Current Cleanup Efforts

The main question when addressing Trash Island is 'How do we even clean it up?' Unfortunately, the issue is not really being addressed by current law, and a new treaty will need to be made before any clean up will actually start (Dautel, 181).

According to Dautel, there are two laws that could be combined to create a better legal policy: the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Waste and Other Matters (also known as the London Convention) and the U.S. Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act (also known as MDRPRA). The main purpose of the the first law, however, seems to focus on the control of dumping plastics into the oceans, not the removal of the current plastics build-up.
The MDRPRA, on the other hand, "was established to identify the origin, location, and impacts of marine debris ... [and] ... covers removal of marine debris within the U.W. EEZ*" (Dautel, 193).

Though combining the London Convention and the MDRPRA would allow for a solution better than the one we currently have, the best way to really start cleaning up the debris would be the new treaty that would span all the nations dumping plastic trash. This would actually be all nations as there has been plastic found with Russian, Korean, and even Indian writing (Dautel, 181)







*The EEZ is the area of ocean that extends from the U.S. by 200 nautical miles (just over 230 miles) and over which the U.S. has total economic control. It's similar to being an extension of the country. The areas highlighted around the country borders show where the U.S. EEZ are.

(NOAA, U.S. Exclusive Economic Zones)