Buzz
February 13, 2022, commemorated a strange milestone in ocean pollution history. On that day in 1997, a massive wave dislodged 4.8 million LEGO pieces into the sea, 20 miles from Cornwall, UK. Even now, 25 years later, these small plastic toys continue to appear on the beaches of England's southwestern coast.
As reported by Smithsonian, the Great LEGO Spill is regarded as the most severe toy-related environmental disaster. The incident happened when the cargo ship Tokio Express, en route from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to New York, was struck by a 28-foot wave. This caused 62 shipping containers to fall overboard, releasing items such as superglue and disposable lighters into the ocean. Among the lost cargo was a container filled with LEGO sets, which, ironically, were mostly ocean-themed. This detail has captured significant attention over the past 25 years.
To this day, beachgoers still discover tiny flippers, spears, and octopuses washed ashore. While most LEGO findings have been focused in Cornwall, oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer suggests that the pieces could have traveled up to 62,000 miles across global waters. Approximately 3.2 million of the lost LEGOs are buoyant, leaving the remaining 1.6 million likely settled on the ocean floor. These pieces will remain there for centuries; a 2020 study estimates it will take 1300 years for the LEGOs to fully decompose.
The 1997 incident isn't the only event of its nature. For decades, Garfield phones have been found on French beaches, with investigators linking them to a shipping container lost at sea in the 1980s. These occurrences highlight how ocean pollution, particularly plastic waste, persists far longer than we might expect.
