Cleaning Up The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

New technologies are being deployed to remove plastic trash from our oceans and rivers

- Sophie Ibbotson , Max Lovell-Hoare

Trapped in the North Pacific Ocean midway between the USA and Japan is one of the most extreme examples of marine pollution on Earth. A 2018 scientific report in the journal Nature estimated its size at 1.6 million square kilometres, about twice as big as Turkey. Some estimates suggest it may even be as large as 15 million square kilometres – almost the size of Russia. It is a problem to which we have all, wittingly or otherwise, contributed – and for which we all bear responsibility. Whether we even have the capacity to clean up the mess we have made, let alone the willingness to shoulder the financial cost, is a hotly debated topic.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, lies approximately between 135°W to 155°W and 35°N and 42°N. This is the meeting point of swirling circles of water movement, deep-sea currents that loop in one case from Australia to South America and in another between North America and Japan. Despite the garbage patch’s epic size, it cannot be seen from space; satellite images cannot identify the plastic particulates suspended in the upper water column.

The existence of the garbage patch was predicted before it was first seen. A 1988 paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggested that high concentrations of marine debris – and in particular neustonic (surface inhabiting) plastic – would accumulate in pockets created by the ocean currents. They identified the North Pacific Gyre as a particularly favourable site for such an occurrence.