29 Most Toxic Places On Earth

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Source: https://scx1.b-cdn.net/

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also called the Pacific Trash Vortex or Plastic Island, is not an island but a massive collection of marine debris spanning from Japan to the West Coast of North America. This massive patch of accumulated plastic waste is comprised of the Western Garbage Patch situated near Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch located between Hawaii and California. The vast patch of bottles, bottle caps, fishing nets, wrappers, and trillions of plastic fragments covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, making it three times the size of France, and it’s still growing. The abandoned fishing gear, known as “ghost gear,” accounts for 46% of the area and is mostly responsible for ensnaring and killing fish, dolphins, sea turtles, and other forms of marine life. Alarmingly, even though the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest and most densely packed accumulation of debris in the oceans, it is not the only patch in the world.