This post comes from a BBC news, science & nature article from March 2008, The Battle of Midway, section 2, 26th March, 'The Plastic Legacy'.
The correspondent, David Shukman travels to the remote Pacific island of Midway to report on the increasing environmental threat of waste plastics drifting and massing together around the island. Scientific observations on the impact of plastics on the local eco system are shocking, but what particularly caught my attention was the opening section featuring a small plastic toy.
I was entranced by the writer's theorising of the imagined journey of the object, from child to beach via the North Pacific Gyre ocean current and the stomach of an Albatross among other events, something I do unconsciously as I collect debris from all the places I visit.
Later on, as the correspondent witnesses a beach cleanup, he observes that the process "is like peering into a darker side of our throwaway culture", which I do a lot too when contemplating various scavenged objects prior to working on them. The comparison between the staple food source of squid with cigarette lighters was a dark moment, and again got me considering further the hidden stories behind the objects I collect, particularly from coastal environments, adding fuel to the eco disaster fire that is growing so rapidly in our seas.
Read the original article here