The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

New research shows the patch has become its own ecosystem. Scientists studied 105 pieces of the plastic and found 46 different species of small sea creatures living on them. About 80% of those species normally live near the coast, but they now appear to be breeding out in the open ocean, on the trash itself. This means cleanup isn't just removing garbage anymore — it's also removing a habitat that has grown on top of it.

Not everyone agrees the cleanup approach itself is a good idea. Independent ocean-plastic researchers — including Dr. Miriam Goldstein (National Ocean Protection Coalition), Marcus Eriksen (5 Gyres), and physical oceanographer Dr. Kim Martini — have raised real concerns: that surface-collecting devices can trap and kill marine life along with the plastic, that only a small share of ocean plastic actually floats where these systems can reach it, and that money spent on removal might do more good stopping plastic at the source. 
NOAA adds a separate, simpler correction: the patch isn't a solid island of trash — it's mostly tiny fragments spread through the water, "like flecks of pepper in a bowl of soup," and it's one of several such patches around the Pacific, not the only one.

The Ocean Cleanup gives its first real cost and time estimate for cleaning the whole patch: $7.5 billion over 10 years, or $4 billion over 5 years if things go more efficiently. At this point, only about 500,000 kg has been removed from the patch since 2019 — roughly 0.5% of the 100 million kg of plastic believed to be there. Because that pace is too slow, they pause collection trips through 2025 to instead map exactly where the plastic is thickest, so future trips can collect more each time.

The Ocean Cleanup aims to remove 90% of floating plastic from the oceans by 2040, which they believe is achievable, Tobin said.

The nonprofit has a two-pronged approach of removing "legacy plastics" and debris before the UV rays break the material down into microplastics, which are nearly impossible to collect. One of the most remarkable items they have pulled is a Vietnam War-era canteen. Other common materials are rigid plastics that float into the ocean and fishing nets, Tobin said.

The system involves two vessels that have a device that skims the water to collect all of the debris.

The environmental group is also working to clear the rivers that feed into the oceans of trash as well to ensure they can clean as much as possible.

By the end of the month, The Ocean Cleanup will launch System 03, a larger version of its current system of floating barriers. Its predecessor, System 02, which was utilized in the most recent mission, is about 875 yards long. The new replacement measures about 2.400 yards long, which will lead to much bigger and more successful catches, Tobin said.

System 03 is capable of clearing the size of a football field every five seconds, about twice the speed of the current system, Tobin said.

The Ocean Cleanup's "System 03" will be nearly three times as long as the previous system, enabling much more trash pickup.

The nonprofit has also been using artificial intelligence computational modeling to locate where the most plastic is in the ocean -- a method they named "plastic hotspot modeling."

During the week-long journey from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch back to port, the trash gets sorted on the ship, and the nonprofit recycles as much material as possible.

The nonprofit then works with partners worldwide to ensure that the products made with the recycled plastic will not end up back in oceans or rivers, Tobin said, adding that one of those partnerships is with a Korean car manufacturer that uses the plastics in the construction of electric vehicles.

"We just want to make sure it doesn't end up back where we found it," Tobin said.

Independent scientists publish the first real evidence that the patch has become its own ecosystem. Marine biologist Linsey Haram (then at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center) and Jim Carlton (Williams College) examine over 100 pieces of plastic and find 484 small sea creatures on them. About 70% of the debris carries at least one species that normally lives near the coast rather than in the open ocean, and some of them show signs of breeding at sea. The researchers coined the term "neopelagic community" for this new, plastic-based habitat.

Discovery of a thriving ecosystem of life at the Great Pacific garbage patch in 2022 suggested that cleaning up garbage here may adversely remove this plastisphere.

In July of 2022, The Ocean Cleanup announced that they had reached a milestone of removing the first 100,000 kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch using "System 002" and announced their transition to "System 03", which is claimed to be 10 times as effective as its predecessor.

The UN Environment Assembly passed a historic resolution to end plastic pollution and create the world’s first global plastic pollution treaty by 2024 – a legally binding agreement that would address the full life cycle of plastic, from its production and design to its disposal.

In 2021, The Ocean Cleanup collected 63,182 pounds (28,658 kg) of plastic using their "System 002". The mission started in July 2021 and concluded on October 14, 2021.
After redesigning the system several times, the organization calls it "proven technology." This means the design finally works well enough to build larger, permanent systems rather than testing prototypes.

In 2020 over the course of 2 expeditions, Ocean Voyages Institute again set the record for largest cleanup in the "Garbage Patch" removing over 170 tons (340,000 pounds) of plastic from the ocean. The first 45 day expedition removed 103 tons of plastic and the second expedition removed over 67 tons of plastic from the Garbage Patch.

The Ocean Cleanup collects its first plastic directly from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It uses an early version of a system that lets ocean currents gather the trash together, instead of chasing it with boats.

On 9 September 2018, the first collection system was deployed to the gyre to begin the collection task. This initial trial run of the Ocean Cleanup Project started towing its "Ocean Cleanup System 001" from San Francisco to a trial site some 240 nautical miles (260 miles) away. The initial trial of the "Ocean Cleanup System 001" ran for four months and provided the research team with valuable information relevant to the designing of the "System 001/B".

On April 11, 2013, in order to raise awareness, the artist Maria Cristina Finucci founded the State with Landfill at UNESCO - Paris in the presence of the Director-General Irina Bokova . This is the first of a series of events held under the patronage of UNESCO and the Italian Ministry of Environment.

In July/August 2012 Ocean Voyages Institute conducted a voyage from San Francisco to the Eastern limits of the North Pacific Gyre north, (ultimately ending in Richmond British Columbia) and then made a return voyage that also visited the Gyre. The focus of this expedition was surveying the extent of tsunami debris from the Japanese earthquake tsunami.

In 2012, researchers Goldstein, Rosenberg, and Cheng found that microplastic concentrations in the gyre had increased by two orders of magnitude in the prior four decades.

In 2010, Ocean Voyages Institute conducted a 30-day expedition in the gyre which continued the science from the 2009 expeditions and tested prototype cleanup devices.

In 2009, two project vessels from Project Kaisei/Ocean Voyages Institute; the New Horizon and the Kaisei, embarked on a voyage to research the patch and determine the feasibility of commercial-scale collection and recycling. The Scripps Institute of Oceanography's 2009 SEAPLEX expedition in part funded by Ocean Voyages Institute/Project Kaisei also researched the patch. Researchers were also looking at the impact of plastic on mesopelagic fish, such as lanternfish.

In August 2009, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography/Project Kaisei SEAPLEX survey mission of the Gyre found that plastic debris was present in 100 consecutive samples taken at varying depths and net sizes along a path of 1,700 miles (2,700 km) through the patch. The survey found that, although the patch contains large pieces, it is made up of smaller items that increase in concentration toward the gyre's centre, and tcenterconfetti-like' pieces are visible just beneath the surface suggest the affected area may be much smaller. 2009 data collected from Pacific albatross populations suggest the presence of two distinct debris zones.

In 2009 Ocean Voyages Institute removed over 5 tons of plastic during the initial Project Kaisei cleanup initiative while testing a variety of cleanup prototype devices.

In 2008, the JUNK Raft Project was organized by Dr. Markus Eriksen, Joel Paschal, and Anna Cummins in Long Beach, California, to bring attention to the problem of plastic pollution at the Great Pacific landfill. 
Organizers hoped to "creatively raise awareness of plastic trash and pollution in the ocean,", especially in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was trapped in the North Pacific Gyre, sailing 2,600 miles across the Pacific Ocean on a 30-foot (9.1 m) raft made from an old Cessna 310 Fuselage aircraft and six pontoons filled with 15,000 old plastic bottles. The crew, led by Dr. Marcus Eriksen of the Foundation and filmmaker Joel Pascal, departed Long Beach, California on June 1, 2008, arriving in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 28. 2008. 

Charles J. Moore, returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpacific Yacht Race in 1997, claimed to have come upon an enormous stretch of floating debris. Moore alerted oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who subsequently dubbed the region the "Eastern Garbage Patch" (EGP). The area is frequently featured in media reports as an exceptional example of marine pollution.

The Great Pacific garbage patch was described in a 1988 paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The description was based on research by several Alaska-based researchers in 1988 who measured neustonic plastic in the North Pacific Ocean. Researchers found relatively high concentrations of marine debris accumulating in regions governed by ocean currents. Extrapolating from findings in the Sea of Japan, the researchers hypothesized that similar conditions would occur in other parts of the Pacific where prevailing currents were favorable to the creation of relatively stable waters. They specifically indicated the North Pacific Gyre.