Tedx Talks — Synthetic Sea, Synthetic Me: Plastic in the World’s Oceans

“The last five years of my life have been profoundly influenced by trash,” Cummins began her talk.

Specifically, the plastic trash that is filling our ocean. Plastic is was that “miracle material” that we could just throw away, Cummins said. But, she asked, “Where is away?” She flashed pictures of trash-covered coastlines in Alaska, Los Angeles and Hawaii. “Here is away.”

Cummins was especially fascinated by the Pacific Gyre (a gyre is a large system of rotating currents; there are five main ones in the world), dubbed the “great pacific garbage patch.” In research expeditions here and around the world, the team would skim the ocean’s surface and analyze findings. Every time, the film on the ocean’s surface seemed to be covered with a soup of tiny plastic debris and fish, filled with the same debris. She showed photos of albatross carcasses, filled 50 to 60 percent with plastic they had eaten. Because plastic already absorbs pollutants in the ocean, fish eating this plastic makes them even sicker. And people eating this fish cannot be good, she said.

Cummins and her husband now run the 5 Gyres Institute, which runs frequent research expeditions to study pollution. Although Cummins says there is, “no way to completely redesign this ‘throwaway’ culture,” the best way to combat the problem is through better legislation, education and reusable design for products. Until then, the next voyage leaves for Cape Town on Nov. 8.