The End

So this is the end of our Group 4 Project. We hope that by coming along this journey with us for these 20 or so blogs, you are able to get a glimpse of our research on this very important topic. By throwing garbage in the ocean, we think that, at most, it'll just harm the fish right? From doing this project we found that what effects marine life, the air, or even the environment in general affects us too because they're all part of the world we live in. It's interesting to find that everything in the world seems to be interrelated somehow, and the way we treat the environment has a direct impact on us too.

If you already knew about this topic, we hope you agree with how important this is, and if you didn't, then we hope you are a little more enlightened and encouraged to keep our oceans clean.

p.s. Remember, our GF is your GF=)

Save the Fish - It's The Law!

Laws are important when governing a society. It helps keep things fair a just, but when we throw garbage into the ocean, is that not against the laws that prevent cruelty to animals. The garbage in the oceans either choke the marine animals or get caught in their intestines, which make them sick and later kill millions of animals.

Laws should be made to prevent people from dumping garbage into rivers, lakes, and oceans. Garbage belongs into a garbage can where it can be taken to a landfill. Instead, garbage should be thrown into where it belongs, the garbage can. When any debris needs to be gotten rid of, it should be done in the right way that is the least harmful to its surroundings. Throwing garbage into the ocean doesn't get rid of it. Just because you can't see the garbage, it doesn't meant that it isn't there.

Currently, there is no law about reporting everything that has fallen into the ocean. However, if there was, then it could help is dumped into the ocean. Although sometimes things dumped into the ocean are by accident. An effort should be made to report anything that has fallen into there. If we know what is in the oceans then there won't be massive amounts of unknown debris in the ocean. Although we can't do anything about it after it has fallen into the ocean because the currents will take away. The best thing that can be done is to prevent things from fallen into the ocean by securing everything on the ship and be cautious. With less garbage in the ocean, not only will there be cleaner water, but the animals will have a better habitat.

Another law that would be beneficial for our fish and environment is to stop the production of plastic bags. Plastic bags are not a necessity. You can use canvas bags when you go buy groceries. It is better than a plastic bag because it is durable and reusable. Plastic bags and break easily, but with canvas bags, you could probably use them for many years. Without plastic garbage bags, it will make your garbage can's gross and sticky, but all you need to do is wash it and it will be good as new. Why waste money on a plastic garbage bag when you can just not use one and in doing so, you save many fish as well.

An alternative would be having the governments in the surrounding areas to start a department in their ministry of environment to send people out in ships to search for debris in the ocean and pick up as much as they can. Once the garbage is picked up, it should be brought on land to biodegrade. Garbage breaks down faster on land than on ocean because the water in the ocean cools the debris, which prevents head build up and it limits UV light exposure as well. Not only would this help the environment, but it would increase the number of job opportunities. Another thing needed by the government is better law enforcing about littering. Since it is not very often that people get fined for littering, yet it happens so often, consequently, leading us to not take this law seriously.

Manatee

I wish I could be – a manatee!
Live contentedly.
Swim in shallow tropic sea.
On sandy bed I’d sleep
Where it is not too deep.
Mistaken quite a lot
A mermaid I am not!
A mermaid I am not!

I wish I could be – a manatee!
Live contentedly.
Swim in shallow tropic seas.
A mammal herbivore

Eat sea plants nothing more.
Then surfacing for air
That’s when I must take care!
That’s when I must take care!
I wish I could be – a manatee!
Live contentedly.
Swim in shallow tropic seas.
But garbage in the sea
Boats crashing into me
And poachers of the seas
Are all my enemies!
They’re all my enemies.

I wish I could be – a manatee!
Live contentedly.
Swim in shallow tropic seas.
But my biggest fear
Is that we’ll disappear.
us or there’ll be
No more Manatee to see!
No Manatee to see!

No Manatee to see!

No Manatee to see!

This song reminds me of the what will happen to the fish if we dump garbage in the ocean. Fish are beautiful sea creatures and it would be a shame not to be able to enjoy their presence anymore. Not only are they useful for entertainment, but we also need them to prevent acid rain. It is really hard to keep garbage from falling into the ocean, but if we all do our part in cleaning up after ourselves, it will make a difference. When garbage is left on beaches, it can get washed into the ocean. We must remember to recycle everything. In doing this, it will create a better earth and a better environment for us to live in. We are they ones that are benefiting from recycling in the end, so why not do it?

BB = Bitublocks = building blocks

Dr. Jim Forth of Leeds University has developed a replacement for concrete blocks that build homes. These replacement blocks are called Bitublocks, and they are sustainable and require less energy to manufacture than concrete blocks. They can use up to 100% waste materials, being made of crushed glass, incinerator ash, metal slag, and sewage sludge that are pressed together with bitumen, which is the substance used to make asphalt in paved roads and is used to cook gasoline at the tar sands. The minimal energy required to make them is used to heat the materials for the bitumen to oxidize and harden. By taking bitumen from the gasoline processes, there are double benefits because tar sands are big culprits of environmental pollution and using the bitumen as building blocks would not cause nearly as much pollution. Also, another benefit of using these Bitublock is that they are approximately six times as strong as normal concrete blocks. These blocks will be in the market in an estimated 3 -5 years.
This solution would not only reduce the amount of garbage from landfills and oceans but also reduce 7% of global CO2 emissions that come from producing concrete. The biggest problem from concrete production is Portland cement which causes 74% to 81% of the total CO2 emissions and bitumen takes the place of Portland cement in Bitublocks.

We tried to contact Dr. Forth but unfortunately, he is on vacation until Monday, February the 16th so he is unable to provide us with more information on this fascinating project.

This solution seems to be the best one I've seen yet. Hopefully all will go well and these Bitublocks will be finished in their testing modes and out in the market as predicted. This is not only taking garbage and using it to make something new but also the process of making it does not harm the environment. This is good short term and long term, despite the need to use an incinerator which will heat up the world but it does not need to heated quite as long as it does for powering the garbage truck. Also, while the garbage truck using that energy and cannot reuse it again, once you have a Bitublock, it will last longer than you will.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/building_houses.php
http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~cenepe/casestudies_Bitublock.html

Garbage Fueled Garbage Trucks

Another usage of garbage is burning it as fuel for vehicles. A city near north of London has a garbage truck entirely powered by garbage, if that's ironic enough for you. Waste is burned at a recycling centre at 10 megawatts and a modified lithium-ion battery pack that can reach 50 miles per hour. A fully charged truck can reach up to 100 miles or go for six to eight hours. This reduces the amount of garbage left sitting idle in landfills or to be dumped into the ocean. But this alternative is less environmentally friendly for the whole planet because incinerating things release heat and chemicals into the air.

In my opinion, this is not a very reasonable solution because burning waste releases pollutants into the air and the ozone layer will be destroyed much more quickly. Also, the overall temperature of the world would rise and usable energy would decrease due to the increase in entropy. The formula for entropy for constant temperature could be used to generally state that entropy would increase because of the increase in heat in the world is directly proportional to it. Energy can never be destroyed but if it cannot be used, it is almost as if it were "useless".

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/garbage-powered-garbage-truck-uk.php?daylife=1&dcitc=daylife-article

Garbage Patch Kids- it all starts with education

In an ideal world, everyone would be educated about environmental issues and have a respectable understanding of the current conditions of the world, too bad there exists not a world like that. So, it really just comes down to education. Although, there is more awareness of the environment nowadays, it really starts with education. If kids are taught to sort out their garbage, not to litter, and how to protect the environment, there wouldn't be so much ignorance about it now. It's really about making our world a priority, because we want to live in a better place and leave it better for the next generation.

Programs should be initiated in schools and common knowledge about the subject should be taught. It might not prevent everyone from leaving their plastic bottles at the beach, but if people give it a second thought, and one person out of the one hundred decide to dispose of it properly, then that's one less bag in the ocean, one less bag ingested by organisms. What's more, it's one less bag that will remain in the ocean for 450 years.

Say Yes to Better Sewage Systems

Which of the following do you think would add to the problem of the "trash vortex"?
a) leaving your garbage on the beach
b) throwing bottles in the water
c) leaving your plastic bag on the street
d) all of the above

If you guessed d) all of the above, you are right. The first option contributes to the problem, quite obviously, because the wind carries the garbage into the ocean, and the circular ocean currents bring it to the center of the ocean's gyres, located in the middle of the oceans. Not surprisingly, simply throwing bottles into the water also add to the trash trapped in the gyres. Although merely leaving your plastic bag on the street may come as a surprise to you. How could garbage from the street end up in the oceans? It's actually quite simple. The garbage gets swept away in the sewers, end up in the rivers, and eventually, move into the ocean. This is especially problematic when the sewage systems are old-fashioned and lack filters to prevent plastic or other substances from entering. Although some sewers have catchbasins, which trap large objects and drain the water, it doesn't prevent the flow of hydrogen gases like hydrogen sulphide and methane from entering. Hydrogen sulphide gas is toxic, and excess amounts can be fatal to organisms.

When oxygen levels lower, this permits some marine bacteria to produce hydrogen sulphide gas, which causes the levels of the gas to rise. Oxygen is an important component because it oxidizes the toxic hydrogen sulphide, and changes it to a non-toxic form of sulphur. The oxygen levels are lowered because of global warming, which causes the ocean to warm up, slowing or even stopping ocean currents. This is significant because the circulation keeps the oxygen levels up.

Now what does garbage have to do with all this? The garbage in the ocean can pollute the ocean and harm organisms like phytoplankton. Since oxygen is so important, some oxygen-producers like phytoplankton are also essential. The dispulsion of garbage into the ocean affects these marine organisms. Phytoplankton produce oxygen, carbon dioxide, and regulate temperature of the ocean. No doubt, just by doing these things alone, they are very important. Although they are very sensitive to their surroundings, fluctuation in temperature and salinity can affect its ability to carry out its job, as well as pollutants (hence, the problem with garbage in the ocean). This supports the observation that if the garbage is dumped into the oceans, it can have a large impact on marine life. The garbage in the ocean can be ingested by these marine organisms like phytoplankton, and impair its very important function of producing oxygen. The low levels of oxygen would cause certain marine bacteria to produce hydrogen sulphide gas, and high levels of this gas could be lethal to the organisms. Not only does it affect marine life, but if this gas leaks into the atomsphere, its toxicity can affect humans as well.

So how do we fix it?
The problem of hydrogen sulphide gas entering the sewers can be solved by sewer mechanisms known as "gulley-pots," which are popular in the UK, and serve to block gases like hydrogen sulphide and methane from entering the rivers and oceans.

Sewage systems that don't have proper filtration systems can cause eutrophication. This happens when there is an increase of chemical substances, harming organisms like phytoplankton, and therefore reducing the amount of oxygen produced. This oxygen is much needed by marine life to survive. Eutrophication also disrupts and decays plant growth.

Garbage --> Land?

What if garbage had another use other than just sitting there in landfills?

Land reclamation is when new land is made where it used to be water. This practice is used mostly in areas with high population density. Soil, sea sand, swamps, and the bits of garbage it those are materials that form this "new" land. Either two small islands are formed into a much bigger one, or swamps can be reclaimed to be more useful land. This option solves problems of too much garbage and not enough land to put it and also that of too many people and not enough land for them to live on. There are many problems with this though. It is very expensive to make new land. It is environmentally looked down upon because it destroys the habitat by reducing the amount of water in the world and because of the chemicals from the materials that affect the water.
One example of land reclamation is the Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok Island, which increased the land area of Hong Kong by 1%. This airport covers 12.48 km² of reclaimed land between Chek Lap Kok Island and Lam Chau. It took six years to build this airport, with the financial support of 4 major sponsors because it cause more than twenty billion dollars. It had to be split into 10 separate projects, 225 contracts with construction groups, and over 1000 critical interfaces. This maneuver was necessary because Hong Kong is a major international port and the population per area is very high. The former airport, Kai Tak Airport, was much smaller and getting old. In fact, when it closed there was only one runway for planes to land on. Landing was made even more difficult because of the high number of skyscrapers and mountains less than 10 km north of the airport and less than 5 km from the east side. The runway stuck out into the Victoria Harbour and was made by reclaiming land from the harbour and had already been extended several times. More mountains in Hong Kong Island are further south of the airport. Also, it was in a residential area in Kowloon Bay, Kowloon, and very loud for those who lived around there. Apparently these six story buildings across the road from the northern end of the runway were so close that airplane passengers have claimed to seen the residents' television sets through the windows of those apartments while their aircraft was nearing the landing strip. This showed how low of an altitude the planes had while being barely 10 km away from places that people lived in.

Another place were land reclamation is present is Singapore since the 1960s, and this happened on a large-scale basis. The reasons they needed to take materials and form it into land on the ocean is because the country was very small (581.5 kilometres squared) and the rising population. The reclaimed land is used for building more private and public housing estates along with recreational facilities and expanding commercial and industrial activities and transport needs like roads, expressways, the Mass Rapid Transit System, the port, and airport facilities.

From the image, it can be seen how much land has been added to Singapore. Land reclamation increased the total land area of Singapore by 51.5 kilometres to make it 633 kilometres squared. If all continues as planned, Singapore should be 733 kilometres squared by 2030. Barriers that prevent Singapore from continuing though, are that the water that land reclamation is done in has to be deeper (about 15 metres) instead of 5-10 metres like the past ones; the deeper the water, the higher the cost. Also more land would mean less room for boats to move in ports and sea lanes because Singapore also has limited sea space and needs the room to anchor bigger ships. Singapore even has three public agencies (HDB, JTC, and PSA Corporation) as well as private oil companies that focus on land reclamation.

www.wikipedia.com
http://library.thinkquest.org/C006891/reclamation.html

Roll Up Your Sleeves- It's Going to Get Dirty

Personal ways you can approach the problem of keeping sewages cleaner, and therefore, reduce the amount of bad substances like garbage, plastic, and toxic gases from entering your drains.

It's really important to be aware that what can end up on your streets can end up in your drain, and therefore, can be transported to the ocean. Here are some suggestions that you should consider:

1) Don't throw garbage on the streets. There are garbage cans and recycling bins for a reason, and it's very easy to take the concept, "out of sight, out of mind" lightly, but just because it is out of "your" sight doesn't make it disappear.

2)When you take your pets out for a walk, make sure you pick up after them. The manure produces hydrogen sulphide emissions that can enter the sewage systems.

There are specific meaasures that can be taken to reduce hydrogen sulphide emissions for places like farms and manure-storage areas.

a)Biofilters can trap gaseous emissions and serve to biologically degrade the gases in the filter's aerobic environment. Biofilters like permeable covers on manure storage areas is said to prevent hydrogen sulphide from being released into the environment, as the biocovers allows for environment with aerobic organisms that restrict the formation of hydrogen sulphide. Although statistics have shown that this seems to have served more to reduce the odours rather than the gaseous emissions.

b)Since the formation of hydrogen sulphide gases are due to anaerobic conditions, aeration systems can be implemented to provide an aerobic environmet, therefore supplying oxygen and reducing gas emissions.

c)Another way to reduce these gases is to compost. Again, this maintains an aerobic environment in the manure. Compost in this sense is the "the controlled aerobic decomposition of manure (or other nitrogen source), which produces a stable organic material. " This is done by adding a bulking agent (which could be newspaper, wood chips, straw). This bulking agent is the carbon source, and when this is combined with oxygen, nitrogen and moisture, it provides an aerobic environment for the manure to decompose. Although the difficulty with composting is that the environment has to be very specific, with 55% moisture, and temperatures between 40 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius. All these specific factors contribute to the environment that allows for microbial activity, as the microbes "digest and process the various components of manure, rendering it less offensive, and in many respects, less harmful to the environment." It also allows for the manure to retain its nutrients. The problem with composting is that it releases ammonia into the environment due to the loss of nitrogen. In response to our Group 4 project of how waste pollutes the ocean, hydrogen sulphide gas was a problem because it can harm aquatic life if it enters sewers and goes into the ocean. However, composting to deal with the problem of hydrogen sulphide produces ammonia, which can be harmful to the aquatic ecosystem all the same. Statistics show that, "in 1996, ammonia was ranked first by the National Pollutant Release Inventory in terms of amounts released by industry to the Canadian environment." As well, "The amount of ammonia released to water via municipal WWTPs is estimated at 62 000 tonnes/year. Negative environmental impacts on some aquatic ecosystems are occurring from this source."

This just just goes to show that creating a solution for problems like this can have pros and cons, and one solution may not solve the whole problem. There are side effects and other implications that need to be considered as well.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/newslett.nsf/all/agin6316

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1972a.pdf

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/contaminants/psl2-lsp2/ammonia/ammonia_synopsis-eng.php

Solutions...Eureka!!!

Of course the majority of water pollution comes from the amount of oil spills that occur every year. However, it is essential to the safety of our environment that oil and oil by-products are prevented from reaching the ocean.

What Can the Government Do?
• “Tightening regulations governing maintenance and inspections of commercial ships, motor boats, and recreational water craft, which can leak oil and fuel into the water.“
• “Requiring filtration ponds and natural buffer zones around roads and parking lots to help keep runoff contaminated with oil and gas drips from getting into waterways.”
• “Doing more citizen education on the subject of how to keep oil out of our environment.”

What can we do?
• “Drive your vehicle less. That will mean your vehicle is putting less petroleum pollution into our waters (not to mention less air pollution into our air).”
• “Maintain your vehicle more. If you see oil stains on your driveway, your car needs attention.”
• “If you must own a motorized boat or jet ski, keep it well maintained.”
• “We hope it goes without saying, but if you change your oil yourself, don't dump the used oil down the nearest sewer drain! In many places, local service stations are required by law to accept your used oil. Alternatively, most municipal recycling centers accept used motor oil.”

Miscellaneous Solutions:
• “All countries should pass laws to prevent cruise ships from dumping untreated sewage, gray water, and oily bilge water into oceans and coastal waters. Globally, coast guards should coordinate enforcement efforts.”
• “Traditional power plants use fresh water and can add thermal and other types of pollution to that water. Moving much more aggressively on increasing our use of solar energy, wind power, wave/tide energy, and other clean technologies that don't use freshwater resources is a good solution generally, not just for water pollution.”
• “The growing impact of plastic pollution in the oceans will be one of the big disaster stories of this century. Much of the plastic in the oceans comes from ships and boats, but some comes from land-based use. Try to figure out ways you can use less plastic, especially plastic food storage bags and other types of plastic that are easily blown around.”
• “Litter from land is carried by wind or rivers to oceans and beaches. So, don't litter. It's also good if you can occasionally pick up someone else's litter. Every litter bit help. Anyway... A healthy sea turtle somewhere thanks you.”

http://www.grinningplanet.com/2008/01-08/water-pollution-solutions-article.htm

The Prevention Act

In 1990, the US government put forth a pollution prevention act:
(a) Findings
The Congress finds that:
(1) The United States of America annually produces millions of tons of pollution and spends tens of billions of dollars per year controlling this pollution.
(2) There are significant opportunities for industry to reduce or prevent pollution at the source through cost-effective changes in production, operation, and raw materials use. Such changes offer industry substantial savings in reduced raw material, pollution control, and liability costs as well as help protect the environment and reduce risks to worker health and safety.
(3) The opportunities for source reduction are often not realized because existing regulations, and the industrial resources they require for compliance, focus upon treatment and disposal, rather than source reduction; existing regulations do not emphasize multi-media management of pollution; and businesses need information and technical assistance to overcome institutional barriers to the adoption of source reduction practices.
(4) Source reduction is fundamentally different and more desirable than waste management and pollution control. The Environmental Protection Agency needs to address the historical lack of attention to source reduction.
(5) As a first step in preventing pollution through source reduction, the Environmental Protection Agency must establish a source reduction program which collects and disseminates information, provides financial assistance to States, and implements the other activities provided for in this chapter.
(b) Policy
The Congress hereby declares it to be the national policy of the United States that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source whenever feasible; pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe manner, whenever feasible; pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible; and disposal or other release into the environment should be employed only as a last resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe manner.
Definitions:
(A) The term ''source reduction'' means any practice which -
(i) reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment (including fugitive emissions) prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal; and
(ii) reduces the hazards to public health and the environment associated with the release of such substances, pollutants, or contaminants. The term includes equipment or technology modifications, process or procedure modifications, reformulation or redesign of products, substitution of raw materials, and improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training, or inventory control.
(B) The term ''source reduction'' does not include any practice which alters the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics or the volume of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant through a process or activity which itself is not integral to and necessary for the production of a product or the providing of a service.
Obviously this act was not reinforced effectively. In 1999, a group of investigators went to the “Garbage Patch” and found that the ratio of plastic to plankton was of 6:1. After a recent visit to the “Garbage Patch”, the ratio had increased to 100:1!

Terrifying Statistics!!!

· “...2/3rds of the earth is ocean, and is now a plastic soup.” [Moore] also showed the shriveled stomach from the rainbow runner [he] caught a couple weeks ago, with 14 fragments of plastic in its stomach.”

o http://junkraft.blogspot.com/

· “There are over 20,000 man-made chemicals produced by the billions of pounds annually that are dispersed throughout the globe in an open loop of consumption that often ends as waste to be buried, burned or to flow down coastal watersheds out to sea.”

o http://junkraft.blogspot.com/

· “Plastic in the oceanic garbage dump outweighs zooplankton six to one, and goes as far down as 300 feet below sea level—here’s hoping the plastic raft’s voyage gathers some more attention.”

o http://blogs.discovermagazine.com

· “In 1999 there was 0.002 gram of plastic per square meter of ocean in the Eastern Garbage Patch, and as of 2005 there was 0.004 gram per square meter in the same place. In that same period plastic production in North America alone experienced double-digit growth, topping 113 billion pounds in 2006, according to the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Virginia.”

o http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/10-the-worlds-largest-dump/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C=