To the editor: To combat plastic pollution in our oceans, we must reduce plastic production, not try to capture its endless flow. A recent article in The Times about an effort to eliminate the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch failed to address the root cause of this pollution.
Plastic is everywhere. It is in the soil, water, air, food and even in our bodies. If we continue as we are, plastic production is expected to triple in the next three decades.
But if the tub is overflowing, don't start with the mop. Turn off the tap. The solution to this crisis is clear: reduce the production and use of plastic and adopt refillable and reusable systems.
California is leading by example: its legislature recently passed a ban on thick, single-use plastic bags at grocery checkouts. Governor Gavin Newsom should quickly sign this into law to protect our oceans and communities from further plastic pollution.
Katie Matthews, Washington
The author is chief scientist at Oceana, a nonprofit organization focused on ocean conservation.
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To the editor: Long live the Netherlands-based group The Ocean Cleanup! I'm sure it only needs to ask the oil industry and its stepchild, the plastics industry, to donate the $7.5 billion it needs to clean up the rest of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Or maybe the oil and plastic industries are too busy ridding the world of microplastics, forever chemicals, and thwarting global warming to bother dumping their trash into the ocean, right?
Denise Dobbs, Sherman's Oaks
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To the editor: Thank you for letting us know about the ongoing effort to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. However, 10 years is a long time to work and wait while more plastic keeps coming.
I suggest we ask the US Navy for help. It has the skills, resources and money to do this. It could take care of our fleets of stranded and bankrupt fishing boats and pay their owners for their help and expertise in removing things from the sea.
Our Navy could use these voyages as training exercises for new sailors, which would be a welcome use of our bloated military budget.
The fish would thank us. In our new circular economy, plastic can be reused to make sun loungers on the new solar-powered boats that sail the clean, beautiful seas.
Sarah Starr, Los Angeles
