Sailing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In this TED talk, Captain Charles Moore describes the global journey of plastic pollution as it circulates via the North Pacific Gyre to a floating garbage patch twice the size of Texas. Along the way, Albatross mothers mistake floating bottle caps and cigarette lighters for food to feed their young, leaving their chicks to die of starvation once the plastic waste has filled their stomachs. We'll never trawl the ocean clean of plastic, says Moore, but one thing we can do is discard the "throwaway lifestyle" that became popular in the 1950s.