I would do the one thing nobody has the guts to do. Have the UN require all countries to put up money to pay for a cleaning of the oceans. And when they complain, raise the price for each week they complain. Eventually, they would simply put up and shut up. They are responsible for it. They can pay for it.

Get a fleet of fishing trawlers out dragging the sea. If humanity can sweep the seas clean of fish, we can clean up THIS mess with some nets. Drag it back to shore, recycle it, and bury the rest per usual.

Education is always a must - we need to change our habits and stop abusing the oceans - make it a fine and/or penality of some nature to force the change quicker - we must realize we are just killing ourselves and our future generations

I think biodegradeable plastics are the first step.
Outlawing plastics sounds good initially but may be difficult to manage on a global scale.
What may be an interesting idea is some kind of garbage scoop on the front of large ocean going vessels. To give an incentive for companies to affix them to their ships, a fund could be set up where as each ship would get X amount of dollars per crossing. The money could come from the private sector or a consortium of pacific rim governments or plastic producing companies. But the reducing the amount of non-degradable plastics needs to be done first so that the clean up step actually does some good.

The first thing I would do (if I had such power) would be an immediate moratorium on all new plastic production. There’s too much in existence now, and it kills me to see all the cases of bottled water everywhere I look! It’s WATER!! Turn on the faucet, for pete’s sake! Stick a glass under it! As for the garbage patch problem - aren’t plastics made from petroleum? If a method was perfected to break plastics back down to petroleum, it could become profitable to (1) stop throwing the stuff away, and (2) gather what’s out there for recycling. That would also help reduce the need to drill, which is another big stressor for the oceans.

1) Teach your children: LITTERING IS GROSS.

2) Teach by example: DON’T LITTER.

3) Don’t involve the UN - they’ll find some way to profit off of our work again, as usual, and make the US bear the brunt of the work, expense, and everything else, like they always do, and then whine.

I like Grimmlok’s idea. <3

Here’s a thought.

Stop the US Government from throwing all of their ships trash overboard. Require that all ships food and other containers be weighed empty when manufactured and an equivalent weight or amount be accounted for in a yearly inventory. Like a business has to report at the close of every tax year.

Here is a video of the stuff there pulling out of the water in the middle of the ocean.
http://2.0web.tv/index.php?option=com_seyret&task=videodirectlink&Itemid=0&id=255

Tom-

While I applaud your sentiment, the problem with your plan as is the problem with any plan that has the UN requiring ANY country to do ANYTHING is that the UN has no ‘teeth’ to back up its demands. The UN’s strength and ability to affect change or situations abroad flows directly from its members, and the members most responsible for that travesty out in the pacific are all founding nations of the UN.

You can apply this concept to any situation where any persons/countries say “Why doesn’t the UN actually do something”…

Get a fleet of fishing trawlers out dragging the sea. If humanity can sweep the seas clean of fish, we can clean up THIS mess with some nets. Drag it back to shore, recycle it, and bury the rest per usual.
———————————————————————————————–

Yeah there’s only one problem with that idea. Think about it… the nets won’t just pick up trash they’ll pick up everything else as well, fish and birds along with that.

Ideally, some form of chemical which causes the plastic to bind to other plastics could be put in the water. This could be attached to some form of mineral/ element that is harmless, but would cause all plastics to settle to the bottom of the ocean, thus clearing the water and reducing the current impact already present.

VBS.TV in addition to their North Korea story picked up by CNN also did the trash island thing too. It’s pretty unreal.

MINE IT! Any other material of such mass has found a use that makes it valuable. Since plastic is made from pettroleum how about returning it to its base components?

Randy - while your thought is on a good level it is not reasonable. Ships create enough garbage through the food and day to day life of their crew that it is not possible to cross an ocean without getting rid of some of your trash (and yes, I am a merchant sailor with many many thousands of miles of shipboard time). Already there are many rules/regulations regarding the disposal of trash overboard and no ship is EVER (regardless of distance off shore) allowed to throw plastics or any petroleum-based products over the side. Up to 12 miles off food may be discarded, which is eaten or degrades very quickly and up to a reasonable distance cardboard and other paper products can be thrown over which will degrade. The pacific garbage pile is not due to ships trash but to landside operations who, for many decades, have used the oceans as an “inexhaustable” landfill. The amount of trash that will not be eaten or decompose that is thrown into the ocean by ships is so negligable, and almost all of it is from years ago, that to make a rule like you proposed not only does not address the real problem, but is almost impossible.

I would outlaw all non-biodegradable plastics.

Next I would build a floating incinerator. Have the countries most responsible for the waste pay for it proportionally. We could probably make a pretty good estimate up front, and that estimate could be refined later on based on what was being picked up. (Different nations have different labeling requirements, setting up a random sampling program would be fairly easy for many of the materials.)

One of the problems is that the nations that produced the majority of that waste wouldn’t want to have it known how much of the problem is “theirs”.

This is going to get worse before it gets better. As China and India become more modern, their plastic use and waste will increase to levels even greater than the USA just due to the enormous populations.

I say don’t do anything about it, and let mankind finish itself off as soon as possible. It’s apparent that we as a race are violent, messy, incredibly destructive in all aspects including the murder of the most innocent and defenseless humans of all, the unborn. We don’t deserve our planet anymore. Oh I know there will be tons of people out there thinking I’m wrong, and sure, they have that right to think that way. Until you understand the actual scope of all the species we made go extinct from human expansion, to all the chemicals and horrific weapons we created, and whom we target all the time, grown up or not… would you want humans around? Our own actions are what defines us, and I know we don’t deserve this planet anymore simply by reading the news. Very sad.

Typical American response: “The UN should do something” whenever it is convenient blame the UN, do so. BUT then again, the UN wasn’t doing anything about Iraq, so we took it upon ourselves to “do something”

Why can’t we take it upon ourselves to “do something” about this issue as well?

Imagine if we had a fraction of the Iraw War Budget to devote to issues such as these. We as a country refuse to even spend money researching issues like this, because “it’s just too expensive” -

If you want to do something about this problem, raise your own awareness about the issue, then start raising others’ awareness about it as well.

Sorry Grimmlok, you can’t catch soup with nets… its uglier problem than that.

Brian, That was an excellent vd..CNN should consider putting it on the front page. We, humans, are so ignorant to the consequences of our actions in most things. I appreciate you sharing that.
My view is we all have a responsiblity in the prevention of poor enviromental choices ,through advocacy and personal actions, so I would think lthat Education would be at the top of the list looking to the future. Curious though, for the present why aren’t the plastics being routinely collected and melted down then remolded for other uses (recycle?). What is the purpose of the bottle bill in some states if this is not being done?
Excellent blog.

You can trawl for larger debris, but some of these plastic pieces are pretty small. Also, how do you net the plastic without netting all the fish?

I would like to see a push toward use of degradable and recyclable materials such as glass and paper for disposable items. We were able to package food and beverages just fine before plastic was invented. I don’t mind pouring milk from a glass jar and drinking it with a paper straw.

Use of plastic and styrofoam should be limited to applications where there is not a suitable alternative material and the item is considered non-disposable.

The countries contributing to the problem should pay to fix it.
That means a bucket brigade of super tankers going out to the spot, scooping it up and dropping off on land where it can be recycled.

It sounds like a big effort but weigh that against what they’re doing in Dubai. An awful lot of effort is going to creating a playground for the rich.

There’s no question we can do it, but i doubt we will because the returns don’t equate to dollars.

Tom,

That should work. All nations would immediately snap to attention with admonishment from the UN. The money would instantly begin to flow into a fund tightly controlled with independent oversight and accountability for spending on the cleanup effort. China would surely be held accountable as well, and the US would definitely not bear a disproportionate share of the financial burden. Russia would pony up the first check as soon as they’re done with their peaceful negotiations in Georgia.

Good point about netting fish along with debris.

However, the case for pushing out plastic is not very clear cut. Glass is very good for recycling, but it takes centuries for glass to degrade when discarded. Besides it is much heavier, so it takes up more energy to transport if used for milk jugs etc.

Paper is biodegradable, but it is only so so for recycling. Paper fibers become too short after recycling 8 times, which means max. recycled paper content is limited to 12.5% if every paper product had recycled content.

when people take care of their own polluted mind, Earth will be less poluted too…the outside reflects the inside, just in a larger scale.
Go to http://www.thework.com and spread the word for a better environment! Or read “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle, Oprah’s favorit.

I know my idea is impractical and out of the way. But am just thinking aloud. How about making a mega trash can and ship it off to the Sun? would it pollute the space or would all the trash be incinerated to perfect dust?
I know am thinking of polluting the only place left, but then is it feasible?
Or if not how about like the movie SOLDIER? a seperate planet just for trash? there are so many planets out there totally inhospitable, cant we send shipments to them?

How about creating a market for recycling trash collected from the ocean? Say, recycling center at all the ports to collect trash from cruise ship, more cruise ship, fishing boats, etc. With that, all vessels, big or small, will come back with ship full of products/people and trash and they make money from them all.

Get the fishing trawlers lined up in front of ships that can burn the dredged up trash, start on one side and go to the other. Mankind can do this if the idea and concept are pushed by people with vision. Unfortunately , our leaders don’t have the vision or ability to lead.

People are the problem. Yet very few are willing to consider the solution.

“How would you fix this? ” Simple, reduce the human population to under 1 billion. That would solve a host of problems. But nobody will even consider that. So at some point, the population will be reduced for us.

One of time Magazine’s Inventions of the Year is a gizmo that uses an “emissions-free process that uses microwaves to pull fuel out of shale rock, tires and even plastic bottles” . Put these gizmos on floating platforms, or on tanker ships, and send them into that mess. Granted we need to get out of the oil business all together, but this interim solution has real benefits, if it could work.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1678027_1677993,00.html

There is one thing I haven’t seen addressed …

Where is all the “other” ocean garbage like glass, paper, metal (aluminum … how long does that last?)
-Answer, at the bottom of the ocean!

Where are the chemicals that bind these items together & are released when they “degrade”?
-Answer, in the water!

Because plastic floats & we see it, we blame it. Fact is, seeing it means we can clean it up.

Don’t blame the symptom, blame the disease … people who are too inconvenienced to reuse or recycle!

I do like the ideas here about putting scoops on ocean vessels.
Scoop what you can & sell it to recycling companies!

Many municipalities already impose a plastic bag tax and others have a bottle deposit. If a small tax is broadened to most plastic products, maybe their consumption would decrease or recycling would increase. Also some of the revenue could go toward building an armada of automated flotational platforms that could collect and process the ocean’s plastic garbage. They could be powered by wind turbines and solar power or low emission turbines that can utilize some biomass/waste. They would be designed to filter out or prevent most marine life from approaching the platforms. Of course there would be a need for ocassional maintanance, but this seems less farfetched then developing a program to design and build a billion spaceships to transport our plastic waste into space, for example.

OK - it can’t be netted, so that’s out.
Can’t be picked out bit by bit.
UN can’t do anything because of the veto that will come from someone, and even though the world desperately needs a common forum and court, witness such things as the US steadfastly refusing to pay their dues, or Russia and China vetoing sanctions in ghastly Zimbabwe.
China has just banned plastic shopping bags BTW, and most people there don’t go shopping like North Americans do anyway - only here will you find one thing in one bag, but 20 bags. When will WE ban them?
At sea the rule is out of sight, out of mind - as soon as ships are out to sea over the side it goes, no matter what it is - sharks sans fins, garbage, bilge waste, whatever.
See ‘Malthus, Thomas’ - his ideas have been echoed by others.
The US, with it’s stunning direct confrontation of the Russians in Georgia may have just started that little ball rolling, so stay tuned, if there is still an internet next week, that is.

They should build a giant cargo ship with an incinerator. It could suck in huge volumes of contaminated seawater, incinerate the waste to produce power, and use the resulting power to produce fresh clean drinkable water that could be sent anywhere in the world. The water could be pumped into giant floating bags and towed to arid regions like Australia or Africa

I recall when plastic first came into worldwide use, a complaint was raised about plastic lasting forever. At that time we were assured that chemicals had been added that would ensure the plastic would degrade with exposure to sunlight.
Was that just another lie, or were the ingredients to expensive and profitably overlooked.
Plastics in the Pacific should be mined, and force sold to the manufactures. Let them carry the burden of protecting our precious planet. After all, it’s the only one we have.

My solution: Genetically engineer plastics eating sea life(s) that would try to gobble themselves to extincition; but fail in that eventual goal and leave a sustainable population to permanently deal with the problem.

Most of the trash comes from the streams worldwide which flow into the oceans. This means people who litter thousands of miles inland to just up from the ocean edge contribute to the mess.

Like the sediment which has built the continental shelves, continental slopes and filled the ocean basins and rifts, the trash is becoming a mass as great in size.

It’s a bed load that makes it way from store, to us, to river, to ocean. Ain’t human geology wonderful?

As far as a solution goes? Remember the abyss dwelling creatures in the movie The Abyss? Yeah, those mile high waves need to come ashore this time. Sure, the backwash will mess up the oceans even more, but these guys can take care of it. They have the technology.

The polluters will be no more. Good times.

I would create a robot that eats plastic and poo’s out seawater and money

The most effective way to recycle plastic is to burn it as fuel. A hundred million tons of fuel, free for the taking.

This problem is so much bigger than you all seem to grasp.

If a ship pushes a “scoop” across the pacific, it will expend a lot more fuel.

If you could somehow burn this stuff, the toxins end up in the air.

How do you bury the volume of plastic out there? And even if you could, how do you stop it from some day ending right back out there?

How do you introduce micros into the ocean to eat the plastic, and be sure they wouldn’t end up eating unintended stuff?

Go to a harbor located in a major city and watch the debris that ends up in the water after a rainstorm. Multiply that by almost every mile of shoreline throughout the entire world and you can see the scope of the problem.

We got into this mess because we didn’t think it through. Any solution to this problem can not make worse environment damage then it solves. The real problem still remains: Who and how pays for this? Until nations and peoples around the world decide this is something worth doing, and authorise the funding nothing will happen.

An unintended, nature created, garbage concentrator and seperator.
Dump garbage in, fish eat some, the rest collected in one place.
Resistant to decay, colonized by barnicles, places for little fishes to hide.
Floating Playground, entertainment, survival contest, for every creature.
Ideal place for a Floating City, constantly receiving washed materials.
Drop a bottle with a note, make reservations, just like penpal Club Med.

See the opportunity. Occupy and enhance. The story of life,

Simple. Put an ecotax on any plastic item that is sold equal to 50% of the product retail price. Take the tax revenue and place it into an environmental heritage fund for multiple uses.

You will quickly see how product manufacturers will adopt biofriendly solutions because people will stop buying.

Example: single water .75L water bottle price = 1Euro + .50 Euro tax.

nanobots, it’s all about nanobots.

get on it.

Take advantage of global warming. Heat the planet to dull red for 1000 years. Problem gone.

Why not use more glass? It would seem to prevent a lot of the problems plastic presents.

Put the Japanese whaling ships to work cleaning this mess instead of killing whales. Make it profitable by the selling of the plastic for recycle. We have to clean this up and stop using those nasty plastic bags when we shop I use cloth bags now. Make all trash bags biodegradable and make it manatory to recycle plastic, metals, paper and glass. Also we need to start to incinerate our trash instead of just burying it sooner or later we will run out of land. This is a global problem and should be a UN topic where we come together as a planet otherwise we will all be poisoned by this mess we have created. Native people knew never to poop upstream the ocean is everybodies upstream.

The solution to the problem is not simple. However, we can take immediate steps and reduce our consumption of plastic starting with grocery bags. Since March 2007, my family has stopped using plastic bags for food shopping. For about a $10.00 investment in cloth bags, we have switched to reusable ones. I estimate we don’t consume about 15 bags / week. In summation, one family has kept a minimum 960 bags off the planet. If more people would switch to reusables, I think we could make a dent in our plastic dependency.

450 square miles is tiny compared to the whole ocean so most of the work has already been done for us. it’s straightforward to build robotic garbage collectors (think ocean WALL-E) to bundle up just the plastic, not the fish. ships collect the bundles and maintain the robots. this would be cheap and easy to do.

Stop dumping, Devise a fleet of ships that can harvest the plastic and sort then compact for recycling. Make it a UN issue. Fine the countries that are violating the law or at least cut off their aid and put the money toward the clean up. We can fix the problem, look we went to the moon didn’t we?

Start teaching children to reuse items instead of throwing them away is a good beginning to an answer.

We are just finishing a preschool TV pilot that teaches exactly that. You can follow our progress on our blog. Oh, our show is made from 95% reused/recycled materials! I like that the JUNK vessel is made from garbage as well.

http://magicdrawerworkshop.blogspot.com/

What about the tons of garbage at the bottom of the oceans? We’re not just talking about the Pacific Ocean.

When I was in the Navy, ships used to dump all their garbage into the sea, and put holes in the trash bags so they’d sink. We’d even shoot some garbage containers as they floated away, both to help them sink, and for target practice. The US Navy has made some improvements, but they still practice this, as does virtually every navy in the world.

Add to this all the cruise ships, container vessels, trawlers, etc., And let’s not forget the millions of tons of garbage dumped onto the ocean floor every year by the world’s major coastal cities. Consider all of this, and it becomes clear that all the world’s oceans are toilets these days.

Plastics are way to convenient to outlaw in any way. We should focus efforts on making bio-degradable plastics and in environmental research, such as those studying microbials and their abilities to degrade plastics.

How about a solar-powered, remotely piloted (or autonomous robotic) U-shaped barge that crams the stuff into its open center, then melts it into bigger lumps with concentrated solar energy? You might need a lot of them. If the lumps were too big to eat, the wildlife would be safer.

It would be easier to just kill off all of the marine wildlife. That way there would be no problem with drilling for oil or dumping trash. Think about it - if human population continues to expand and overfishing is inevitable, what’s the difference? The average person never visits the ocean (out of sight - out of mind).
To counteract the decrease in CO2 absorbing ability of seawater, let’s pass a law that all waste must reflect sunlight to help global warming!
By 2100 we could turn our oceans into white floating seas of global warming fighting materials instead.

Problem is lack of sufficient nutrients, in these slow circulating currents.
Garbage is insufficiently nutriented, Iron dust to get the algae blooms going.
More fish, whales, dolphins. If a few choke on the garbage, plenty more.
But, this will sequister massive CO2. Land plants could starve ?
Pay a subsidy to coal power plants in China.

Look ocean levels, no massively sucking Monster Vortex to center of Earth.
Just rotation momentum deprived, http://www.aviso.oceanobs.com/

Pay to have it cleaned up

I suggest polling a number of small-end ship handlers to figure out how mush they would need to be paid to start hauling back the garbage, say by the kiloton. Then use the suggested international oceanic garbage police, to insure the harvester vessels went out empty. On return, verify that their “catch” was accurately weighed, before payment in cold hard cash.

Where would the cold hard cash come from?
How about all us who believe in the green movement sending in voluntary payments? There could even be a new sort of international lottery, with even worse odds than the PICK, but where the profits went to paying these harvesters.

Note this requires a good way to dispose of it right near the harbors that accept the “harvest”.

It goes without saying that we also need to police large scale garbage dumping, from commercial ships. Perhaps a well publicized program of payments to snitches, with photographic evidence, would be a good idea.

We just need a huge fleet of solar powered robots that can identify and grab the debris and deposit it on a barge to be brought back to shore for recycling/incineration on a weekly/monthly basis. Done and done.

The neatest solution would be to give plastic degrading ability to a strain of bacteria already found in those waters. Being salt water bacteria there’s little chance of our day to day products falling apart (tho they could be used to break down trash, in salt water vats) and the chemicals of the plastics (mainly carbon and hydrogen) could be freed back into ecological cycling. Give nature the ability to clean up the mess.

Banning all plastics is not an answer (tho wiser use would help) . Medicine for one is dependent on plastics as our best chance for clean, convenient delivery of medications and solutions and also for single use items. Would you feel comfortable having a reused syringe used on you? What provider or manufacturer would want to take on that liability? How do you replace items like IV tubing? (Can’t use rubber - medications we have now react, and many patients are allergic). And as someone else mentioned, the cost, in money and energy, of shipping liquids in glass containers would be astronomical.

For many things we need plastic, no way around it. But we also need to find practical, economically feasible ways of breaking it down to biologically available material that can be put back into nature in a useable form. We have the brains to do it, just not the financial incentive. Need to get the Gate’s Foundation going on this!

The solution is simple.

Add a returnable deposit fee to any plastic containers, bags and etc. that are manufactured.

1 cent for a large bag
1 cent for 10 small bags
5 cent for a plastic bottle.
Bigger items return fee based on weight of the item.

Once their is decent value associated with these items then people won’t be as prone to throw them away. If they do throw them away then there will be other people willing to pick them up and cash in on the deposit fee.

The concept is very similiar to what they used to do with glass coke bottles back before they converted to plastic bottles.

Putting a capitalistic spin on issues like this is the only way to promote change.

Garbage robots could Unionize, reproduce, develop a taste for human flesh
Done, well cooked, are US.

I like Andréa and Grimloc’s answers. Like some one else said the UN has no power, but it could try to push the idea that we all have do our part. Biodegradable would be another part of the solution. We can all do some part by using less plastics and being responsible when we dispose of the plastic we do use.

Start with yourself. Don’t buy plastic if you can avoid it. If you have to buy it, recycle it. Bring your own bags to the store. Don’t put your produce in plastic bags. Don’t put your dollar votes in favor of plastic. For example, my favorite brand of mayonaise is Best Foods. I’ve been buying it for over 30 years. This year, they switched from glass to plastic packaging. I switched brands immediatey.

We did not start the Garbage, It was there long before we noticed.
Out of necessity, evolved the the dung beetle, cleaning up after elephants.
Plastic digesting sea monster, a biological toxic waste dump, to evolve.
Kill it, really spice it up, to delay the rot. yuck, feed it to the cat !
The Cat mutates, eats Dogs and plastic water bottles.
Then all Humans, balance of Nature restored, when Cat dead, due to starvation ?

Man, 30 years ago we thought glass, aluminum , paper trash were bad, at least they are natural and degrade over time. Plastic was seen as bad, but we didn’t really see then the coming proliferation of plastic bottles and other containers. We didn’t appreciate the monofilimant fishing nets that never degrade. etc, etc. In Africa they call plastic bags “desert flowers” because whole regions are covered with discarded plastic bags stuck on bushes. We’re talking thousands of square miles of trash.

We do have the technology to deal with it. right now. The problem is political, not technological. “Biodegradable plastic” is not a solution because these are simply polymers that are mixed with various carbohydrates (ie, starch). The carbohydrates degade and the visible “plastic” disintegrates, but the polymers themselves are left untouched. They are just smaller. And then it just affects smaller animal/plant species.

The solution has to be prevention of the stuff getting into the environment in the first place. Remedial action is doomed to failure. Total recycling is the only way to make a dent in the problem, and then it will only reduce it, not eliminate it, because it is pretty tough, probably impossible, to get even the bare majority of people in the world to both understand the problem and put up the funds to do something about it. Even in the rich countries that pollute the most it is exceedingly difficult to get such things going - takes years of education to get even the most rudimentry conservation measures in place. for instance, it took decades to get clean air standards in place, and even now some look at those as somehow antithetical to free trade (companies often fight these because it costs money to clean up their own pollution).

Probably the way is global mandatory recycling (though plastics companies and product manufacturers will fight this tooth and nail), Taxes on products or fees on plastics manufacturers to both fund recycling and cleanups. Global policy is the only way because otherwise certain countries will take advantage of those who do take on the costs of recycling/cleanup. Some kind of tax on all plastic products is probably the most equitable way to do it. You could tax them and then pay to have the work done. Then the company both incurs the tax and can get paid back by performing the recycling and cleaning up.

Tax coastal states for the cleanup… they must be the ones throwing it in there….

Please read and pay attention. Cloth shopping bags and CFL bulbs are feel-good measures, but people need to get a grip on the problem. For each individual plastic item you pick on, there are 5 more from Coffee cup lids to plastic spoons to milk bottles.
So long as there are 7 billion people we are going to generate waste and wear out even the best designed products.

And stop blaming ships and boats - this stuff came from people in LA and Tokyo and Melbourne. Yeah - you too Seattle.

If we can get back in balance (population) for the size home (earth) we have, then earth will absorb and balance the waste back out. Remember - all the stuff even plastic came from the earth in the first place. Glass, Aluminum, even industrial chemicals can all be re-absorbed naturally if given time and if the system is not overloaded.

Seriously - shoot it into space? Are you people for real?

1 Child max per couple. This is not a UN mandate - this is called responsibility.

We will all have to pay for this one way or the other.Start with education is a must,next hire fishing trawlwers to clean it up.I agree the U.N.would be no help,however, if whatever it costs, just deduct that from the millions we have to pay the U.N. every year and educate them too.

Everyone on a coastline, creek, lake, river, associated sinners.
Others far, might have thrown, overboard, from a ship, IRS too small
Need total US might to Nuke offenders, and restore balance of Nature

Forget the UN idea. Menbers would just refuse to pay. (Like we currently are doing, here in the U.S.).

Franko…
Too Funny…. LMAO

Grimmlok’s got it; get the fishing trawlers out there and clean it up. Then bang the US navy, and every other shipping company that sails the oceans with hefty fees to do so.

BAN all plastic bags at grocery stores.

Almost everywhere else in the world has or is in the process of doing this. Is it really that for Americans to take reusable bags with them. Just outright ban their use.

In all seriousness, I purchased reusable bags in a Publix store last week and the check out person proceeded to wrap everything in plastic bags before putting it in the reusable bag… so it wouldn’t stain the bag! They simply could not grasp the concept of me not wanting plastic bags at all.

Also, for gods sake, use a jug! do we really need to open 5 of those stupid little tubs of creamer to make a cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts.

America should pay for the clean up because America is responsible for 90% of it. With every double, triple or quadruple seal on every disposable juice bottle, put in a plastic bag. Nowhere else is the world is this wasteful.

Have a look at Algalita’s web site or their blogs. You can’t just trawl it out without trawling out the fish and plankton. Also, it is so huge, the entire US Navy, working for a year, couldn’t even make a dent in it.
Try and wrap your mind around that. We have to avoid leting it get in the ocean in the first place.

Plastics are petroleum-based, right? and recyclable. Why not harvest the stuff using fishing boats and nets.

Specially made ships could be built and powered by the plastic waste. In the bow would be a large conveyor to bring the waste on board it could then be dried and ground in large grinders. Once ground and dry the plastic now has value and can be recycled for thousands of uses.

i do not understand the radical rights claim to be conservative when they actively fight anything to conserve our most precious resource for our children and theirs, so many voters are just led by the nose because of the vicious attacks by right wing politicians. this like other issues that effect the health and well being of the planet we hand down have MANY causes and most of those would be easy to resolve if we just CARED! “”Teach your kids to respect the planet?”" this is indeed the real solution but we should also work on the parents and those that have been just brainwashed into thinking you are somehow unpatriotic if you in any way associate or agree with environmentalists, we should ASAFP get to work on the solutions you mention and more, laziness/complacency, prejudice/fear led by radical right ideology and greed are the reasons its not being done and i believe contrary to God’s wishes in giving us STEWARDSHIP of the planet

Blame the Tree-Huggers. In the 1980s, we were encouraged to save the rain forests by reducing the use of disposable paper packaging. So what happened? We increased our depedence on petroleum-based-plastic products for packaging, which ends up being thrown in the oceans and seas and filing up land fills. Paper products dissolve easily in water and in wet dirt, plastic does not. Once again, tree-hugging wackos have failed us.

It’s very simple really. A significant reduction in the human population of the planet will result in a significant reduction in the volume of garbage generated.
In fact, a reduction of the human population to zero would be the best thing that could ever happen for the health of the planet.

I think prevention is an absolute must in this matter. I don’t know how would enforce such preventive measure. It’s not like you have cops in ships regularly passing by different sea vessels. A lot of pressure needs to be put on companies that willing dump waste into the ocean both from the government and direct consumers.

As far as cleaning up goes. That is a whole monster in and off itself. I would like to know if there is any way to scoop up plastic in an efficient manner that does not involve multi-billion dollar technology. Do we have any substances out there that breakdown plastic without poisoning the waters? I’m guessing if I have to ask these questions it probably does not exist otherwise this article would not exist.

Considering all the other issues in the world, this “toilet bowl” problem is not going to be addressed anytime soon. That being said, why doesn’t a resort (such as disney or sandals) go out there and net all the garbage together and turn it into a floating island for tourism, maybe even build a golf course on it.

How much of my tax money or donated money did it take to tell me that the primary polluters were “Asia, Europe and the USA” (ya think??)…that said, the answers lie in the comments offered up already…unfortunately humankind doesn’t have the altruism and politicans don’t have the courage to effect a solution!!

This mess like all messes can be cleaned up. The governments just don’t want to take the time or use the money. As an American I would pay a little extra money a month just to get this mess cleaned up. I would hope alot of other people would say the same thing. When its cleaned up we quit paying that tax and make sure there are measures taken so this wouldn’t happen again. The US government has failed the people of this country on steps to keep us healthy and safe. One way is staying out of other countires business and take care of us, and they wouldn’t be spending all our tax money for crap. Two they should have realized all this along time ago that way we wouldn’t be paying outragous prices on gas, food, and other goods. (But atleast we are not like England paying 10 bucks a gallon). Three we need real American people in the White house and not some oil tycoon that greedy.

I remember the 80s when they pushed so hard to rid the world of paper sacks to save the rain forest… guess that didn’t work out.

This is a problem though… it’s a shame it can’t wash ashore and be cleaned up… that’s a BIG body of water and I can’t even imagine what it would take to clean it all up.

I can’t believe that no one has come up with a design for a ship that will collect this crap. There are ships that do all kinds of specialized tasks, what is so hard about building one that collects things that are floating in the water column?

I think the biggest problem is that no one gives a damn or says there is no money for this.. With all of the money that is available for disaster relief from the UN of the world bank, this would count as a disaster by just about anyone’s standards. If anyone cared, that is.

One other thought is that you could hire the fishing fleets that have little to no work these days, to drag nets and collect it that way. Then they bring the booty back to shore and get paid just like bringing fish to market. This way employs people who need work and gets the ball rolling on untold years of clean up.

OK…here’s another way of thinking of this…is there some common “Binding” Chemical involved in all Plastic Production that could be targeted by some Natural or Engineered Bacteria or safe chemical? Could this “Unlock” the basic structure of Plastic into its basic elements? Could these Basic Chemicals be harvested or reabsorbed into the enviroment? Plastic is made with Oil (Hydro-Carbons)…Oil floats on Water Surface…Ships Skim Oil off Surface like present Oil Spill Situations…Ocean acts as Carbon Sink…Hydro Reabsorbed into Ocean Water? No Burning…No Fish Entrappment…??? Come on help me out on this one people…has to be SOME Solution!!!

OK…and yet another question…Sunlight is said to breakdown Plastics…how is this accomplished? Is there a way to repilcate this reaction? Speed it up? HHHMMM??? High Density Ultra-Violet Trawling Ships? THINK People!!!

How about rather than teaching your kids to respect the planet (a lesson they may never learn), not having any kids in the first place?

More people = more waste. A problem that is getting worse and worse every single day. All these environmental problems have too many people at their root.

and yet another…Plastics can be “welded” together at certain high sound frequencys…if most lifeforms could be chased away from the area for a brief time could the plastics be “fused” together into a larger mass that could be removed from the Oceans? THINK People!!!!

Does anyone out there realize that “Biodegradable” means breaking something down & then the planet absorbs it!! Has anyone heard of contaminated ground water?!

How much energy does it take to make a “bio-friendly” cloth bag? How much detergent is used to wash it? What chemicals/dies are released when it “degrades”? How many child laborers where used to make a cloth bag (or thread used to make it)?

Glass bottles?! How much energy is used to manufacture, transport, rewash & sterilize? How much CO2 from transporting bottles to the store - home - back to store - to washing/sterilization plant - back to the bottler - back to store & over again! They take up more space, don’t collapse & weigh alot. The don’t degrade, they break!

As for plastic bags, I agree that stores push them on you. I, for one, use plastic bags, I bring them back to the store in my pocket & reuse them. When I do take new ones I only take what I absolutely need to carry my items.

Plastics take less energy to produce & maintain & are vastly more cost effective to recycle than other products.

Please use some of the energy you use complaining about plastics & actually learn about the birth, life & death of metal, paper, cardboard, aluminum, glass, plastics, etc…. How much energy they require over a lifetime & which chemicals are leached into the environment upon their disposal.

Or … shoot ‘em all into space, bioengineer a space organism that eats only “bad” stuff & excretes pure clean energy pellets then put a net on the space shuttle to collect the pellets in a big net & deliver them to us free of charge! { : O

bottle deposit on all plastic bottles. make it valuable for people to save old plastic bottles and then there will less of them tossed out.

Try mandatory recycling of ALL plastic containers, segrate at designated locations and reuse if can. If particular plastics are not reusable…..Ban Them! If this doesn’t work, ban manufacture of plastic containers and as a last resort ban manufacture of all plastics used for all commonly used products. Glass and wood may not be as easy to use by consumers but they will work.

A roving platform is the only feasible idea. It will either have to burn the materials and have scrubbers for the pipes or it will have to melt the materials into lumps able to be shipped back to shore for processing.
The robot that poops money and seawater also sounds great though, if you can make it work.

Also, it goes without saying far too often, we have to stop the current dumping. To take care of the current waste will require a large manpower pool. I have a good idea. A majority of the people who are collecting unemployment could find work in a TVA style cleanup project separating recyclable/burnable materials in current landfills and dumping operations. They are considered unemployed when they are looking but are unable to find work. Here is an available job for literally tens of thousands of people. Maybe hundreds.

I know from talking with merchant marine men that their common practice is to throw everything overboard. Would not a simple step in the right direction be to require ships to bring their trash back to port. A simple ocean ethic that is often used on trails, such as leave no trace; bring back your trash, don’t leave it behind. I think it is rather shameful that the U.S. government allows ships under its command to dispose of their trash into the ocean. Practices like this of the past can not be allowed to continue.

The long term solution is to teach children and adults to respect and value the planet. However, in light of our current issues financial incentive would be helpful. All HDPE PET and LDPE should be recycled. To add incentive a price per pound should be offered to those who return the materials to recycling centers. If funding is an issue the government could stop subsidizing oil and start subsidizing recycling.

The problem is much deeper than most people realize. It’s no quick fix and you can’t just apply simple solutions without thinking about the broader affects.

The dirty little secret about recycling is that much of the process generates more pollution than it prevents and cost more than it saves. Recycling is a VERY PROFITABLE business. They will use any scare tactic they can to keep that profit going. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Plastic is used in so many things we don’t realize. Using a biodegradable plastic will not work with many applications and the increased costs will eventually land on consumers heavily. Everyone wants to save the world UNTIL it costs them money. REGARDLESS of what nationality you are. Requiring biodegradable plastic on everything would not be feasible. Some stuff, yes, but not all.

Fines are completely pointless. Anyone that has basic business knowledge understands that those costs get passed off to the consumers. You’re never really going to hurt the companies unless you can effectively separate the consumer from them. This would result in higher prices. Again…..everyone wants to fix the problem but they want someone else to pay for it. Not to mention that the laws will never be enforced by foreign nations which will make us even more defendant on foreign goods. That means a loss of jobs. The United States isn’t the only country unwilling to lose jobs. Get real. Also, even if an international agreement was made, who do you think is most likely to cheat? Also, for all the U.S. bashing I hear, do you realize where most of those cheap plastic items are produced? Hint, it’s not the United States.

Make governments pay for it? Governments do not pay for anything. People pay for it.

We need to reduce the use of plastic wherever possible. Especially with throw away items like soda bottles, milk containers, straws, ect. Most of the plastic comes from luxury items that are not needed. The United States is one of, if not the largest consumer nations on the planet, quite wasteful, and addicted to cheap throw away items.. If cheap plastic items were not permitted into the country, the producing nations would move to other more eco-friendly options. It’s doubtful that they would raise prices much because that is their only real advantage. Consumers will not unplug themselves from cheap thow away items on their own. You must forcible separate them from their normal fix.

Don’t depend on the mass of Humanity to solve this problem…as stated…out of sight…out of mind…it WILL come to a point and we will have to deal with it… (only after picking Barbie from our Flounder) …:(

Put a fleet of barges with thermal depolimerization units on them in the area, with crane arms on them to scoop the debris and feed it into them. The plastic debris would make excellent feedstock for this process, and the product would be diesel fuel that could be sold for $4.50/gal. See http://www.changingworldtech.com. I would take a few years, but eventually large quantities of the plastic could be permanently removed from the mass.

As someone who lives in a marina on a boat, we find it is not the sea faring vessels as we all love and respect the ocean. It is the trash that is washed out to see in the rivers, streams, and sewer lines that spews the plastic into the ocean. If we could find a way to eliminate that kind of items from washing into the ocean, it would make a large improvement in our current state.

I see some very good answers in here, I hope the powers that be are paying attention.

Please don’t think this is too stupid a question, but where is it all coming from. Cruise ships, okay. But being that most of us live inland, is inland garbage being hauled to the coasts and dumped? Or is all of this mostly from coastal populations? And who exactly is dumping it? Is it the commercial garbage businesses dumping at night? or is it just a little bit here and a little there from citizens. I lived 2 blocks from an ocean and never saw anyone dumping, although they could probably find enough secluded places a couple hours away. Or is it mostly from less environmentally conscious countries who couldn’t care less anyways?

The Plastics and Chemical industries would never stand for most of these ideas. They are bribing our politicians, financing PR commercials and propaganda campaigns to sow doubt into our decision making. Its going to basically smack us in the face or wash up on a CEO beachfront propterty before anyone will act.

Numerous current loops; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_gyre
For the Greenies, who want to kill the population.
Eliminate yourselves from land, colonze the Sargasso Sea.
No one, just eels and seaweed, be the Sagassum King.
Plastic cups, old glass globes, bottles with messages.
If bored, seaweed, smoked, to be eaten ,or inhaled ?

Numerous current loops; Oceanic Gyre
For the Greenies, who want to kill the population.
Eliminate yourselves from land, colonze the Sargasso Sea.
No one, just eels and seaweed, be the Sagassum King.
Plastic cups, old glass globes, bottles with messages.
If bored, seaweed, smoked, to be eaten ,or inhaled ?

Some fella, I think his name was Tom Morton, went out to the Garbage Island and studied what he found there and made a film of the expedition. He was surprised to find that most of the plastic was invisible, broken down by sunlight and other forces into a soup of polymer chains. You can’t net it or scoop it. The plankton that is at the bottom of the ocean’s food chain lives in this soup, and there seems to be about a hundred microscopic bits of plastic for each plankton. In other words, plankton eating fish are scooping in a hundred times more plastic than food. Too, what people usually mean when they speak of “biodegradable” plastic is plastic polymers mixed with cornstarch, The bottle made of this stuff does break down; the plastic doesn’t. Those polymers remain in the environment, acting as estrogen mimics and causing hormonal changes in wildlife and, eventually, in us. Newt was Speaker back when the problem of hormone mimicking plastics was first explained to Congress; I can still remember the look on their faces when the scientists explained how estrogen mimics affect penis size. One would think something would’ve happened by now. Perhaps the first step to getting this kind of problem solved is to ban lobbying by industries and corporations and, well, maybe everybody outright.

Plastic floats, breaks down in UltraViolet.. A limited time engagement, good hiding places for the microbes on steroids. Think of floating CoralReefs. Scuba Paradise, Galapigos on Hormones, SeaDragon launches, not obtained, due lack of nutrients.

Once humans colonoze, with floating cities, flush, and microbe Garden of Eden,

International community needs to haul it onboard ships and reprocess it. Kind of an international bottle recycling refund.

It looks like Courtney is right on track about this…let’s not worry about how we’re going to do any cleanup. Rather, let’s focus on why people are dumping what’s there in the first place. We’ll apparently need to completely understand people’s motivation before we can begin to want to find any solutions.

Hey, if this mass of floating debris is real. Get smart get off your rear and go and mine it. There should be enough stuff to more than pay for a project to recycle it. Get started and stop complaing. Think out of the box. KL

Set up Government recycling centers that offer cash for plastic by the pound! This would give the homeless an economy and help save the planet at the same time! Those thick, heavy duty laundry detergent bottles would bring a nice fee!

it’s time to start shooting people who litter.

(Just don’t leave the body lying there or you’re next.)

Yeah, so, everybody’s saying we can’t net it because we’ll pick up fish and other wildlife.

That doesn’t seem to be strictly true when I think about it. I’m certain that nets can be designed to advertise their presence and drive fish away. Senseless plastic won’t have that benefit of course.

It would still be have to be sorted in the water, but I just don’t see this as outside the realm of possibility. We could do it.

Although some have said we should mine it, I think that operating costs would far outweigh any profit from recycling. This would be an environmental effort.

The puzzles on how to do this and how to make it profitable are the keys to creating a successful operation.

Someone give me several billion dollars. I’ll get started.

Oh, and keep the money coming…

I like the idea of education as a starting point. I am an author and wildlife filmmaker and have recently finished a new book and movie project with the overall theme that moving water connects all life on earth. Check out http://www.apiratesquest.com

I designed this project to help introduce children to the idea that they are connected with life far away, simply by the movement of water. But with children, it is often important not to focus on the “doom and gloom” side of these topics. Instead, we need to have them fall in love with the ocean first…before we ask them to save it.

another of those “no one can say for sure” stories that everyone jumps on as true. wake up people you are all such eco lemmings, it makes me sick. which ties in with my new book and movie project titled “you are all eco lemmings, and it makes me sick!”

Plastics can be reused in a multitude of ways. I envision some brave company that will find a way to get a floating platform built near this pile of junk and begin collecting it. By recycling it, the mess will slowly disappear but only if the people and countries of the world develop a conscience so the trash is not being added to.

As a child I was taught to treat my mother earth with respect. Sometimes a bit of junk will accumulate in my car because I REFUSE to toss anything out the window. People need to think of the oceans the same as they do the area near their home and they have to learn there is only ONE planet for us to live on. They better get used to the mess they are creating or perish.

No plastic (or other trash) should be dumped in the ocean where it can float to who knows where. Humankind needs to see the world as a home where they live. Would a sensible person throw trash on their living room floor? NO!

Stop adding to the mess and begin to remove/recycle it. Even compacting it into bricks that would drop to the ocean floor would be better than allowing it to create a log jam in the ocean. That might still create problems with chemicals leeching into the water if care was not taken to carefully chose what is allowed to be compacted.

I think the overall answer can be found by taking the best of all ideas submitted and combining them into something that is workable, conscionable, and economically feasible.

But getting people in emerging countries like China and India (to name only a few) to cooperate by properly caring for their trash is going to be difficult. When I see photos of those countries there is trash in the streets being totally ignored. Toxic waste being cooked in tubs right on the streets of China has been reported by numerous sources. The people have lived in poverty so long they cannot see the larger picture, only the need to survive one more day and hope for a slightly better tomorrow at any cost.

The comment about robots who poop seawater and money made me laugh– but more importantly gave me a new perspective to think about.

Robots would take time to develop. Dont we already have enough human population to deploy to the floating garbage areas? Deploy ships for a month’s tour of duty, then bring it home to unload. Maybe it could be something every able-bodied citizen 18-40 is drafted to do, once a decade or so. Like jury duty.

Another idea– assuming it is floating on the top of the water, what about a large vacuum? Something that would suck the garbage from the surface, but not affect the deeper layers in the water, where the fishies live.

I read all the comments, and appreciate that much of the waste is liquid soup….. I have no brilliant ideas for that. Huge sponges? Then what? Ring them out over our landfills? Tie a rock to the sponges and make them sink to the bottom of the ocean?

I guess that’s it.You say it’s all circling the drain……it had to end sometime.

We kill rats and cats and elephants. Moves, kill, let a few live, if food supplies.
People get upset over floating plastic bottles and cups, just nuts are US.

Next frontier are the Ocean Gyre, to be colonized, Mermaid raped, enjoj it.
Bible gave dominion, to slaughter, including drinking plastic bottled water.
Be one with nature, praise God, nutrient the Gyre, with that plastic cup !

I think we need to attack the core as well, make all plastic bottles bought at the store with a 5c deposit, like aluminum cans are. Therefore, you create incentive to recycle.

I’d be in favor for some real serious fines for individuals/companies/or even countries who are caught dumping trash into our seas.

This story really saddens me how we continue to F up our home and leave it contaminated for our future generations

I was in a seagoing service for 6 years and we dumped loads of stuff off our ship into international waters, where it’s legal. I doubt that what we dump into the ocean and what we put into the atmosphere has any lasting effect on this huge planet that has foregone disasters beyond our comprehension…to believe the idea that we puny humans can destroy planet Earth is ridiculous. Mother Nature has filters for all that happens and knows how to deal with toxins and knows how to regenerate herself. As for throwing garbage into the sea, it should be stopped, there is no reason to not toss it into the sea and bring it back onto dry land where it can be buried, burned or recycled. It may create CO2 emissions though when processed…hmmm…..Mother Nature can handle it either way. I don’t think the Earth is as vulnerable as all the greenies think it is, but we should respect our mama if we can.

[...] Not that I’m in the habit of disbelieving my Dad, but I was nevertheless shocked when I saw this article confirming the existence of this proof of humanity’s horrific disregard of Mother [...]

70% of Earth’s surface is water, most just wasted, a nutrient desert.
Pave the road, for future generations, to colonize the Gyre.
The plastic may give places for little creatures to hide, But
Plastic is deficient in nutrients. Throw all your Vitamin and Iron pills with it.

Canada is an extremely clean country. How are they able to encourage their citizens to keep their country clean. I live in the southern US and find their country beautiful. Maybe Canadians could share what they do and then we could go from there?

Why don’t we work on changing our DNA so it does’nt make any difference what we eat or drink. We’ll never get enough people to co-operate in this effort to clean things up anyway.

Sweep it under the Rug. Flush it to the Gyre. Out of Sight, out of Mind.
Beyond our event Horizon, Tree falls in a distant universe, the difference ?
Compulsively buisy cleaners, will want you to clean out the Black Holes next.

Sewage plants, to be JunkRaft sailed, to bring the smell into our event horizon ?
The JunkRaft sailors find it appealing, each to his smell and taste.
We like to flush, JunkRaft personalities, stay beyond our event horizons.

This is a problem that will never go away ,we are a doomed race.Our destruction will only happen because of our egotistical,self centered,I know whats best because I have an education.We all think we know whats best.Lets stop and hear what mother nature is saying and disregard those who claim to be the experts.We know more about space and the lifeless balls of mud out there,then we know about our own oceans!

Hey Rosemary,
Not everyone can drink the water that comes out of the tap…..may places have contaminated tap water…..try having girrardia a few times, then bottled water starts to seem logicaly. It is also cheaper than the medical bills. What happened to recycling…..make it worth something to recycle that plastic and it won’t go anywhere.

There are as many differing points of view as there is sources of the plastics problem. Instead of going off about whose fault it is, how about we put our heads together and find a solution. I, for one, try to recycle everything that is possible, which unfortunately is not everything. The area that I live in isn’t very good about fixing problems that take real effort. Everyone yells about those “evil plastic bags”. Has anyone noticed that they are recyclable? If more places that take in plastic for recycling would accept the bags that would make a monumental dent in that problem. In the area I grew up in, there was a program that wasn’t politcally correct so it did not last. They called it Workfare, as opposed to Welfare. If you were able bodied and wanted your Welfare check, you got out there and if nothing else, picked up trash in the ditches. That sound like a good idea to me for nationwide use. The ocean problem, that is a different problem with somewhat different solutions. The recycling ships might not be a bad idea. Instead of sending the old single hulled oil tankers to the breakers, why don’t we convert them to the ocean recycling task? Food for thought………..

We did not start the Gyre. Earth started turning, Gyrating, Dirty Dancing.
FDA, Human contact approved plastic, sucked to a fish IQ improving classroom.

Play God, in the direction of a Gyre, throw all the solids, an isand Continent.
Garden of Paradise, quickly populated, Eve and the IRS Tax Collector ?
Cannot escape Original Sin, of being alive. JunkRafters, Prophecied.

Long term solutions are needed. The biggest problem is religion and all it’s attendant ignorance. You think this can be fixed? Forget it, It will fix itself after we destroy this planet. We’re hearing that the Pacific is like a toilet that never flushes? Well, when the ice caps melt and the oceans come up 200 or 300 feet, then the earth will start to rid itself of this cancer called humanity. It is sad that such a place as this earth has to be destroyed by an animal that could possibly accomplish soo much, but has so far only destroyed rather than create. We suck.

Sam Sharp

Plastic is recyclable … and cheaply too!

Bring plastic bags back to the store for recycling … bins are there!

Plastics get about 6 cents per lb from recyclers … check into it!

Plastic grocery bags are not the problem you think it is - take all of the items you buy & the bag U carried them in, remove products from packaging (plastic-paper-cardboard), smash them as small as you can … now what creates the most waste??? Not the plastic bag!!

Eco Lemmings (love that title!),, get off the bandwagon (I know it’s a fun ride but it doesn’t accomplish anything) & learn about “ALL” types of waste & the total effects on nature & what you can actually do instead of talk!

Infinitively worse ! More spooky than Entangled Schrödinger’s cat.
More fundamental than JunkRafter’s location in Space and Time.

When JunkRafters are Dirty Rafting into a Garbage Disposal Black Hole.
Flash, Information