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Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Garbology, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hidden Costs of Waste
Consumerism vs. Conservation
The Power of Individuals
Money and Politics
Summary
Analysis
Mary Crowley was a teacher turned sea captain who sailed the North Pacific in a big ship called the Kaisei (Japanese for “ocean planet”). Over nearly 40 years of sailing, she was dismayed to see the amount of trash increasing in the Pacific waters, both visible trash on the surface and even more dangerous trash lurking below.
Plastic is a major problem for ocean life. In one study, scientists found that nearly one in ten fish had plastic in its digestive tract (because the plastic was small and resembled plankton, which fish eat). Crowley and her nonprofit, Project Kaisei, have been studying just how bad the plastic problem is for oceans, particularly around the so-called Pacific Garbage Patch, which is one of the most visible signs of ocean pollution.
This section helps emphasize why the “plasticization” that began in the 1960s has such important consequences for today. Like the Puente Hills landfill, the Pacific Garbage Patch is important, not just for its own environmental impact, but because it’s one of very few places where the scale of the current garbage crisis is clearly visible.
Themes
Crowley’s nonprofit was unique in that it focused on finding ways to extract plastic from the ocean, something many experts agree is impossible—that even if the technology existed, it would likely be too expensive or do too much unintended harm to ocean life. But Crowley wasn’t someone who gave up easily.
This section shows the potential value of ignoring conventional wisdom. Trying something new can be particularly effective for someone like Crowley, who is not a garbage professional in the traditional sense, but who brings a lot of valuable life experience.
Themes
Understanding landfills is only the first step to solving America’s trash problem. After all, lots of trash escapes or is dumped illegally, and it must be accounted for too. Often, the end destination for all this trash is the ocean. About half the plastic that makes it to the ocean floats, and this means it travels around the world on ocean currents. Because trash is trapped in these currents, they have become essentially the largest garbage dump in the world.
The state of the oceans helps demonstrate the consequences of the garbage crisis. Water is often associated with cleanliness or purity, which makes it all the more shocking that oceans have effectively become a garbage dump.
Themes
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In 1997, the ocean researcher and sailor Charles Moore decided to do something against conventional sailing wisdom. Typically, sailors avoid “the doldrums,” which are low-wind areas caused by ocean currents that leave sailing vessels stranded. But with fuel engines to compensate for the lack of wind, Moore sailed right into the doldrums.
Moore’s dedication to challenging conventional wisdom mirrors Crowley’s desire to do the same. Both of them searched for a revolution in the garbage crisis, not simply an evolution, like Steiner in Chapter 4.
Themes
Moore wrote about his shocking experience in the doldrums for a natural history journal, describing how the place was so full of plastic debris that he struggled to find a clear spot as far as the eye could see. Moore’s article helped bring the plastic garbage patch in the Pacific to the public eye.
Moore’s article shows the value of spreading knowledge. It continues the theme that people are more willing to address the garbage crisis when they can directly see the consequences of all the waste they are producing.
Themes
In her early 60s in 2011, Crowley continued to devote her time and passion to ocean research. As a longtime sailor and surfer, Crowley was disturbed by the increasing amounts of garbage she saw in the ocean, and so she teamed up with some similarly minded friends to found Project Kaisei.
Crowley is motivated in her activism because her experience sailing has directly shown her the consequences of plastics in the oceans. The implication is that if more people could see the plastic in the oceans directly, they might get involved, too.
Themes
Part of Crowley’s project involved hiring an engineer to come up with new ways to capture plastic from the ocean. Her expert engineer faced many of the problems that had stalled other experts, particularly when it came to making plastic extraction cost-efficient. At last, however, they came up with a passive, ramp-like contraption that could be suspended in water and capture plastic with minimal cost.
Despite Crowley’s opposition to the status quo, she doesn’t entirely throw out traditional expertise. The real challenge for her is to use traditional knowledge about engineering and the environment, but in an unconventional way that others may have overlooked or dismissed.
Themes
Though tests and pilot programs of Crowley’s contraption were successful, it would still need significantly larger-scale support to work, and it didn’t do anything to address the fundamental problem of where all the plastic in the ocean was coming from. Crowley hoped that even if her contraption wasn’t the solution, it might still help draw attention to the issue of ocean plastic and get more people involved in finding solutions.
Humes ends the chapter by suggesting that Crowley’s ideas could have real potential if given more investment, while also suggesting that the solution might not necessarily come from Crowley herself but from someone like her. After all, George Waring’s ideas about how to improve sanitation in New York were considered unusual until he was given the resources to prove that it could work.
Themes
