Opinion vs. Fact

Ocean plastic can persist in sea surface waters, eventually accumulating in remote areas of the world’s oceans.

• Opinion

• Fact

Global annual plastic consumption has now reached over 320 million tonnes with more plastic produced in the last decade than ever before

• Fact

• Opinion

Richards and several other marine biologists quickly challenged the group’s claim. On Twitter and in media reports, they said that the plastic looked too clean to have been floating for a while in the ocean. There should have been a more visible build-up of marine organisms like algae and barnacles.

• Fact

• Opinion

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not a single, visible island of trash. Instead, it's more like a soup of debris, with small pieces of plastic suspended throughout the water column.

• Fact

• Opinion

Microplastics accounted for 8% of the total mass but 94% of the estimated 1.8 (1.1–3.6) trillion pieces floating in the area. Plastic collected during our study has specific characteristics such as small surface-to-volume ratio, indicating that only certain types of debris have the capacity to persist and accumulate at the surface of the GPGP.

• Opinion

• Fact