The "garbage patch" (The Great Pacific Garbage patch) is a popular name for concentrations of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. High concentrations of litter items can be found in this area but much of the debris is actually small pieces of floating plastic that are not immediately evident to the naked eye.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California. These areas of spinning debris are linked together by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone which is where warm water from the South Pacific meets up with cooler water from the Arctic. The zone acts like a highway that moves debris from one patch to another. About 80% of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from activities on land. Litter like plastic bottles, bottle caps, and candy wrappers can end up in storm drains or in rivers and streams that empty into a bay or the ocean. The rest of the trash in the Garbage Patch comes from activities at sea. Every year, about 100 million containers are shipped over the world's oceans. There are frequent, severe storms which cause hundreds of containers to go overboard each year. Many of these containers hold things like tens of thousands of shoes or millions of plastic shopping bags and other plastic items. Many research teams have sailed out to the middle of the trash vortex to try and determine the scale of a cleanup effort. And basically, there's no practical way to do anything about it.

Humans + Ocean Currents = Trash Vortex.

Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young, including sea turtles and the black-footed albatross.

Besides the particles' danger to wildlife, on the microscopic level the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHS. Aside from toxic effects, when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animal.

Besides killing wildlife, plastic and other debris damage boat and submarine equipment, litter beaches, discourage swimming and harm commercial and local fisheries.

Scientists and conservationists on the expedition will begin attempts to retrieve and recycle a monument to throwaway living in the middle of the North Pacific.

An expidition, supported by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Brita, which will use unmanned aircraft and robotic surface explorers to explore exactly how big and how deep the vortex is, as well as collect as much as 40 tons of junk as a test for the possibility of cleaning up and recycling the spiraling soup of death into fuel for the vessels