The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a massive area in the Pacific Ocean where lots of human trash, like plastic bags, bottles, and fishing nets, has been collected. As humans have used more and more plastic, and the population of humans has grown, so has the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Learn more about the impact of human trash on our aquatic ecosystems with the video below:
In the past 70 years, humans have produced and thrown out more and more plastic every year, of which 1/5 is not recycled correctly. Explore the data in the chart below to examine how much plastic we have used each year.
THINK-PAIR-SHARE
Based on the video and your understanding of global plastics production in the last 70 years:
- How much plastic is incorrectly recycled each year?
- Describe where plastic is going when it isn’t recycled properly.
- Describe the relationship between human plastic usage and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.