The Trash Isles: An entire ‘country’ made of ocean waste
Friday 17th November 2017
Image courtesy of ladbible.com
Imagine a country off the coast of Hawaii, larger than the size of France, twice the size of Texas and made solely of seven million tons of waste up to nine feet deep. Introducing The Trash Isles.
Every year, eight million tons of plastic makes its way into our oceans, that’s the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of plastic every minute. Plastic pollution has become such a challenging battle that activists are campaigning for what’s referred to as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ to become a country in its own right.
Online organisation the LAD Bible have joined environmental group The Plastic Oceans Foundation to take this colossal trash patch and turn it into the world’s 196th nation. On World Oceans Day, (8 June) a Declaration of Independence to the United Nations was submitted to seek recognition of the Trash Isles as an official country.
The online campaign explains that the proposal to the UN forces them to address the scale of sea pollution.
The campaign says ‘If we become a country and a member of the UN, we are protected by the UN’s Environmental Charters, which states, all members shall co-operate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem.
‘Which in a nutshell means that by becoming a country, other countries are obliged to clean the country up.’ The ‘Trash Isles’ contains all sorts of plastic harmful to the ocean and its creatures, everything from Lego bricks to computer monitors to fishing nets have been found there. Its content is over six times more plastic than plankton, and scientific research from the Scrips Institution of Oceanography shows that 5 to 10% of all fish already have small pieces of plastic in their bodies. Even more worryingly, the size of the patch is also expected to double over the next ten years.
Sarah Roberts, Trash Isles Ambassador pleads ‘we need you to join our campaign and ‘become a citizen’ to pressure the United Nations into approving our application and recognising both the Trash Isles and the growing problem that is ocean plastic pollution.
102,889 have already signed the online petition to become ‘citizens of The Trash Isles’ supporting the campaigning and also individually pledging to cut down the amount of plastic they waste. You too can sign up here.
