Andy Keller / May 23, 2011 12:22 pm
I have been tracking the Bag Monster for over 6 years now. My search lead me to join the 5Gyres Institute, as they explored the last of the five oceanic gyres in their ground breaking global research expedition. I wanted to see firsthand, the impacts of plastic pollution on our marine environment. In case you were not aware, a gyre is a gentle vortex, formed between two currents, creating an area that is known to collect marine debris and plastic pollution. “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is a common description of the well-known North Pacific Gyre. The other four gyres have been largely unexplored until now.
You can read about my journey here: http://www.bagmonster.com/author/andy
Andy Keller / May 17, 2011 11:15 am
In an effort to understand how the recent lawsuits fit into the larger strategy of the plastics industry, I began investigating the history of industry’s litigation tactics, and uncovered a long and largely untold story of conflict between the public and the now ubiquitous plastic bag. This timeline is intended as a starting point for people interested in the history and tactics of the single-use plastics industry
Andy Keller / April 7, 2011 8:33 am
Before joining the 5 Gyres Institute expedition to explore the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre, I didn’t know exactly what I would see out here. I had read the news stories, describing a gyre as a trash vortex, a floating island, a garbage patch as well as many other well-intentioned analogies. I say analogies because the reality of plastic in the
Andy Keller / April 1, 2011 5:02 am
Journal Entry xc Friday 4/01/2011 Roughly 1,000 miles off the coast of Chile and 600 miles to the center of the gyre, the trawl samples have become increasingly plastic. Tonight, March 31st at 4:00 AM, the trawl picked up our first piece of macro-plastic, plastic that is not in tiny fragment form. At first, we didn’t realize what we were
Andy Keller / March 31, 2011 3:18 pm
Wednesday 3/30/2011 Journal Entry xb Garen Hehksarian, another scientist on board is researching whether or not there is a connection between high concentrations of plastic and low concentrations of phytoplankton. Apparently there has been a roughly 50% drop in phytoplankton numbers since the 1950′s, roughly the time when plastics started replacing metal, wood and other natural materials in consumer products.
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