The Great Pacific Garbage Patch sounds just as scary as it is. The mass of plastic and other debris has taken up a very large space in the Pacific Ocean right in between Hawaii and California. How big are we talking? More than 600,000 square miles. To put that into perspective, its twice the size of Texas.
According to Laurent Lebreton of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, winds and ocean currents drag the garbage to that spot. It contains about 1.8-trillion pieces of plastic and weighs 88,000 tons or 500 jumbo jets. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only plastic mass in the ocean. Laurent says that the Great Pacific Grabage Patch is the largest of five trash collections in the oceans.
So what can be done about it? Spokesman of Ocean Cleanup Foundation, Joost Dubois says its time to start cleaning up. "It's a ticking time bomb of larger material," Joost says. "We've got to get it before it breaks down into a size that's too small to collect and also dangerous for marine life." Scientists along with the European Space Agency are working to take photos of the ocean garbage patches from space. Laurent says, "How long plastic may remain in the ocean is a big unknown, but unless we begin to remove it, some would say it may remain there forever."
Source: USA Today