Pacific garbage patch may be 16 times bigger than thought

Author: Helen Thompson / Source: Science News for Students

We’re going to need a bigger trash can.

There is a pooling of plastic waste that floats in the ocean between California and Hawaii.

It’s known as the “great Pacific garbage patch.” This garbage patch spreads over 1.6 million square kilometers (600,000 square miles), a new study finds. And it contains at least 79,000 tons of material. That’s the equivalent to the mass of more than 6,500 school buses. The new numbers mean the hoard is four to 16 times as massive as past estimates had suggested.

Its name might imply a huge floating island of junk. This garbage patch is something else. It’s an area of the ocean where pieces of plastic can be found in high concentration. About 1.8 trillion plastic pieces make up the great Pacific garbage patch, scientists estimate. About 94 percent of the pieces are microplastics. These are particles smaller than half a centimeter (0.2 inch). Because they are so tiny, they make up only 8 percent of the overall mass. Large pieces, 5 to 50 centimeters (2 to 20 inches), account…

Click here to read more

The post Pacific garbage patch may be 16 times bigger than thought appeared first on FeedBox.