If you ever want to learn about something that’s a bit complicated or technical, a great place to start is in the children’s section. Children’s book authors usually do a brilliant job of conveying basic essentials on very complicated tops.  I spotted this book, Tracking Trash by Loree Griffin Burns, in the kids section of our library a few months ago.

Tracking Trash is about ocean currents and all the crap that’s floating in our oceans. Burns follows Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an amiable and respected oceanographer who has developed a second career as a trash tracker. In 1990, his mother told him about a curious happening: Nike sneakers kept washing up on Seattle beaches. That started Ebbesmeyer on his trash tracking journey. He eventually found the source of the sneakers (21 containers had been tossed from a cargo ship full of Nikes in a Pacific Ocean storm). From there, Ebbesmeyer began tracking all sorts of trash – from shoes to bath tubs toys to boxing gloves to Legos. In fact, he and his beachcomber friends worldwide have tracked an amazing amount of ocean trash from cargo ships. And, along with his scientist friends, he’s tracked plastic, nets and other debris. Much of what we learn in Tracking Trash is how ocean currents work, how stuff gets into the ocean and how scientists can predict where it will wash up. Boy, there is a lot of stuff — mainly plastic — in our oceans.

In fact, Chapter Four, The Garbage Patch, is pretty disheartening. We learn that there’s a huge floating garbage patch partway between California and Hawaii. It’s called the Eastern Garbage Patch and there’s so much debris that it’s impractical even to think we could go out there and clean it up. Ebbesmeyer says it would be like mowing the state of Texas twice. And, upon visiting the Hawaiian island of Tern, where researchers have collected and stored beach debris for 10 years, Ebbesmeyer says, “If you turned off the plastic switch somehow…you would still have plastic washing ashore here for thirty or forty years. That’s how much plastic is out there. I think in our family of creatures we are misbehaving badly.”

I found the info on ocean currents fascinating but was, of course, drawn to the plastic message. It makes me wish there was a ban on using plastic in nonessential products. I’ve switched many products but there still seems to be a lot of plastic coming into this house. There are biodegradable plastics now and, locally, a few restaurants use them (I know of Sea Casa and East Coast Bagel in Westlake Village, as well as Pizza Salad in Thousand Oaks – there are probably others too.) However, the main message in the “What You Can Do” section is the same as what most environmentalists say: REDUCE. Don’t first think of buying something, think of not buying something. Good point.

So, if you’re going to read Tracking Trash, or share it with your kids (could it possibly make them want fewer toys??), hit the library first. Though, yes, I’ve included an Amazon link below just in case you really want to own a copy.

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