Plastics don't break down for thousands of years and it is estimated that there are already millions of items of plastic waste in the oceans. Tumble dryers may also be a source, particularly if they have a vent to the open air. They have hit the headlines over recent years, as improper disposal has resulted in tonnes of waste making its way into the ocean.Įach year, tonnes of plastic waste fails to get recycled and dealt with correctly, which can mean they end up in marine ecosystems.Īlthough it's unclear exactly how they end up in the water, microplastics may enter through simple everyday wear and tear of clothing and carpets. "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," Lebreton said.Microplastics are plastic particles measuring less than five millimetres (0.2 inches). It's feared the plastic could endure decades, centuries or even longer in the ocean if left alone. With plastic only coming into the environmental picture in the 1950s, there's really no way of knowing how long it will linger in the ocean. "Monitoring is not a goal in itself, but a means to show the scale of the problem, and start to try and solve it," Corradi added. "We're not talking about actually spotting floating litter items, but instead to identify a distinct spectral signature of plastic picked up from orbit" the ESA's Paolo Corradi told. Scientists at the European Space Agency are working on technology to allow them to not only identify the accumulation of marine trash, but also use measurements to provide real data on the seriousness of the issue. "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." "It's a ticking time bomb of larger material," Dubois said. As time goes on, the garbage will begin to break down into tiny pieces. The faster they can be conducted, the larger the parcels of trash are. Joost Dubois, a spokesman with OCF, said there's a sense of urgency with these cleanups. (The Ocean Cleanup Foundation)Īnd the longer they wait, the more of an enemy time becomes. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest of the five, according to Lebreton.Īn illustration shows the sheer size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch adrift between California and Hawaii. In addition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, there are four other known trash collections adrift in the ocean. It took the efforts of an international team of OCF scientists, half a dozen universities and an aerial sensor company three years to accurately map out the patch's sheer size and density. “We used to think most of the debris consists of small fragments, but this new analysis shines a new light on the scope of the debris." Julia Reisser, also of the OCF, said in a press release. "We were surprised by the amount of large plastic objects we encountered,” Dr. (MORE: Infamous USS Juneau Sunken During World War II Discovered in the South Pacific) These new numbers are up to 16 times higher than what previous estimates anticipated, and it's rapidly getting worse. Again, a visual? That's equal to 500 jumbo jets. The monstrous patch consists of 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and weighs a whopping 88,000 tons. The OCF is a non-profit organization that led the charge behind research cited in the recently published study. Want a visual? That's twice the size of Texas.Īn early 1990s discovery, the cluster's trash is an accumulation from countries around the Pacific Rim, including North and South America, study lead author Laurent Lebreton told USA Today.Īn oceanographer with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, Lebreton said winds and intersection ocean currents drive all that trash into one location. In a new study published Thursday, the drifting island of waste has been found to have grown to more than 600,000 square miles. Cue the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: a colossal hunk of floating trash found near the midpoint between California and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. There's a common saying that "Everything's Bigger in Texas!", but hardly anyone ever mentions the size of the Lone Star State in relation to other massive objects.
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