Whether the patch's size is a result of hyperbole or extreme disregard for the environment, the great Pacific garbage patch has shrunk to 1% of what it was! Despite an increase in plastic usage...
"...the oceanography professor says the data suggest that plastic contamination hasn't increased dramatically -- or perhaps not at all -- in recent decades, despite greater use of plastic." Yeah! One win for the recycle, reduce, reuse motto. Oh wait.
"The Algalita Marine Research Foudation in California, founded by sea captain Charles Moore, first spotlighted the ocean pollution. After a 1999 expedition, it reported a garbage patch of mostly plastic that could be the size of Texas, Executive Director Marieta Francis says."
Although the OSU professor interviewed leans toward the patches size being exaggerated, the plastic at this point could be so water logged that it sank and was buried in sand elsewhere. Or perhaps the currents have changed so that the patch is more dispersed. This theory is more compatible with the amount of trash that washes up on beaches during a storm.
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