Plastic landfill on the sea is as large as 3 European countries

About 80,000 tons of plastic waste is gathered by a large area in the Pacific Ocean.

According to experts, this plastic landfill is spreading at a dizzying speed and is currently equal to the total area of ​​France, Germany and Spain.

Samples of plastic waste are collected by the research team.(Photo: AFP).

Researchers from the Ocean Cleanup Foundation in the Netherlands use two aircraft and 30 ships and modern technology to measure the area and estimate the amount of trash in this huge 'floating island' .

'We estimate that the Pacific island is about 80,000 tons of garbage,' said Laurent Lebreton of the research team.

This trash island consists of bottles, boxes, nets and plastic pieces with a total area of ​​16 times larger than previous studies. The island is made up of 1,800 billion pieces of plastic waste, threatening the life of marine organisms because most are less than 5 cm in size and easily mistaken for food.

Ocean Cleanup has set a goal of halving the size of Pacific garbage in 5 years but the new finding presents a major challenge.

According to the International Standardization Organization, there are about 322 million tons of plastic products produced only in 2015.