A new video captures the tremendous task of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Videos by Outdoors
An organization called The Ocean Cleanup says the largest garbage patch in the world is the one that sits between Hawaii and the mainland U.S. In a recent social media post from the organization, you can see the massive net they use to pull up 11,353 KGs of trash. The majority of it is large pieces of disposed plastics. In all, that’s more than 25,000 pounds of trash.
Ocean currents helped form the area of trash in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas. A large part of the debris also includes lost or abandoned pieces of fishing gear.
The Ocean Cleanup says they’re working to clean up the large plastics in the ocean before they break down into more dangerous microplastics. The organization aims to remove 90% of the floating plastic in the ocean by 2040.
