What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!
The North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California is home to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest ocean garbage site in the world. The floating mass of plastic is twice the size of Texas, and growing, it consists mostly of small plastic particles suspended at, or just below, the surface, where fish and other animals mistake the particles for food. These plastic pieces outnumber sea life by a measure of 6 to 1. The floating garbage sites are impossible to fully clean up becasue unlike other types of trash, plastic does not biodegrade; instead, it photo-degrades with sunlight, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, but they never really disappear. These plastic pieces are eaten by marine life, wash up on beaches, or break down into microscopic plastic dust, attracting more debris.
In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 tons of plastic fragments, like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles, are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day.