Greenpeace report reveals ghost gear contribution to plastic pollution

An estimated 640,000 metric tons of abandoned or lost fishing equipment, or ‘ghost gear,’ enters the ocean every year, equivalent in weight to more than 50 thousand double-decker buses. In total, the equipment makes up around 10 percent of the plastic waste in our oceans, entangling and killing marine life.

Why does the Arctic have more plastic than most places on Earth?

Here in the Arctic, hundreds of miles from the nearest big city, are some of the greatest loads of plastics on the planet. Studies find higher concentrations of microplastics in sea ice in these remote, high-latitude hotspots than in the five infamous ocean garbage patches.