LA Times - Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-24677341/
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-24677341/
...The sheer volume of plastic inside a chick can leave little room for food and liquid.
...Of the 500,000 albatross chicks born here each year, about 200,000 die
...Albatross fly hundreds of miles in their search for food for their young.
...About four-fifths of marine trash comes from land, swept by wind or washed by rain off highways and city streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea.
...The average American used 223 pounds of plastic in 2001. The plastics industry expects per-capita usage to increase to 326 pounds by the end of the decade.
...The qualities that make plastics so useful are precisely what cause them to persist as trash.
...About 100 billion pounds of pellets are produced every year and shipped to Los Angeles and other manufacturing centers. Huge numbers are spilled on the ground and swept by rainfall into gutters; down storm drains, creeks and rivers; and into the ocean.
...Also known as "nurdles" or mermaid tears, they are the most widely seen plastic debris around the world
...The pellets, like most types of plastic, are sponges for oily toxic chemicals
...Some pellets have been found to contain concentrations of these pollutants 1 million times greater than the levels found in surrounding water. As they absorb toxic chemicals, they become poison pills.
...Moore has tried, without success, to get manufacturers to improve their efforts to clean up spills of pellets that wash off lots and into storm drains. He considers beach cleanups a waste of time, except to raise public awareness of the problem. In his view, the cleanup has to start at the source — many miles inland.
..."This is a plastic sand dune," he said. "It's very slippery, very roly-poly. What makes them so good for the factory makes them good for getting into the ocean."
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