In the waters of the Pacific Ocean , between North America and the Hawaiian Islands, there is more than fish, algae and plankton. Scientists have located a veritable dump of plastic bags, bottles and caps the size of the Iberian Peninsula.
Experts suspect that this accumulation of garbage in the Pacific, caused by current cycles, began to form around 1950, at the dawn of the plastic age, and that today there are about one hundred million tons of waste in it. . The big problem is that plastics are not biodegradable . They are only slowly photodegraded by the effect of sunlight. This means that they can remain in the water for 500 years, causing serious environmental problems.
That is why a major crusade against plastic bags has been launched around the world. Spain, considered the first producer of single-use plastic bags and the third consumer in Europe, plans to ban their use from 2010. Biodegradable plastic bags, paper bags and cloth bags will be used instead.
