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Quantify the Problem
July 07, 2009 | 07:25 PM

I did a few calculations. I made a few assumptions. Assumption 1 is that the Pacific Garbage Patch is the area of Texas and 10 feet deep. Assumption 2 is that it is roughly 1/2 the density of the average landfill. Assumption 3 is that we could have enough ships to support a ground crew for hauling the garbage to a landfill.

The size of the problem is on the order of a metropolitan county landfill system. I chose Orange County Landfill as my model of comparison. In my model, the limiting factor was the ability of the landfill(s) to accept garbage.

To clean up the Pacific Garbage Patch would take 20-25 yrs assuming the a landfill system the size of Orange County Landfill operating at the rate it has operated for 2000-2005. Once again, this assumes there is a fleet of garbage collecting ships that can deliver garbage at the rate the landfills can process.

Now that the problem has been quantified, please provide adjustments to the quanification. We can also now talk intelligently about how to solve the problem.

Dave