There's an area near the Hawaiian islands called the Pacific Gyre. It's an area about 10 million square miles where ocean currents meet, swirl, and continue. It's also a place where plastic debris go to die. Rather, the 267 species of marine and wildlife which ingest and entangle with said plastic: birds, turtles, whales, and fish.Greenpeace did some snorkeling to collect these odds bits of plastic: toothbrushes, toys, bottles, containers, even (used) condoms. In addition to documenting their find with lots of statistics, they're snapping photos of the mess. A picture says a thousand words.
Plastic takes a long time to deteriorate but it also enters the food chain as it does so. While some animals die because their stomachs are filled with debris, others get entangled and starve due to reduced mobility or strangulation. As plastics get smaller they're ingested by small organisms and move up the food chain, ultimately reaching humans. Most concerning is the estrogen found in plastic which, when consumed by humans (and other wildlife), can cause problems with sexual reproduction.
