A rotating 'garbage island' spreads over 1.6 million sq km in the Pacific with 50 kilograms of plastic per square kilometre

A floating and rotating 'garbage island' of an estimated area of 1.6 million square kilometres lies between Hawaii and California, according to a scientific estimate published in 2018. The area of the island is said to be larger than Para and nearly three times the size of metropolitan France. What exists here is a plastic world consisting of nets, ropes, buoys, containers, fragments and a massive amount of microplastics.The garbage islandAccording to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the debris is scattered across a vast stretch of the surface and the top of the water column in concentrations that differ based upon lookout points.While called an island, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not a continent made up of waste. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the debris is scattered across a vast stretch of the surface and the top of the water column in concentrations that differ based upon lookout points. Thus, a vessel may traverse part of this region and find little visible debris. Many items are small fragments, dispersed among waves and organisms, and the edges of the patch shift with currents and winds.The most cite...