What we’re actually seeing in the ocean is this kind of chowder of plastic – these tiny particles that are the size of plankton. It’s plastic that has been weathered and broken down by the elements into these little bits and it’s getting into the food chain.

— Edward Humes met with scientists who study the 5 massive gyres of trash particles swirling around in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Created by the convergence of ocean currents and wind, the gyres contain masses of litter that aren’t entirely visible by the human eye.

We pay for this stuff and it goes right into the waste bin, and we’re not capturing it the way our recycling programs are intending us to capture it. We’re just sticking it in the ground and building mountains out of it.

— About 69 % of our trash goes immediately into landfills. And most landfill trash is made up of containers and packaging – almost all of which should be recycled, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes,

Edward Humes on Puente Hills, the largest municipal landfill in the United States: “The smell is not as impressive as the sheer scale of this place. It has 130 tons of garbage contained in this mountain. It is a high point in the south end of Los Angeles so you can see the entire basin of Los Angeles by standing on a mountain of its trash.” [full interview here]

Puente Hills Landfill (by wallofhair)

Plastic that has floated on the islands of Midway Atoll. On tomorrow’s Fresh Air, we’ll talk to journalist Edward Humes about the Pacific Garbage Patch — and the other gyres of trash floating around our oceans.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch (by J Gilbert)

Tomorrow: everything you wanted to know about garbage. Guest: Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Edward Humes.

Earth-Cubed.1 (by Mary Bogdan)