The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an accumulation of 100,000 tonnes of plastic with a surface area of around 1.6 million square kilometers (around 617,000 square miles) or three times the size of France. With an incoming amount of 2 million tonnes of plastic annually, the area is exponentially increasing in size. Though the patch floats from region to region, it is primarily located in the North Pacific Ocean. The plastic later goes on to litter beaches, harm wildlife, and enter the bloodstream of marine animals, some of which get consumed by humans!

Plastic kills 1 MILLION sea birds and 100,000 marine animals EACH YEAR. Ranging from being trapped inside containers to the disruption of natural habitats, the items we naturally discard harm the lives of ocean-dwelling creatures! Microplastics have been found in the bodies of countless species, ranging from microscopic animals to the common seafood that people eat everyday. 

Plastic contains various materials, such as nylon, polymethyl methacrylate, polypropylene, and polyethylene. Now imagine digesting those very synethic materials. To be specific, the average human digests and inhales around 74,000 microplastic particles annually! The materials takes hundreds of years to break down, essentially remaining in the human body until death. The production of plastic can also lead to higher risk of heart disease, cancer, reduced fertility, and lung diseases!

In addition to the damaged soil and poisoned groundwater that plastic pollution causes, the production of the material itself is extremely detrimental to society. The plastic production industry is one of the most energy-intensive manufacturing processes in the world. Not only does the production of plastic require the use of fossil fuels, such as crude oil, but the process generates around 1.8 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions as well!