Marine debris doesn’t just stay where it was lost—our trash travels. Once it reaches the ocean, winds and currents move debris around the world. Because of patterns in the ocean’s currents, some debris tends to accumulate in particular areas, often far out in the middle of the ocean. These areas are often called “garbage patches.”

Garbage patches are large areas of the ocean where litter, fishing gear, and other marine debris collects. They are formed by rotating ocean currents called gyres. These gyres are like big whirlpools that pull objects into one location, often the gyre’s center. There are five major gyres in the world with garbage patches of various sizes. There is one gyre in the Indian Ocean, while the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean each have two.

The most famous of these patches is often called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” It is located in the North Pacific Gyre (between Hawai‘i and California). “Patch” is a misleading nickname, causing many to believe that these are islands of trash. Instead, the debris is spread across a huge area from the surface of the water all the way to the ocean floor. While some areas of the patch have more trash than others, most of the debris items are microplastics. Because microplastics are smaller than a pencil eraser, they are not immediately noticeable to the naked eye. It’s more like pepper flakes swirling in a soup than something you can skim off the surface. You may come across larger items, like plastic bottles and nets, but it’s possible to sail through some areas of a garbage patch and not see any debris at all.

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