New ideas on how to cleanup the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch'

Wind and Earth’s spin keep the ocean’s surface currents constantly moving, and those currents are the main reason floating plastic and other debris travel so far. A prime example of this phenomenon is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Two types of currents do most of the work: geostrophic currents, which form from the balance between gravity and Earth’s rotation, and Ekman currents, which wind drives directly. Together, they carry debris across vast stretches of the ocean.

As these currents swirl, they naturally pull trash toward the centers of the world’s five subtropical gyres – massive, slow-moving whirlpools in the ocean. Over time, these zones turn into plastic hotspots, where all kinds of floating junk gathers.

The North Pacific subtropical gyre is the most infamous of the bunch. That’s home to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the biggest and most studied plastic pile-up in the ocean.

It’s drawn the attention of scientists, environmentalists, and the public alike. And not surprisingly, many of the first large-scale ocean cleanup projects have started right there.

Understanding the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a massive collection of plastic debris, abandoned fishing gear, and other trash that accumulates in the North Pacific Ocean.

These plastics can take hundreds of years to break down, and even when they do, they become tiny microplastics that enter marine food chains.

This swirling soup of litter poses a big threat to marine life, seabirds, and even human health when contaminated seafood ends up on our plates.

You might picture the patch as a giant floating island of trash, but in reality, it’s more like a massive zone of scattered debris.

This makes it difficult to clean up, as much of the garbage is tiny bits of plastic dispersed throughout the water.

Smarter alternative hiding in plain sight

Instead of chasing the trash, scientists now suggest using the ocean’s own natural flow to do the work. A new study has mapped out zones where water tends to converge and pull debris into tight pockets.

“Instead of boats slowly trawling and burning fuel, they can hold their position and keep the nets steady at a location where currents funnel and aggregate drifting objects,” said Rodrigo Duran, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, and co-author of the study.

Ocean patterns pull trash into zones

The team, led by Luca Kunz from the University of Hamburg, used over 20 years of satellite and drifter data to spot high-traffic areas for floating debris.

These zones, called Transient Attracting Profiles (TRAPs), are temporary regions where swirling currents push trash together.

TRAPs form when four eddies – circular currents – spin in just the right pattern. About 60% of the time, this pattern pulls debris into a stable zone roughly 60 miles (96 kilometers) wide. Most of these zones stick around for about six days.

Why this changes cleanup strategy

Instead of moving across hundreds of miles, crews could now wait at known TRAP locations. When positioned right, nets could skim off trash that is funneled in by the current.

That saves fuel, time, and effort – and reduces the environmental cost of sweeping up the ocean.

More than just ocean trash

While TRAPs are useful for plastic cleanup, Duran says they could also be used for search and rescue, cargo loss, oil spill containment, or tracking volcanic ash and wildfire smoke as it drifts across the ocean and air.

“This can even be used for atmospheric data,” Duran said, pointing to how the technique can predict movement across multiple systems.

Why past predictions fell short

Previous models tried to guess where trash was heading based on Lagrangian simulations, which track particles drifting on oceans over time. But at the smaller scale – about 1 to 10 miles (1.6 to 16 kilometers) – those methods break down.

TRAPs flip the question. Instead of asking where an object will go, they ask: where will things gather? That shift makes all the difference.

Testing the patterns

To verify these zones, the team analyzed how drifters (floating sensors that move with surface currents) behaved around TRAPs. Most stayed near a TRAP for an average of six days. A few stuck around for over a month.

Researchers also noticed that drifters weren’t just spinning in circles. They were pulled straight into a TRAP, then funneled along its length – like getting sucked into a current and pushed out the other side.

How this can change everything

The most effective TRAPs form in clusters of four eddies with alternating spin directions. These structures appear often in areas of high turbulence, like near California’s upwelling zone or around the Hawaiian Ridge.

Tracking them in real time could help cleanup crews navigate better and use far fewer resources. Long-lasting TRAPs, in particular, offer a clear target: the longer they exist, the more plastic they tend to gather.

What’s coming for ocean trash cleanup

This technique isn’t just theory. It’s backed by decades of observations and tested with real ocean data. Cleanup crews could start using TRAP tracking to guide where and when they deploy nets.

As satellite monitoring improves and new missions deliver higher-resolution data, smaller TRAPs near coastlines may also be tracked more easily.

“It’s a very exciting time,” Duran remarked. The scale of the garbage patch is overwhelming, but knowing where and when debris gathers gives crews a fighting chance. 

If cleanup systems can act more like filters than drag nets, sitting still while the ocean delivers the trash, then this could mark a shift in how we tackle plastic pollution at sea.

The study is published in Ocean Science.

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