A giant island of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean holds as much as 16 times more debris than was previously thought, posing a significant threat to the food chain, scientists said on Thursday. The research using aerial images revealed the mass of trash is much denser – as much as 16 times more dense – than had previously been estimated, the study said. The new research estimates the accumulation is 79,000 metric tons – 1.8 trillion pieces – of plastic. The research studied a patch of more than 600,000 square miles (1.6 million square kilometers) of the ocean. A petroleum-based product, plastic disintegrates slowly, and one item pulled from the patch was about 40 years old, they said.

Source: Dhaka Tribune March 22, 2018 21:33 UTC