What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

A swirling sea of plastic bags, bottles and other debris is growing in the North Pacific, and now another one has been found in the Atlantic. But how did they get there? And is there anything we can do to clean them up?

By Russell McLendon

Wed, Feb 24 2010 at 12:00 PM EST

Read more: OCEANS, PLASTICS, POLLUTION

Not all garbage ends up at the dump. A river, sewer or beach can't catch everything the rain washes away, either. In fact, Earth's largest landfill isn't on land at all.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretches for hundreds of miles across the North Pacific Ocean, forming a nebulous, floating junk yard on the high seas. It's the poster child for a worldwide problem: plastic that begins in human hands yet ends up in the ocean, often inside animals' stomachs or around their necks. This marine debris has sloshed into the public spotlight recently, thanks to growing media coverage as well as scientists and explorers who are increasingly visiting the North Pacific to see plastic pollution in action.

What's it made of?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has sometimes been described as a "trash island," but that's a misconception, says Holly Bamford, director of NOAA's Marine Debris Program. If only things were that simple.

"We could just go out there and scoop up an island," Bamford says. "If it was one big mass, it would make our jobs a whole lot easier."

Instead, it's like a galaxy of garbage, populated by billions of smaller trash islands that may be hidden underwater or spread out over many miles. That can make it maddeningly difficult to study — Bamford says we still don't know how big the garbage patch is, despite the oft-cited claim that it's as big as Texas.

"You see these quotes that it's the size of Texas, then it's the size of France, and I even heard one description of it as a continent," she says. "That alone should lend some concern that there's not consistency in our idea of its size. It's these hot spots, not one big mass. Maybe if you added them all up it's the size of Texas, but we still don't know. It could be bigger than Texas."

While there's still much we don't understand about the garbage patch, we do know that most of it's made of plastic. And that's where the problems begin.

Unlike most other trash, plastic isn't biodegradable — i.e., the microbes that break down other substances don't recognize plastic as food, leaving it to float there forever. Sunlight does eventually "photodegrade" the bonds in plastic polymers, reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces, but that just makes matters worse. The plastic still never goes away; it just becomes microscopic and may be eaten by tiny marine organisms, entering the food chain.

About 80 percent of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land, much of which is plastic bags, bottles and various other consumer products. Free-floating fishing nets make up another 10 percent of all marine litter, or about 705,000 tons, according to U.N. estimates. The rest comes largely from recreational boaters, offshore oil rigs and large cargo ships, which drop about 10,000 steel containers into the sea each year full of things like hockey pads, computer monitors, resin pellets and LEGO octopuses. But despite such diversity — and plenty of metal, glass and rubber in the garbage patch — the majority of material is still plastic, since most everything else sinks or biodegrades before it gets there.

How is it formed?

Earth has five or six major oceanic gyres — huge spirals of seawater formed by colliding currents — but one of the largest is the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, filling most of the space between Japan and California. The upper part of this gyre, a few hundred miles north of Hawaii, is where warm water from the South Pacific crashes into cooler water from the north. Known as the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, this is also where the trash collects.

Bamford refers to the convergence zone as a "trash superhighway" because it ferries plastic rubbish along an elongated, east-west corridor that links two spinning eddies known as the Eastern Garbage Patch and the Western Garbage Patch. The whole system collectively makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

It may take several years for debris to reach this area, depending where it's coming from. Plastic can be washed from the interiors of continents to the sea via sewers, streams and rivers, or it might simply wash away from the coast. Either way, it can be a six- or seven-year journey before it's spinning around in the garbage patch. On the other hand, fishing nets and steel containers are often dropped right in with the rest of the trash.

What's the problem?

Marine debris threatens environmental health in several ways. Here are the main ones:

• Entanglement: The growing number of abandoned plastic fishing nets is one of the greatest dangers from marine debris, Bamford says. The nets entangle seals, sea turtles and other animals in a phenomenon known as "ghost fishing," often drowning them. With more fishermen from developing countries now using plastic for its low cost and high durability, many abandoned nets can continue fishing on their own for months or years. One of the most controversial types are bottom-set gill nets, which are buoyed by floats and anchored to the sea floor, sometimes stretching for thousands of feet.

Virtually any marine life can be endangered by plastic, but sea turtles seem especially susceptible. In addition to being entangled by fishing nets, they often swallow plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish, their main prey. They can also get caught up in a variety of other objects, such as this snapping turtle that grew up constricted by a plastic ring around its body.

• Small surface debris: Plastic resin pellets are another common piece of marine debris; the tiny, industrial-use granules are shipped in bulk around the world, melted down at manufacturing sites and remolded into commercial plastics. Being so small and plentiful, they can easily get lost along the way, washing through the watershed with other plastics and into the sea. They tend to float there and eventually photodegrade, but that takes many years. In the meantime, they wreak havoc with sea birds such as the short-tailed albatross.

Albatross parents leave their chicks on land in Pacific islands to go scour the ocean surface for food, namely protein-rich fish eggs. These are small dots bobbing just below the surface, and look unfortunately similar to resin pellets. Well-meaning albatrosses scoop up these pellets — along with other floating trash such as cigarette lighters — and return to feed the indigestible plastic to their chicks, which eventually die of starvation or ruptured organs. Decaying albatross chicks are frequently found with stomachs full of plastic debris (see photo above).

• Photodegradation: As sunlight breaks down floating debris, the surface water thickens with suspended plastic bits. This is bad for a couple of reasons. First, Bamford says, is plastic's "inherent toxicity": It often contains colorants and chemicals like bisphenol-A, which studies have linked to various environmental and health problems, and these toxins may leach out into the seawater. Plastic has also been shown to absorb pre-existing organic pollutants like PCBs from the surrounding seawater, which can enter the food chain — along with BPA and other inherent toxins — if the plastic bits are accidentally ingested by marine life.

What can we do?

The discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Capt. Charles Moore, once said a cleanup effort "would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went."

"He makes a really good point there," Bamford says. "It's very difficult."

Still, NOAA conducts flyovers to study the garbage patch, and two research teams sailed there last summer to collect debris and water samples. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography held a press conference after returning from their three-week voyage in August, describing the amount of trash as "shocking." They found large and small items as well as a vast underwater haze of photodegraded plastic flakes, and are now analyzing their samples to figure out how the plastic interacts with its marine environment.

Meanwhile, the international Project Kaisei team also spent last August in the garbage patch, studying its contents in hopes of eventually recycling them or turning them into fuel. And "adventure ecologist" David de Rothschild is pushing on with plans to sail around the garbage patch in a boat made entirely of recycled plastics, taking a test voyage earlier this month after a long delay due to construction trouble. Called "Plastiki," the ship is intended to highlight the connection between plastic trash on land and plastic trash at sea — an increasingly evident link, thanks not only to media attention for the Pacific patch, but also the recent discovery of a similar patch in the North Atlantic.

Ultimately, more plastic recycling and wider use of biodegradable materials is the best hope for controlling these garbage patches, Bamford says, but that's an uphill battle.

"We need to turn off the taps at the source. We need to educate people on the proper disposal of things that do not break up, like plastics," she says. "Opportunities for recycling have to increase, but, you know, some people buy three bottles of water a day. As a society, we have to get better at reusing what we buy."

Editor's note: This article has been updated from its original version, which first appeared June 9, 2009.

Photos courtesy NOAA

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Comments(85)

Posted By Jdawg619 - Fri, Mar 19 2010 at 12:47 PM EST

It's probably too late

I would think that enviromentalists would try to pass some kind of law that would hold manufacturers of these plastics accountable for the debris consuming a vast area of our planets seas. I think that if a law were devised that could make the manufacturers pay for clean up efforts to minimize the overall build up, that we could see progress in at least some of this within the next 10-20 years.

Posted By vicky - Tue, Mar 16 2010 at 12:24 PM EST

Stop it!

Its really a nice post and i really like your thoughts. Its a responsibilities of every person in the world to stop this garbage into the water. I am also make a website regarding this. I have purchased domain name from a website for encourage peoples to stop this.
http://www.gibo.in

Posted By yo mama - Thu, Mar 11 2010 at 1:25 PM EST

TY!!!!

u care i dont at least somone does ty buddies

Posted By Meatspin - Tue, Mar 16 2010 at 11:49 AM EST

my teacher is a manbeardick

my teacher is a dick i hate her

Posted By Jeff Poster - Sun, Mar 07 2010 at 11:57 PM EST

StopLittering.com

check it out

Posted By Earth2100 - Sun, Mar 07 2010 at 9:42 AM EST

Do people really care about the planet?

I do what I can to recycle. I used to live in L.A. where you can put just about anything in the huge blue recycle bins that everyone got from the city. They are much bigger than the black trash cans and you could even recycle yard trimmings (anything plant) in the big green bins. Los Angeles made it very, very easy to recycle.
Most people are too lazy and apathetic to recycle unless it is made very easy for them.
Why do I say this? I now live in a midwestern state and the attitude.... More

Posted By Glenna Rice - Sat, Mar 06 2010 at 10:07 AM EST

What else is possible?

Blame, regret, anger, upset, frustration and disdain for people on the planet will not change this. It will only keep us spinning in the story. Having a gigantic plastic garbage dump in the ocean is not working for me..... so what is it going to take to change it? You have choice - you can maintain the consumption of life or you can be the celebration of living!
Recycling is essential but is that enough of a change for you? Ask a question... Ask The Earth, what does it require from.... More

Posted By BOB - Wed, Mar 03 2010 at 7:01 PM EST

sadness

how could we let this happen? we need to stop it from growing. humans disappoint me for letting this happen

Posted By jim - Fri, Feb 26 2010 at 10:07 AM EST

plastic garbage

very interesting article

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25163815/Body-Hair-Removal--How-To-Remove-Bo...

Posted By Tupparooo - Thu, Feb 25 2010 at 3:05 PM EST

Garbage...Waste

Earth matters? Really? Who are you kidding? I think you all should take a good look around! What do you see? Garbage, waste, is part of our lifecycle. Change? Very little will happen. It will get worse! More people on earth more garbage! Not just plastic! Everything we use ends up somewhere. We are not fooling mother nature...We are fooling ourselves! No one country is to blame. We are all same. Sure we can try to reduce our impact. Yes, we can make change. Will the end result matter? NO...Why?.... More

Posted By Mike - Mon, Mar 22 2010 at 12:52 AM EST

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

So what r u suggesting we do as a species? Continue as is until we don't have any options left?

Posted By Camy - Wed, Feb 24 2010 at 9:13 PM EST

Re: so...

Even if we stopped using plastic today, plastic would keep washing up on the beaches for more than 40 years. But I also think we should recycle more plastic,etc.

Posted By Clare - Thu, Feb 11 2010 at 7:07 PM EST

Vivid Images from Midway Atoll

The Papahanaumokuakea Marine Mounument is on the edge of the patch. And the effects are very apparent. See some vivid images captured during a trip to the monument made by Duke University. graduate students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PiNaJjAX8A

Posted By josh - Wed, Feb 03 2010 at 4:33 AM EST

so...

Is any one that saw this actually going to stop using plastic from this point forward? I didn't think so...so stop posting and pretending like you care.

Posted By --------------- - Fri, Mar 05 2010 at 2:05 AM EST

????!!!!!!!!!!

why r u all so retarded? useing less plastic will help!! RECYCLE!!!!!!RECYCLE!!!!!!!RECYCLE!!!!!! :-[ !!!!!!

Posted By Slplessinwatc - Tue, Feb 09 2010 at 9:22 PM EST

SO...

Until last night, when my best friend told me about this problem, I had no clue this even exisited. So will i stop completely using plastics? probably not but it has made me aware and willing to change my ways. I think everyone should rethink their habits.

Posted By bert - Wed, Feb 03 2010 at 3:48 PM EST

Re: so...

even if you don't abandon all plastic, you could still use less of it, or recycle what you do use so it doesn't wind up in the ocean. it's not all or nothing.

Posted By Nickelplate - Thu, Mar 04 2010 at 3:17 PM EST

RE: so...

Actually, in my house we have reduced our plastic usage by over 70% per month and we recycle 90% of what we use. You can recycle everything from milk jugs to wal-mart bags. We are not pretending to care, we DO care. It's just that our influence is limited.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Feb 03 2010 at 4:50 PM EST

Recycle All Goods

Everyone has the choice to recycle all houseold rubbish. Just choose the right bins to put stuff in.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Feb 03 2010 at 4:53 PM EST

Article

This is a very grave issue.Dumping garbage into oceans destroying the marine life. Is there any way to deal with it

Posted By wowifulio - Sat, Dec 05 2009 at 10:44 AM EST

wow

wow.seeing this really opens my eyes.our earth is worse than we think !!! i have never ever heard of the garbage patch and odds are most other people havent either. we need to let people know so they can help. kitkat has a piont using paper waste trees but it is a start. if a child can figured that out you would thi nk adults can too

Posted By kitkat - Fri, Dec 04 2009 at 3:10 PM EST

wow i cant believe my eyes

I cant believe humans can actually be this self centered! People could at least try.The Garbage Patch is rediculious. I know all beaches have garbage cans and most have a ben for every thing from nonrecyclable and recycable objects.I CANT BELIEVE WERE TO LAZY TO SAVE OUR EARTH!!!!

Posted By Teresa Coertzen - Mon, Feb 08 2010 at 1:05 PM EST

It got there VIA Rivers and the Current.

You see. The plastic and other rubbish we through away each day, get washed from the dumping sites, and flow down with the streams of water, and enter the rivers. Then the rivers empty their contents into the ocean, and the Current, takes it from there. The island (Or Continent) are formed by the currents, that keep on circulating the water there in the Pacific Ocean..

I am starting the rush! I Want to go there and start to take down the island (or Continent!!!) Anyone want to.... More

Posted By OK Now What? - Wed, Dec 02 2009 at 8:55 AM EST

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

Why don't we get back to making bottles out of glass?
No side effects from chemicals, totally biogrades.

Posted By Savana - Mon, Dec 07 2009 at 9:09 PM EST

What is the great pacific ocean garbage patch

glass biodegrades?....

Posted By Anonymous - Tue, Nov 24 2009 at 4:07 PM EST

My Imaginary Solution

I say, we should get rid of the trash at the dumps and streets first, by putting them all in a black hole. Then, collect all the trash in the ocean. Starting, now.
Need more jobs right? Overpoplution is bad enough. Less jobs opened. Well, getting paid to clean the oceans, I bet people wouldn't mind. At least it's saving our world. We just need a less ignorant goverment to notice how much more important this is then destroying other countries. Wish this could all be possible.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Dec 02 2009 at 10:41 AM EST

sad to see

This is so sad to see all this in the ocean. We definitely need to do something about. Why would people do this.

Posted By Karl - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 9:49 AM EST

plastic is not the biggest worry

I do not think that plastic is the biggest worry in the matter. Obviously, the involved-in great industrial countries - namely USA and Japan - did not tell us the whole truth; I bet that toxic chemical products are in that zone of the Pacific.

Regards,
http://www.quantshare.com

Posted By Anonymous - Mon, Nov 02 2009 at 11:45 AM EST

Protect environment

Its always good to learn tips like you share for blog posting. As I just started posting comments for blog and facing problem of lots of rejections. I think your suggestion would be helpful for me. I will let you know if its work for me too.
Thanks and keep post such a informative blogs.

Posted By Anonymous - Mon, Nov 02 2009 at 11:45 AM EST

Thata Hilarious..

Thanks very much for the post..

I think every individual of the work should work on recycling of the garbage

Posted By Library App - Thu, Oct 29 2009 at 7:34 AM EST

awesome

it is awesome mistake as made by humans even thrashing everything into the ocean and the expansion of this garbage patch is just mesmerizing.

Posted By Jenny - Mon, Nov 02 2009 at 5:37 PM EST

No mistake

You can not blame what had happened in the history. People didn't know about this before. But since we knew, it is our responsibility to protect our nature. It will cause us more money, but in long run it may save our lives.

Posted By Richard Turner - Fri, Nov 27 2009 at 10:26 AM EST

No mistake

humans knew about this beofre it happened. It was predicted long before the trash was there that the ocean currents met at those pioints and that things would gravitate to those areas of the oceans and still we didnt nothing. This is a global problem that needs commitment from every country on earth.

Posted By Meatspin - Tue, Mar 16 2010 at 11:45 AM EST

water in garbage

Enter your comments here hellllo i am researching about garbage in ocean my teacher is a fking dik she is fking sexist and i hate her she needs to fking get fired from school and die!!!!!

Posted By Mr LEED Trainer - Wed, Oct 21 2009 at 9:42 PM EST

Concerned

I am saddened at the way the environment has been abused. Being involved with LEED certification (everblueenergy.com), makes me feel I am one step closer to helping the environment. I believe with taking the time to reuse, recycle, save energy and build LEED certified buildings will slowing pull us away from stories of pollution.

Posted By Anonymous - Mon, Oct 19 2009 at 3:28 PM EST

Problem with Plastic

The main problem with plastic -- besides there being so much of it -- is that it doesn't biodegrade. No natural process can break it down. (Experts point out that the durability that makes plastic so useful to humans also makes it quite harmful to nature.) Instead, plastic photodegrades. A plastic cigarette lighter cast out to sea will fragment into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic without breaking into simpler compounds, which scientists estimate could take hundreds of years. The small.... More

Posted By Will - Wed, Feb 03 2010 at 6:34 PM EST

Problem with Plastic

Oh my gosh you really know what your talking about! I'm so glad you just repeated exactly what was in the video...

Posted By auctions - Fri, Oct 09 2009 at 1:50 AM EST

nice blog

nice post - I don't think it would necessarily happen that way. Interesting comments..

Posted By Greg - Sat, Sep 26 2009 at 6:18 PM EST

Uh Yeah

The Manufacturing Of Plastic Embeds Oil In Th Polymers To Bind The Atoms Together That Forms The Rubber & Plastic That Is Why It Isn't Broken Down By Nature, You Don't Drink Fuel For Breakfast Lunch Or Dinner. Consider A So Called Energy Crisis An Opportunity Instead Of A Plague On Lifestyles Or A Threat To Humanity? Whatever, Do What You Want, The Facts Are Facts.

Posted By MNN User - Wed, Dec 02 2009 at 10:42 AM EST

Absolutely disgustin

We are just exploiting this earth.. its been such a wonderful. thing to be living on this planet.. we are just destroying.. it..

Posted By Troy Clarke - Fri, Sep 25 2009 at 5:16 AM EST

We need to clean that one up...

...but how can it possibly be done?

Maybe we really need to consider unconventional ideas. How about, for example, high-yield and thus clean thermonuclear explosions (more than 98% of energy released coming from fusion)? About 15 explosions in the 50MT range should be sufficient to clean up the dense central part of that patch. Also, the results would help us assess our aging stockpile of nuclear weapons, which we might one day need to save our nation (China anyone?!)...

So yes,.... More

Posted By Richard Turner - Fri, Nov 27 2009 at 10:31 AM EST

We need to clean that one up?

You want to fire nuclear weapons into our oceans....??? I for one think that is a terrible idea. If you really want to do somthing then donate money to these guys. We need a workable solution and I think they might be able to find it. http://www.projectkaisei.org/documentary.html

Posted By Marjolein - Wed, Jan 27 2010 at 7:50 AM EST

This helps :-)

Thanks for sharing that link Richard. Its good to see that there is something done about it. And we don't have to wonder what we as one little person have to do, we can join forces for good causes like this.

Don't give up. There's no need to give up.. is the only message that inspires creative thinking and action. Though I agree on the no-nuke part.. that just might feel good to some because you feel angry and think the problem is blown away fast and out of sight that way. One problem.... More

Posted By Mark - Fri, Sep 18 2009 at 6:34 PM EST

The End of Earth

Humans should be sterilized..they are a cancer on everything beautiful. Earth was a jewel, an oasis of life surrounded by hundreds of light years of nothingness that took two billion years to form from the efforts of other responsible life forms, and this monstrous species arrives to inflict destruction and death on life itself. The human species is far too criminal and loathsome to live.

Posted By car1951 - Fri, Aug 28 2009 at 12:29 PM EST

Read it and weep

There comes a time the world is worth more than our easy life. Unless there is a proven need for plastic and a proven disposal method--then its time to outlaw its use. It does not matter if its just the United States--its a start.

Posted By Anonymous - Sat, Aug 08 2009 at 11:22 PM EST

Why?????????????????

Is there anyone out there that is doing anything to help?

Posted By kitkat - Sat, Dec 05 2009 at 9:30 AM EST

yeah were helping

People need to know about this. I learned about his during school and aur teacher took us to this website. When i told people they didnt have a clue.So mi friend and I are going to make flyers( yes its a waste of trees but atleast its a start ) and post them all over the place.

Posted By Richard Turner - Fri, Nov 27 2009 at 10:36 AM EST

YES there is

I have been looking for the answer to that exact question and I think these guys are doing the best they can but need all of our help.
http://www.projectkaisei.org/documentary.html

Posted By Theresa D - Tue, Aug 04 2009 at 10:21 PM EST

THE SILENT KILLER

I'm shocked that..for the most park, people know and don't care when plastics are disposed and not recycled. Usually done out of laziness and a lack of respect for our planet. It's the silent killer. The amount of waste collected in the "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch" has doubled since it was first discovered. Visiting New Zealand and Australia, which are very GREEN, I discovered that, as a country, we too can do what hey have done to help prevent further devastation to Mother.... More

Posted By Guy - Sun, Aug 02 2009 at 3:21 PM EST

COME ON PEOPLE!!!!

When did we go so far off track? This really upsets me, how can we take something as beautiful and irreplaceable as our Earth and systematically destroy every habitable piece of land and every corner of the oceans. Animal Activists need to move up a gear - Sea Shepeard has the right idea, more power to them!!
I like the idea of sending super tankers to pick up what they left behind, as the article stated, "would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went." This is where.... More

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What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

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