Have you seen the animated movie Wall-E? One of the remaining robots on the planet is assigned the task of collecting, crushing and stacking mountains of garbage. It's soon evident that what appear to be tall buildings are really stacks upon stacks of compacted blocks of refuse.

While the premise of the movie is interesting and at times humorous—as when the robot, who has his own collection of favorite finds, discards a diamond ring and keeps the ring box—the movie is also poignant. And it rings true, as more and more our planet is literally swimming in trash.

It's by now well known that plastic garbage has accumulated in an area in the ocean larger than the size of Texas-I've seen reports that it's up to three times the size, in fact. Just last week I read a newspaper report that another massive swirl of trash was discovered not far from the stunningly beautiful island of Bermuda.