According to the study, the patch takes up 1.6 million square kilometers (618,000 square miles), an area about three times the size of France. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous area of floating garbage halfway between California and Hawaii, is already recognized as the largest accumulation zone of ocean plastic on Earth. Previous attempts to measure the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have mostly been done by single boats with trawls. The debate about the global use of plastics is currently “largely focused on aspects of consumer plastic ― plastic bags and plastic straws and that kind of stuff,” Leonard added. “People expect [the garbage patch] to be like an island, or islands, of trash floating in this big area,” said Dubois.

Source: Huffington Post March 22, 2018 19:17 UTC