We all know that plastic waste is floating in our oceans, but do we know how, why, and where it accumulates? 

In this brief video, you will hear the co-founder of the 5gyres institute explaining what a gyre is and why it is so important to study their existence.

A gyre is a large system of rotating ocean currents and there are five major gyres in the world where our trash accumulates because of favorable climatic circumstances. 

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and is the largest offshore plastic accumulation zone in the world’s oceans. Unfortunately, such a phenomenon is not constrained to the largest oceans as even smaller seas, like the Mediterranean and North Seas, are developing their garbage patches.

As you heard in the video, the plastic found in those patches slowly disintegrates into smaller pieces further polluting our ecosystems. 

Let’s now learn more about these small pieces of plastic!