Sea of Plastic

From: KQED
Series: QUEST
Length: 04:54

"The toilet bowl that never flushes" Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Sea of Plastic
From: KQED

Seaofplastic_small Whenever you order your double latte to-go at the corner coffeeshop, the empty cup and lid may end up in a giant pit of plastic ocean litter off the coast of California. Some cities and counties are so concerned about the garbage in the so-called North Pacific Gyre (JIE-er) that they've passed ordinances to try to limit the amount of plastic in our lives. Reporter David Gorn visits a Northern California bird hospital where dead animals are often found to have stomachs full of plastic.

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Piece Description

Whenever you order your double latte to-go at the corner coffeeshop, the empty cup and lid may end up in a giant pit of plastic ocean litter off the coast of California. Some cities and counties are so concerned about the garbage in the so-called North Pacific Gyre (JIE-er) that they've passed ordinances to try to limit the amount of plastic in our lives. Reporter David Gorn visits a Northern California bird hospital where dead animals are often found to have stomachs full of plastic.

Broadcast History

aired twice morning of 9.22.08 on KQED and KQEI.

Transcript

Gorn/Sea of plastic

AMBI 1 Necropsy lab echoey quiet (don?t need to to establish)

Hannah Nevins is a researcher at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. Today she?s in Santa Cruz, working the necropsy lab.

AMBI 2 freezer door handle sound
AMBI 3 inside the freezer hum

She steps into a huge walk-in freezer to pluck a frozen seabird off the shelves. And then hefts the large carcass onto an examining table.

AMBI 3 OUT, AMBI 1 back up
AMBI 4 Ka-chunk

And starts to tear away the rigid plastic wrapping.

ACT 1
Last year we got about 200 samples (good ripping sound) those all came from beachcombers beach survey program. (rip)

Nevins is checking the stomach contents of each of these birds, which are called fulmars and look similar to sea gulls, to see if she finds any plastic inside them. So far, she says, she's found an average of about 15 pieces of plastic in...
Read the full transcript

Timing and Cues

SUGGESTED HOST INTRO Whenever you order your double latte to go at the corner coffeeshop, the empty cup and lid may end up in a giant pit of plastic ocean litter floating off the coast of California. Some cities and counties are so concerned about the garbage in the so-called North Pacific Gyre (JIE-er) that they've passed ordinances to try to limit the amount of plastic in our lives. David Gorn reports.