The Plastic Tides: Fishing Gear's Foul Legacy The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that behemoth of oceanic waste, has long been a symbol of humanity's insatiable appetite for plastic and our collective disregard for its consequences.
A 2018 study estimated the patch spans approximately 1. 6 million square kilometers, roughly three times the size of metropolitan France.
Five countries – Japan, China, South Korea, the United States, and Taiwan – dominate the origin markings on plastic waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.