Kamilo Beach

Charles Moore

"This plastic goes down a foot deep. At one time these were toothbrushes, pens, cigarette lighters, plastic bottles, plastic caps, but now they're plastic fragments and pre-production plastic pellets, together forming a new kind of sand: plastic sand here on the beaches of Hawaii." (2007)

Kamilo's Location

This beach is located on the southeast coast of Hawaii.

Natives gathering wood

Natives would to travel to this beach to gather wood that drifted from the Pacific Ocean, which would then be crafted into canoes.

Microplastics

"Here what were seeing is what all plastic trash turns into as it floats for hundreds of years in the ocean. Plastic fragments" Charles Moore has said.

Miscellaneous Plastics

The beach is now littered with miscellaneous plastics, ranging from plastic bottles and caps to pens and toothbrushes.

Cleaning up Kamilo

Natives, like Noni Sanford, try to help it up, but it will take more than a handful of people to clean up these beaches.