An Island of Trash? The Truth Behind the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

And the winning numbers are... Two. Eight. Give me an eight. Eight. Eight. Twenty-four. Twenty-four. Twenty-four. Twenty-four. Twelve. Twenty-one. And the last number is... Twenty-one. Oh my gosh! Those are our numbers! What numbers? Our lottery numbers! A lot of numbers? I know a lot of numbers! The lowercase j, the smiley face emoji, that weird little a symbol with a circle around it. Steve, first of all, none of those were numbers. And second of all, he said lottery numbers. I think we just won. And it's the big one! What? One million dollars! Yeah! And we just have to bring the ticket to the lottery office. So where's the ticket? What ticket? The lottery ticket! You know, that little piece of paper with all the numbers on it? Oh, I know numbers! Lowercase j, the smiley face emoji, that... Steve, it's very important that you tell me, where is the lottery ticket? Wait a second. Were you playing basketball with the papers in the garbage again? Who, me? I would never! For three! He's heating up! Boom-chakalaka! He's on fire! Okay, I totally was. Ugh, that could be our ticket out of here! Pun intended. Everyone relax. I put a GPS tracker in the garbage. Why'd you do that? Let's just say this isn't the first time something like this has happened. It says here that... That's weird. What? You're not even using the computer! Yes, I am. You're just moving your fingers! You're not even typing anything! Yes, I am. You can tell because it's making that weird little clicky keyboard sound. Stop it! Just tell me where it is! It says here that it's in the Pacific Ocean. Well, I guess there's only one thing to do. Pacific Ocean, here we come! Well, I know this place looks gross, but it doesn't look so bad. I know! I found this Timu version of the Spider-Man mask. It smells like a pigeon. What? Here's a Timu version of the Batman mask. How do I look? Do I look cool? No. Does it smell like a pigeon too? Yep. Plus, I found a crystal Pepsi and... What is it? My arm. It's kind of stuck. Come on! You're Timu Batman! Nothing can stop you! Yeah, you're right. Uh-oh. It's... Timu Godzilla! What? Who dares disturb my slumber? Oh, look at this chongus. You look like he's been eating the baskets. What does that even mean? I'm just saying what we're all thinking. You look like you've been eating them big, buttery baskets. What? Enough foolish mortals. Now, you must meet your... Whoa! You just spit out a Nintendo 64 and another bottle of crystal Pepsi. You're like a vending machine. Yeah, this guy's awesome. Any chance you can spit me out a new mask that doesn't smell like a pigeon? Nope. I am not awesome. I am the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I can see why they call you great. Minus the pigeon smell. Wait. You're the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? I heard about you. You're huge! Well, how big is he? You would actually never guess. The location of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can be found in its name, as it's located in the Pacific Ocean, nestled between California and Hawaii, and it's been around for roughly 80 years. The patch covers about 620,000 square miles. That's more than 14,000 times bigger than Disney World, the size of 71 New Jerseys, or about twice the size of Texas. Whoa! It's so big that about 10 Great Pacific Garbage Patches would equal the size of Pluto. It's believed to weigh well over 200 million pounds. That's about as heavy as nine Eiffel Towers. There are roughly 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in it, and it's only getting bigger. As millions of pounds of garbage find its way into the ocean every year, and tens of thousands of pounds of that garbage winds up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, much of the garbage found within the patch is actually fishing gear, including large nets and buoys. Fishing gear makes up 46% of nearly all the garbage in the patch, and much of these things in the patch are made of plastics. Microplastics, to be exact. Microplastics are tiny, broken-down pieces of plastic, and they make up 94% of what the patch is made of. The patch formed due to ocean currents, specifically within a system called a gyre. Ocean currents naturally move water around the globe, but in certain areas, they interact and create large circular flow patterns known as gyres. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch formed within the North Pacific Gyre, where floating debris, including plastic waste, is gradually pulled in and trapped by the circulating currents. Because the gyre's center is relatively calm, the trash accumulates over time, forming the massive floating patch we see today. I'm starting to think this Great Pacific Garbage Patch really isn't so great. I agree. For every Nintendo 64 or bottle of Crystal Pepsi, there's like four billion bottle caps or pieces of plastic. I can't imagine all this garbage is good for the ocean. What's that, boy? Trouble at the old mill? This giant patch of garbage is bad for the ocean, and you have a crumbled piece of paper stuck in your blowhole? I think you're onto something. This giant patch is no good. The patch may seem interesting to you, but to many creatures of the ocean, it's incredibly harmful. Many sea creatures and birds get tangled in the waste and become injured, starve, and eventually die. Many animals, from sea turtles, seals, various fish, and even birds, are affected by all this waste. Even tiny living things called microorganisms, like plankton or algae, are affected, as the patch blocks sunlight from reaching them and stops them from making their own food. What's worse is, the patch isn't the only one in the world. Unfortunately, there are others, and they all formed within other gyres that we discussed earlier. Even though this patch is horrible, interestingly, it's actually become home to quite a few creatures that live on the plastic and other trash floating in the ocean. Animals like mollusks, barnacles, fish, and even sea snakes can use the trash as shelter or a place to find food. But even though these animals find homes in the garbage, it's still harmful to the ocean. Getting rid of the patch is difficult, and the efforts to do so come from three different angles. First is reducing the waste by recycling the material. Reusing plastic to make new things can cut back on the plastics being put in the ocean to begin with. Second is just limiting the amount of plastic we use. Maybe stopping the amount of plastic we use can stop the plastic from showing up in the patch in the first place. Last is cleaning up the patch. There are multiple ways people are doing this, but one way is creating a fake coastline. This fake coastline is slowly pushed by two boats and funnels the trash into an enormous garbage bag. Once collected, the trash is then recycled. Man, if we could just get rid of this guy, it'd be like hitting the lottery. Wait, that reminds me. What? Our lottery ticket. How are we ever going to find it in this giant pile of trash? What'd she say? Something about how this place smells like a pigeon. What? Anyway, how do we get rid of this thing? Well, I think we all just need to do our part, and we can help by reducing the amount of plastic we use and recycling. We can do that. Yep. Now we just have to get Steve on board for when he plays basketball with the Babas. Boom shakalaka! From downtown, he's on fire for three! It smells like a pigeon in here. Hey guys, thanks for watching. Like every video of mine, there's a super secret hidden coupon code in it. Try to find it. If you do, you can use it to get money off of my merch, so good luck. 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