The Size of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Over The United States

Map created by The Ocean CleanupThe map above shows the size and garbage density of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch relative to the United States. It was created by the The Ocean Cleanup.

Here’s a little more about it from their website:

What is it?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans.

It is located halfway between Hawaii and California.

But:

Due to seasonal and interannual variabilities of winds and currents, the GPGP’s location and shape are constantly changing. Only floating objects that are predominantly influenced by currents and less by winds were likely to remain within the patch.

How Big Is It?

The GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers (617,763 sq miles), an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.

How Much Plastic Is In It?

It is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year from rivers.

The mass of all the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) was estimated to be approximately 100,000 tonnes, which is 4-16 times more than previous calculations. This weight is also equivalent to more than 740 Boeing 777s.

A total of 1.8 trillion plastic pieces were estimated to be floating in the patch – a plastic count that is equivalent to 250 pieces of debris for every human in the world.

The center concentration levels contain the highest density, reaching 100s of kg/km² while decreasing down to 10 kg/km² in the outermost region.

These results prove that plastic pollution at sea, while densely distributed within the patch, is scattered and does not form a solid mass, thus demystifying the trash island concept.

What Types of Plastic Can You Find?

The vast majority of plastics retrieved were made of rigid or hard polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), or derelict fishing gear (nets and ropes particularly). Ranging in size from small fragments to larger objects and meter-sized fishing nets.

Size classes:

Plastic within the patch was categorized into four size classes:
– Microplastics (0.05 – 0.5 cm)
– Mesoplastics (0.5 – 5 cm)
– Macroplastics (5 – 50 cm)
– Megaplastics (anything above 50 cm)

When accounting for the total mass, 92% of the debris found in the patch consists of objects larger than 0.5 cm, and three-quarters of the total mass is made of macro- and mega plastic. However, in terms of object count, 94% of the total is represented by microplastics.