Leggo my Lego

We've all seen the movie scenes where a ship is being tossed around in a violent storm like a kid's toy.

In February, 1997, there was a scene where a ship full of kids' toys was tossed around by a rogue wave in a violent storm, but no cameras were around rolling at the time, but the massive cargo ship known as the Tokio Express lost 62 shipping containers off her deck. One of those containers contained five million Lego pieces. 

And ever since, people around Cornwall, England's southwestern peninsula, have been beachcombing for Lego. Ironically enough, the plastic pieces lost in the storm were ocean-themed, so for almost 26 years now, people have come back from the beach with more plastic toys than they came with - octopuses (octopi?), tiny scuba gear, toy whales and anything you can imagine are all there, free for the taking, and of course, they carry the message about plastic pollution of our waters.

The whole awful thing is still known to toymakers and toy lovers as the Great Lego Spill, and its regarded as the worst toy-related environmental disaster of all time.

Also lost to the storm that day were 10,000 disposable lighters, packages of Superglue, and others. The great ship was on the way to New York, sailing out of Rotterdam.

Tracey Williams is a Cornwall resident, environmental activist, and beachcomber. She maintains the Lego Lost At Sea Facebook page and has written a book called "Adrift: The Curious Tale of Lego Lost at Sea." 

Over three million of the tiny plastic pieces were light enough to float, and have bobbed their way to all of the 40 beaches in Cornwall. "What we're finding now are the pieces that sank as well as the pieces that floated," Williams tells Live Science. "It's providing us with an insight into what happens to plastic in the ocean, how far it drifts — both on the surface of the ocean but also along the seabed — and what happens to it as it breaks down." 

The world's oceans and waterways are remarkably forgiving, considering the way we treat them as dumping grounds.