A new study estimates nearly 270,000 tonnes of plastic is
floating in the world’s oceans. That’s enough to fill more than 38,500 garbage
trucks.
The plastic is broken up into more than 5 trillion pieces,
said the study published yesterday (Dec 10) in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
The paper is the latest in a nascent field where scientists
are trying to better understand how much of the synthetic material is entering
the oceans and how it’s affecting fish, seabirds and the larger marine
ecosystem.
The study’s lead author is Dr Markus Eriksen of the 5 Gyres
Institute, an organisation that aims to reduce plastic in the oceans.
To gather data, researchers dragged a fine mesh net at the
sea surface to gather small pieces. Observers on boats counted larger items.
They used computer models to calculate estimates for tracts of ocean not
surveyed.
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