The majority of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is discarded fishing gear.

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So what’s to stop us- from any country- chipping away at this garbage patch by scooping up plastics and shipping them via barge to a facility on land where they can be sorted and recycled? Genuinely curious. I guess the finances would be a big hurdle but I’m wondering if it’s practical. With the micro plastics, maybe some sort of small filter or a suction method that can clump up all these bits and they can be melted/recycled/disposed of in another fashion.

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u/Positronix Aug 12 '21

Because this is what the garbage patch actually looks like:

https://www.deepseanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/real_gpgp.jpeg

It's mostly microplastic and extremely small particles. The big flotillas of trash are just easier to show people and catch more attention.

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u/scruffykid Aug 12 '21

I've always wondered this. Everyone talks about the garbage patch the size of Texas but never a photo of it so this makes sense

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u/i_hate_patrice Aug 12 '21

Fishernet still make 46% of the waste in the ocean, but clearly It's a way easier problem to solve and microplastic is what gets us fucked sooner or later