Do you ever wonder what happens to all the plastic that ends up on the ground but mysteriously disappears? It wasn’t picked up, it blew away in the wind and found itself in our waterways. It floated down rivers and streams, into lakes and, more often than not, into our oceans. This is how the 5 Gyres started and how they continue to grow every year, every month, every day and every minute. Marine debris is a huge problem. Plastic has found itself onto the beaches of uninhabited islands and into the stomachs of seabirds and sea life.

Learn about the 5 Gyres Institute’s research into the global effects, reality and scale of plastic pollution around the world.