Great Pacific Garbage Patch

[Porn Shop Clerk]

Yeah, lets send the planet Earth into the sun one piece at a time. Should only take a million or so years before there's absolutely nothing left.

[bleys]

Actually the size of this thing is astounding.

From Wikipedia:

Estimates on size range from 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) to more than 15,000,000 square kilometres (5,800,000 sq mi) (0.41% to 8.1% of the size of the Pacific Ocean), or, in some media reports, up to "twice the size of the continental United States".[13] Such estimates, however, are conjectural based on the complexities of sampling and the need to assess findings against other areas.

didn't realize it was that big.. that's both sad and amazing.. seems with all of these issues like this and global warming, there will never be enough awareness to counter what we are doing to this planet.

Thats why I've been using those green re-usable bags that you get at HT, limiting how much plastic bottled water I buy, etc.

bottled water isn't so bad if you are recycling.. I hope everyone in here is recycling, it's entirely too easy to recycle..

[88 Bronco]

Launch our garbage into space. Simple.

Or alternatively, build a chimney stack so high that the smoke and soot will exit the atmosphere when we burn it all.

And that bird appears to have eaten too much junk food.

Replace launch with put, and space with water and thats how we got here today

[mmmbeans]

mmmbeans - screw scrum. I'll just take 10%.

gentlemen, gentlemen there's more than enough illicit money in this project to make us all very rich.

(especially if we just SAY we are launching it into space and continue to dump it in the ocean.)

[Delhomeboy]

Wasn't there a Futurama episode about launching trash into space?

[Razzy]

A smokestack that leaves the atmosphere is neither reasonable nor feasible.

Replace launch with put, and space with water and thats how we got here today

Like others have already pointed out, the vastness of space pretty much negates any possible side effects, as long as we make sure the cargo exits our orbit. As for the chimney, that one was more of a joke, although it is perfectly feasable. It would also be a horrible solution.

I keep forgetting - they should just launch it into the sun. Problem solved, that'll be one billion dollars, thank you.

If a space elevator was built, the cost of a propultion system wouldn't be too costly. Launching from Earth you need to spend most of your fuel just to escape orbit, which means huge rockets. Once you're out of the atmosphere though, all it takes is a little push and that gigantic cube of trash will just keep on chugging, you could probably use some other means like a compressed air system.

We could also just build a rail gun large enough to propel large objects out of our orbit. Keep stuffing trash into these large shells and we're good to go.

[88 Bronco]

Like others have already pointed out, the vastness of space pretty much negates any possible side effects, as long as we make sure the cargo exits our orbit. As for the chimney, that one was more of a joke, although it is perfectly feasable. It would also be a horrible solution.

If a space elevator was built, the cost of a propultion system wouldn't be too costly. Launching from Earth you need to spend most of your fuel just to escape orbit, which means huge rockets. Once you're out of the atmosphere though, all it takes is a little push and that gigantic cube of trash will just keep on chugging, you could probably use some other means like a compressed air system.

We could also just build a rail gun large enough to propel large objects out of our orbit. Keep stuffing trash into these large shells and we're good to go.

People once thought the oceans were equally vast.

[Razzy]

I get that, but the chances of anything happening is very remote as long as we get it far enough away. Space and an ocean can't even be compared. Even if you add up the volume of all the planets in our solar system, it is an extremely small number when compared to the volume of the visible universe, and an infinitely small one when compared to the known universe.

My main fear would be that the trash might eventually collect somewhere and develop an orbit through our solar system that brings it near Earth, but the chances of this are slim provided the trash gets out far and fast enough.

[Scrumtrilescent]

Actually, sending it to the sun wouldn't be that bad, just get it in a degrading orbit and bam, it burns up before it even reaches the sun. Those atoms are returned to sender, very poetic. The sun creates, the sun destroys.

[Guest]

I get that, but the chances of anything happening is very remote as long as we get it far enough away. Space and an ocean can't even be compared. Even if you add up the volume of all the planets in our solar system, it is an extremely small number when compared to the volume of the visible universe, and an infinitely small one when compared to the known universe.

My main fear would be that the trash might eventually collect somewhere and develop an orbit through our solar system that brings it near Earth, but the chances of this are slim provided the trash gets out far and fast enough.

Until it lands on an alien planet and really pisses them off...they look through it, find a receipt or something, then they are all over your ass. And you don't want that.

[Happy Panther]

[Delhomeboy]

Actually, sending it to the sun wouldn't be that bad, just get it in a degrading orbit and bam, it burns up before it even reaches the sun. Those atoms are returned to sender, very poetic. The sun creates, the sun destroys.

I'm a sucker for poetic diction.

[Scrumtrilescent]

You said dic.

[Hawk]

here's a couple novel ideas...

how about we create less garbage to start!! Does everything these days need to be packaged as much as it is? Do the suppliers really need to use such a big box just to make the consumer think they are getting their money's worth? Realize there needs to be a balance between packaging and consumer safety etc, but it truly is out of hand!

part two....burn it! Burn it all...you can safely incinerate pretty much anything and everything and still control the smoke/output of said burning!