Citizen of the Trash Isles

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a trash vortex into which tons of plastic and other waste has gathered. We’re not talking about a dumpster worth of trash — the patch is as large as a decent size country: France.

Some enterprising activists figured out that the France-size mound of trash could actually qualify as a country, under the United Nations’ rules. So they teamed up with environmental charity Plastic Oceans Foundation, and filed an application to the UN to become the 196th country in the world. The best part is that the first citizen is, wait for it, Al Gore.

Today, I signed a petition asking the United Nations Secretary-General to recognize the Trash Isles as a sovereign nation. The real goal of course is not to colonize the garbage patch and raise an army, but rather to raise awareness about the issue and to raise funds to clean it up. In other words, it’s a country that ultimately doesn’t want to exist.