Ocean cleanup group removes record 25,000 pounds of trash from Great Pacific Garbage Patch in one extraction

A new system will be able to clear a football field every five seconds.

Photo: Tens of thousands of pounds of trash are sorted after being removed from the Great Garbage Patch on August 10, 2023. The Ocean Cleanup

Ocean cleanup crews have fished out the most trash ever taken from one of the largest garbage patches in the world.

The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organization, saw its largest extraction earlier this month by removing about 25,000 pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Alex Tobin, head of public relations and media for the organization, told ABC News.

The vessels are currently on the way back to port in Victoria, British Columbia, after having collected about 50 tons of garbage in four weeks, Tobin said.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous pile of floating trash carried by ocean currents and winds to the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California, is the largest of the world’s five ocean garbage patches.

It is difficult to determine an exact size, as the trash is constantly moving, according to NOAA. The Ocean Cleanup has estimated the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to have grown to twice the size of the state of Texas, Tobin said.

The patch in the Pacific has grown so much that a new coastal ecosystem is thriving on it, a study published by Nature Ecology & Evolution in April found.

Garbage patches pose dangers to the local ecosystem by entangling marine life in fishing nets, animals eating plastic and other debris and by transporting non-native species from foreign habitats, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It is unclear how garbage patches affect human health, but humans may be exposed to […]

Full article: abcnews.go.com