Great Pacific Garbage Patch, floating ‘island’ of trash in ocean, is now twice the size of Texas

The Pacific Ocean is being treated like a giant dumpster — and it’s starting to look like one, too. A “floating” island of trash dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) now stretches 600,000 square miles, according to a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports.

It’s more than twice the size of Texas (three times the size of France), and it’s growing every day.

Environmentalists expressed concern in October 2016, after a team of researchers from The Ocean Cleanup Foundation surveyed the vortex of trash piling up between California and Hawaii. They spotted chunks of plastic glued together measuring more than a yard.