Washed Out Plastics Retrieved From Our World's Oceans Being Used to Build Vacum Cleaners
December 31, 2010 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis 
Electrolux Vac From The Sea - Mediterranean Edition.
Even on the most basic level, plastics have become an essential part of people’s lives - needed to make everything from combs to laptop computers.
What’s also true is that most things made of plastic are petroleum-based, not biodegradable, and finding their way into our oceans.
Kimberly Amaral, a naturalist at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Cape Cod Bay, says that, “When plastic objects get into main sewers (either by being flushed down the toilet, or carried by rain into street drains), then those objects can float out to sea.
“A more direct route is boaters dumping their trash right into the sea. In the past, this has been the main cause of plastics in the ocean.”
The 5 Gyres Institute, a non-profit collaborative of marine scientists explains that, “Large systems of currents, coupled with wind and the earth’s rotation, create gyres that are massive, slow rotating whirlpools in which plastic trash accumulates.”
Electrolux Vac From The Sea - Pacific Edition.
The North Pacific Gyre is the most heavily researched for plastic pollution, and spans an area roughly twice the size of the United States. The pollution is having a devastating effect on wildlife, and posing great risk to people’s health.
5 Gyre has found that whales, sea turtles, and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies.
When marine animals consume plastic trash, presumably mistaking it for food, this can lead to internal blockages, dehydration, starvation, and potentially death. Also of great concern is the potential impact on human health from toxic chemicals entering the marine food chain from plastics.
Most of the research on plastic trash circulating in oceanic gyres has focused on the North Pacific, but the pollution exists in varying extents in all of the five major oceanic gyres around the world, according to 5 Gyre.
In the “Vac From The Sea” public awareness campaign created to bring attention to the problem, Electrolux has teamed up with conservation groups to create five functional display vacuums made from plastics retrieved from the world’s oceans.
Each vacuum cleaner corresponds to the particular ocean body where the plastics were retrieved to make it. The vacuums - which will go on tour - represent the pollution found in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Baltic Sea.