I saw this article and wanted to share it with you.  It's about a young guy who has apparently invented a way of collecting all of the marine debris floating in the massive Pacific Garbage Patch (and all the other swirling masses of plastic junk floating in our seas) within 5 years.  Furthermore he says that it will be powered by the sun and the water, and will actually make a profit from the recycling money.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-world-s-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#.UZKocQjnfBI.facebook

Sounds too go to be true?  Maybe.  It does sound so easy that I wonder why no one has come up with this idea before now.  But if it does work that would be great as it would help to reduce the number of marine animals and birds who die from ingesting plastic mistaken for food, and would also stop so much plastic entering the food chain.

The article says that the plastic would be collected for recycling.  However I am not sure that all the plastic could be recycled so some of it would end up in landfill - almost as harmful to the environment as dumping it at sea.  

It sounds a great way of dealing with a problem which has already occurred, but for the future we must stop using and producing so much plastic.

One of these days I will write a blog about my pet hate - unnecessary plastic packaging (Grrr!)