, about 80% of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land.

The above is a VERY abbreviated explanation for the problem and there are many things that need to happen to help with our trash, but as silly as it seems, picking up trash piece by piece can make an impact, particularly if we all did it.  We may feel we are too important to pick it up or feel that someone else is going to take care of it… but we have hundreds of miles to prove otherwise.  It is a small, menial act that takes less than a minute to dispose the trash properly and keeps one less item from becoming a long-term problem.