Pacific garbage patch is far larger than feared: study

The vast dump of plastic waste swirling in the Pacific ocean is now bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined — far larger than previously feared — and is growing rapidly, a study published on Thursday warned. Researchers based in the Netherlands used a fleet of boats and aircraft to scan the immense accumulation of bottles, containers, fishing nets and microparticles known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and found an astonishing build-up of plastic waste. “We found about 80,000 tonnes of buoyant plastic currently in the GPGP,” said Laurent Lebreton, lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports. They found that the dump now contains around 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, posing a dual threat to marine life.