Ocean currents are sweeping up huge quantities of plastic waste into what is called garbage patches, and the biggest one of all is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, estimated at twice the size of Texas. Much of it is made of microplastics in the water, along with other debris that is harmful to sea life. No country has provided funding to clean it up, but a nonprofit called The Ocean Cleanup has taken on this mammoth task. Cheddar News explains.

Cheddar's News Wrap

Today Explained: Cleaning Up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Welcome back to cheddar news wrap. Everyone today is thursday july 28th. I'm Manitoba in new york city and I'm ken buffa, thank you so much for joining us. It's time for today explained where we break down some of the biggest stories in the news, how we got here and where we go next. Every year, millions of tons of plastic waste we produce enters the ocean. A portion of this plastic gets swept up in a vortex of currents and end up in areas known as ocean garbage patches. The largest build up and the most well known is called the great pacific garbage patch. So what is it exactly? Right. Also known as the pacific trash vortex that spans waters from the west coast of north America to Japan and it's compromised at the western garbage patch located near Japan in the eastern garbage patch located between hawaii and California. And most people referred to the Eastern Patch as the great pacific. It's estimated to be twice the size of texas, wow! Unlike the name suggests, it's not a giant floating island of debris. Much of it is actually made. This is so sad. Microplastics that are invisible to the naked eye. It's because in the ocean, the sun breaks plastic down into tinier and tinier pieces. That process is called photo degradation. They simply make the water look like a cloudy soap that is intermixed with larger items like fishing gear and even shoes Now this debris can be very harmful to marine life. Obviously sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Seabirds mistake plastic pellets for fish, eggs and feed them to chicks, which then die of starvation, seals can get entangled and abandoned fishing nets and microplastics blocks sunlight from reaching planting and algae down below, threatening entire marine ecosystems by the way. And because the great pacific garbage patch is so far from any country's coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up. But one nonprofit called Ocean Cleanup has taken on this mama task. It uses a special technology that first gathers this scattered plastic in one place, then extracts it for recycling. Since its deployment in august of last year, ocean Cleanup has sweeped an area the size of Rhode island. In 45 extractions, removing more than £220,000 of trash, but it says it needs to do another 1000 halls, 1000 halls to get rid of all the plastics in the great pacific garbage patch. And if you are interested in finding out more about ocean cleanup or want to make a donation, I might be doing that, visit their website at the ocean cleanup dot com.