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A '''garbage patch''' is a [[ocean gyre|gyre]] of [[marine debris]] particles caused by the effects of [[ocean current]]s and increasing [[plastic pollution]] by human populations. These human-caused collections of plastic and other debris are responsible for ecosystem and environmental problems that affect marine life, contaminate oceans with toxic chemicals, and contribute to [[greenhouse gas emissions]]. Once waterborne, marine debris becomes mobile. Flotsam can be blown by the wind, or follow the flow of ocean currents, often ending up in the middle of [[oceanic gyre]]s where currents are weakest.
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 [[
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. |author-link1=Jenna Jambeck|last2=Geyer|first2=Roland|author-link2=Roland Geyer|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>
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