Video: Giant Floating Island of Plastic is Growing Fast, Now Twice the Size of Texas
OutdoorHub Reporters 03.23.18
The great Pacific garbage patch, which can be found floating between California and Hawaii, is now said to be twice the size of Texas – and it’s only getting worse. . .
Just recently, we watched a scuba diver swim through one of these garbage heaps, and the video was a real eye-opener. Now, after viewing the video below, we’ve found out more about the “great pacific garbage patch,” and we highly suggest you prepare yourselves before hearing these numbers:
The great Pacific garbage patch, which is made up of mostly 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic debris, now weighs over 80,000 tons and takes up roughly 617,000 square miles – that’s insane!
If the thought of an island made of trash floating in the ocean makes your skin crawl – and it should – there is reason to remain optimistic.
Environmental researchers with Ocean Cleanup are now working to come up with ways to remove this grotesque garbage from our ocean, including large nets that are specially made to catch tiny plastic particles. These tiny particles (known as microplastics) sound harmless, yet they arguably pose the largest threat to marine life.
