The real problem is that the plastic isn't just large pieces of debris like bottles and discarded fishing nets.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. More than 90 percent of the plastics in the GPGP are microplastics. Azure waves lapping against huge piles of built-up junk.

Imagine trillions of pieces of plastic debris that, if strung together end to end, would line every inch of coastline in the world at least three times over. That’s how much garbage researchers found ...