Startling Images of the Tons of Trash in the World's Oceans

More than 5 trillion plastic bits floating in the seas, according to study.

ByABC News

December 11, 2014, 12:38 PM

This file 2008 photo provided by NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center shows debris in Hanauma Bay, Hawaii.
AP

 -- Nearly 270,000 tons of plastic are floating in the world's oceans, according to a new study.

That's divided into at least 5.25 trillion plastic pieces, researchers wrote. Or, enough to fill more than 38,500 garbage trucks, the Associated Press reported.

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"Plastics of all sizes were found in all ocean regions," said the report, published on Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Plastic bags and other rubbish are collected from the waters and shoreline of Manila Bay during a campaign by environmental activists and volunteers calling for a ban of the use of plastic bags, July 3, 2014

Juvenile Herring Gull with plastic rubbish in its beak, Newquay, Cornwall, England.

Researchers only measured plastic floating at the surface of the oceans, and not at the ocean floor, and the study doesn't take into consideration any of the other trash polluting the seas.

The study used a mix of methods to come to its conclusions. Scientists visited 1,571 points in the ocean to count plastic debris. They used mesh nets to gather small bits of plastic, counted larger items from boats, and used technology to calculate plastic collected in parts of the ocean they didn't survey.