About 94 percent of the plastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are microplastics—pieces smaller than a grain of rice that are often invisible to the naked eye.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed Lebreton et al. 2018 Scientific Reports study and corroborated by The Ocean Cleanup organization and independent media (PBS NewsHour, CBC, Discover Wildlife). Figure specifically refers to piece-count (94%), not mass (8%), which is consistent across sources. Minor variation (92% in one source) noted but 94% is the dominant figure. [tier=gold indep_score=0.95 clusters=3 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- The Pacific Ocean—facts and information (seed:science_and_space)
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w (corroboration)
- https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/ (corroboration)
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/science/the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-weighs-more-than-43000-cars-and-is-way-bigger-than-previously-thought (corroboration)