marine debris

Come, sit by the fire and I'll tell you this holiday tale:

This week, many wee ones (and large ones too, for that matter) will tear open gifts with glee. Many of those gifts will be made of plastic in some proportion. Those gifts will be played with, and then, if they're lucky, handed down to siblings or to the less fortunate. Once they are completely loved and used up, they will be disposed of, and many will find their way out to the ocean, where they'll likely be pulled by a current into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (Like the 28,000 plastic bath toys that helped oceanographers track ocean currents back in 1992.)

Perhaps you've heard about the "Garbage Patch," the unthinkably large flotilla of trash, much of which is plastic, floating in the Pacific Ocean. If you haven't -- or even if you have -- check out this piece from yesterday's New York Times Magazine.