A startling statistic recently published in the Sciences Advances journal revealed that of the estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic produced since 1950, 6.3 billion tonnes has ended up as plastic waste. Taking over 400 years to degrade, nearly all of this non-recycled plastic still exists in landfills and, the final catchment, our oceans.

Every year, between 8 -12 million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans. Transported by the world’s oceanic circulation systems, much of it ends up in one of our five major Oceanic Gyres in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The most famous of the world plastic resting grounds is the great North Pacific garbage patch.

Ongoing scientific studies have found the garbage patch to be much larger than previously thought, now estimated at twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France. The effect on our marine ecosystems is becoming more and more prevalent, with over 30 kilograms of plastic found inside a sperm whale that washed up on the coast of Spain.