World’s largest ocean rubbish dump is twice size of Texas

THE world’s largest collection of ocean garbage is growing.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of plastic, floating trash located halfway between Hawaii and California, has grown to more than 600,000 square miles, a study published yesterday finds. That’s twice the size of Texas.

Winds and converging ocean currents funnel the garbage into a central location, said study lead author Laurent Lebreton of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a non-profit organization that spearheaded the research.

First discovered in the 1990s, Mr Lebreton said the trash in the patch comes from countries around the Pacific Rim, nations in Asia and North and South America.

The patch is made up of 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and weighs 88,000 tons — the equivalent of 500 jumbo jets. The new figures are as much as 16 times higher than previous estimates. The research, the most complete study undertaken of the patch, was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

“We were surprised by the amount of large plastic objects we encountered,” said Julia Reisser, also of the foundation. “We used to think most of the debris consists of small fragments, but this analysis shines a new light on the scope of the debris.”

The study was based on a three-year mapping effort conducted by an international team of scientists affiliated with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, six universities and an aerial sensor company.

Sadly, the Pacific patch is not alone. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest of five known such ocean sites, Mr Lebreton said. Scientists are working with the European Space Agency to take photos of the garbage patches from space.

With no governments stepping up to clean up the sites, which are in international waters, it’s up to privately funded groups such as Ocean Cleanup Foundation to take the lead. And there’s urgency, said Joost Dubois, a spokesman with the foundation.

“It’s a ticking time bomb of larger material,” Mr Dubois said. “We’ve got to get it before it breaks down into a size that’s too small to collect and dangerous for marine life.”

Since plastic has been around only since the 1950s, there’s no way of knowing how long it will last in the ocean. “How long plastic may remain in the ocean is a big unknown, but some would say it may remain there forever,” Mr Lebreton said.

Humans have produced 18.2 trillion pounds of plastics since large-scale production began in the 1950s and we’ve put most of it in the trash. That weight is equivalent to one billion elephants. Nearly 80 per cent of that plastic is now in landfills or the natural environment, according to a study published on Wednesday. Scientists say that by 2050, another 26.5 trillion pounds will be produced worldwide.

“Most plastics don’t biodegrade in any meaningful sense, so the plastic waste humans have generated could be with us for thousands of years,” said Jenna Jambeck, study co-author and associate professor of engineering at the University of Georgia.

A separate study by the British research firm Eunomia said there may be as much as 70 million tons of plastic waste on the sea floor alone. The study is the first global analysis of the production, use and fate of all plastics made. It found about 9% of plastic has been recycled, with 12% incinerated.

Researchers said plastic is also one of the most produced man-made materials, behind steel and concrete. The difference is “roughly half of all the steel we make will have decades of use,” said study lead author Roland Geyer of the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Half of all plastics be waste after four or fewer years of use.”

China, the US and Europe produce the most plastic, Mr Geyer said. “The best recyclers are Europe and China but not the US.”

This article first appeared in our sister title USA Today.