For Every Person on Earth, There Are 21,000 Pieces of Plastic in the Ocean | Page 4 of 8

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How Do You Count Ocean Plastic?

The carcass of a black footed albatross chick with plastic filling its stomach photographed on the Hawaiian Islands in 2014. — The carcass of a black footed albatross chick with plastic filling its stomach photographed on the Hawaiian Islands in 2014. Photo: Dan Clark/USFWS (AP)

Getting a grasp on how much plastic is in the ocean is an extremely tough job. As the paper outlines, there’s a lot that can happen to a piece of trash once it gets into the ocean, and much of it breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that can get eaten by wildlife or sink into deeper ocean layers.

“The ocean is a complex place,” Lisa Erdle, director of research and innovation at the 5 Gyres Institute and an author on the report, told CNN. “There are lots of ocean currents, there are changes over time due to weather and due to conditions on the ground.”

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