
Originally Posted by
JJJ
Is this really a mystery? I thought it had been well publicised years ago.
Small, light pieces of plastic end up being washed into the ocean (from landfill, from bin spills, from dumps, into storm drains and then rivers - and lighter plastic is blown as well as washed), where they float with the currents into great swirling masses of small bits of plastic. On the way, and when in the swirl, they are a real hazard to marine life.
A whole toy is very unlikely to be washed into the ocean in the first place. I'm not saying it won't or can't happen, but simple numbers mean that the small bits are the majority of the problem.