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Within garbage patches, the waste is not compact, and although most of it is near the surface of the ocean, it can be found up to more than {{convert|100|ft|m|order=flip}} deep in the water.<ref name="debris north pacific">{{cite web |date=24 July 2015 |title=Marine Debris in the North Pacific A Summary of Existing Information and Identification of Data Gaps |url=http://www.epa.gov/region9/marine-debris/pdf/MarineDebris-NPacFinalAprvd.pdf |website=United States Environmental Protection Agency}}</ref> Patches contain plastics and debris in a range of sizes from [[Microplastics]] and small scale [[plastic pellet pollution]], to large objects such as [[Ghost net|fishing nets]] and consumer goods and appliances lost from flood and shipping loss.
Garbage patches grow because of widespread loss of plastic from human trash collection systems. The [[United Nations Environmental Program]] estimated that "for every square mile of ocean" there are about "46,000 pieces of plastic".<ref name=":2">{{cite book|last=Maser |first=Chris|title=Interactions of Land, Ocean and Humans: A Global Perspective |publisher=CRC Press|year=2014 |isbn=978-1482226393|pages=147–48}}</ref> The 10 largest emitters of oceanic plastic pollution worldwide are, from the most to the least, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Jambeck|first1=Jenna R.|last2=Geyer|first2=Roland|last3=Wilcox|first3=Chris|date=12 February 2015|title=Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean|journal=Science|volume=347|issue=6223|page=769|bibcode=2015Sci...347..768J|doi=10.1126/science.1260352|pmid=25678662|s2cid=206562155|url=https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_AMERICANA/Science-2015-Jambeck-768-71__2_.pdf|access-date=28 August 2018|archive-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122073818/https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_AMERICANA/Science-2015-Jambeck-768-71__2_.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> largely through the rivers [[Yangtze River|Yangtze]], [[Indus River|Indus]], [[Yellow River|Yellow]], [[Hai River|Hai]], [[Nile River|Nile]], [[Ganges River|Ganges]], [[Pearl River|Pearl]], [[Amur River|Amur]], [[Niger River|Niger]], and the [[Mekong River|Mekong]], and accounting for "90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world's oceans".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Christian Schmidt |last2=Tobias Krauth|last3=Stephan Wagner|date=11 October 2017 |title=Export of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea |url=http://oceanrep.geomar.de/43169/4/es7b02368_si_001.pdf |journal=[[Environmental Science & Technology]]|volume=51 |issue=21 |pages=12246–12253|bibcode=2017EnST...5112246S |doi=10.1021/acs.est.7b02368|pmid=29019247|quote=The 10 top-ranked rivers transport 88–95% of the global load into the sea}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Harald |last=Franzen|date=30 November 2017|title=Almost all plastic in the ocean comes from just 10 rivers|work=[[Deutsche Welle]]|url=https://p.dw.com/p/2oTF6|access-date=18 December 2018|quote=It turns out that about 90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world's oceans gets flushed through just 10 rivers: The Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong (in that order).}}</ref> Asia was the leading source of mismanaged [[plastic waste]], with China alone accounting for 2.4 million metric tons.<ref>{{cite news|author=Robert Lee Hotz|date=13 February 2015|title=Asia Leads World in Dumping Plastic in Seas|newspaper=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB20530567965804683707904580457713291864670|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223140548/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB20530567965804683707904580457713291864670 |archive-date=23 February 2015}}</ref>
The best known of these is the [[Great Pacific garbage patch]] which has the highest density of marine debris and plastic. The Pacific Garbage patch has two mass buildups: the western garbage patch and the eastern garbage patch, the former off the coast of Japan and the latter between [[Hawaii]] and [[California]]. These garbage patches contain {{convert|100|e6short ton|e6t|order=flip|abbr=off|sigfig=1}} of debris.<ref name="debris north pacific" /> Other identified patches include the [[North Atlantic garbage patch]] between North America and Africa, the [[South Atlantic garbage patch]] located between eastern South America and the tip of Africa, the [[South Pacific garbage patch]] located west of South America, and the [[Indian Ocean garbage patch]] found east of South Africa listed in order of decreasing size.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cózar |first1=Andrés |last2=Echevarría |first2=Fidel |last3=González-Gordillo |first3=J. Ignacio |last4=Irigoien |first4=Xabier |last5=Úbeda |first5=Bárbara |last6=Hernández-León |first6=Santiago |last7=Palma |first7=Álvaro T. |last8=Navarro |first8=Sandra |last9=García-de-Lomas |first9=Juan |last10=Ruiz |first10=Andrea |last11=Fernández-de-Puelles |first11=María L. |date=2014-07-15 |title=Plastic debris in the open ocean |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=111 |issue=28 |pages=10239–10244 |bibcode=2014PNAS..11110239C |doi=10.1073/pnas.1314705111 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=4104848 |pmid=24982135 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
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