Floating plastic is accumulating in the five subtropical oceanic gyres, but little is known about their composition, sources, and fate. Monitoring has provided insight into persistence and accumulation processes in the North Pacific Ocean, but their relevance in other gyres is unknown. Identifying the sources of plastics, in all subtropical gyres, is necessary for cleanup efforts to be effective.
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The author is consulting for The Ocean Cleanup, a not-for-profit organization developing technology to remove floating plastics from the ocean’s surface.
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Lebreton, L. The status and fate of oceanic garbage patches. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 730–732 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00363-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00363-z
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