On Oceanic Garbage Patches

Why is it so important that we refuse single-use plastic and other materials? Because those materials are often not disposed of correctly (even municipal trash collection and disposal has its issues) and end up in terrifying oceanic gyres called garbage patches (which also have a significant amount of ship waste and fishing gear within them). The gyres themselves are natural phenomena to do with ocean tides, but because of human waste, they're now filled with garbage [1, 2].

When I first learn...