"Graham Land" A recent study by the University of Western Australia and CSIRO has found that Australia's waters are chock full of tiny pieces of plastic rubbish, about 4,000 per square kilometer. Nearly all of these microscopic particles come from consumer items like disposable water bottles, packaging and fishing equipment.
Australia's waters are not the worst in the world in terms of plastic pollution. The concentration is lower than in the Mediterranean Sea, for example, but low levels of recycling in Australia (20%) suggest that this problem will only get worse. The world's most shocking example, however, is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a concentrated area of oceanic trash twice the size of Texas. The patch is formed by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a vortex of ocean currents that acts as a whirlpool, drawing rubbish into its center. If you still haven't heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch perhaps you've had your head metaphorically buried in a pile of rubbish. Or maybe the media just isn't doing its job.