As the new study revealing the existence of this concentration points out, between 1976 and 2008 the amount of plastic thrown out worldwide increased by 500 per cent.
That is a little abstract, so let us bring it down to the level of personal behaviour. In 1976 milk was still delivered in recyclable glass bottles; we washed ourselves with bars of soap, and if we went to a café for coffee or tea, we drank it out of ceramic cups. People went to the shops with what were called shopping bags, sometimes very practically equipped with wheels.
Very few of us probably sang hallelujah on the day when the last dairy float was retired or shower gel gave soap the elbow, and the movement to limit the use of plastic bags in supermarkets has gained some ground in recent years. But year after year it has served the interests of our commercial masters to get us to use and then throw away more and more plastic, and the resistance we have collectively put up has been pathetic. The great Atlantic garbage patch is a floating rebuke to our consciences.
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...the message from the Atlantic is simple: the war against plastic is being lost. The waste remains, and kills.
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