This ingenious tool can show you exactly where your old plastic bottle ends up in the ocean.

When a freak storm overturned a cargo ship, one of the 62 containers contained 5 million pieces of Lego.

Twenty-five years later, you can still find washing Lego washing up on the beach: Lego plastic flippers, Lego scuba gear, Lego spears, and tiny Lego lifejackets. Yellow smiling Lego heads bob in rock pools. You may find blue plastic octopuses amongst the slimy seaweed, if you are lucky.

For an animal living in the ocean? Not so lucky.

Plastic pollution in the ocean is becoming a serious problem for life on the planet. That’s why a team of researchers at The Ocean Clean Up created a tool to make this information accessible to everybody.

But first, how did we get here?

Out of mind, out of sight

Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

In 1965, we found the first piece of oceanic plastic in a plankton recording device in the ocean.

More than half a century later, plastic pollution has built up so much in the ocean you can find microplastics in your table salt.

Worldwide, we produce 400 million tons of plastic a year, and that’s expected to double by 2040.

Researchers have found five massive garbage patches in our oceans.

This is where most of the floating plastic ends its course, and where it will continue drifting for decades.

The biggest one, in the North Pacific, is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP).

How can we understand the immense nature of the plastic problem in our oceans?

plastic water bottle in clear blue water pollution

Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

A non-profit created this tool to show the world how marine waste travels across the ocean.

Founded in 2013, the non-profit website The Ocean Clean Up analyzes our ocean’s health. The team consists of 120 engineers, researchers, scientists, computational modelers.

Even though oceans are chaotic, by nature, they also have patterns and currents. Plastic particles in oceans also have fairly predictable dispersal trajectories, which they use for their tracker tool.

Much as the locals on the beach in Cornwall know, we know plastics do not disintegrate for decades.

Could the Ocean Clean Up tool track the plastic water bottle I left on a beach in the 1990s?

Let’s look at three famous beaches I have visited in my misspent youth and see where and how that litter is traveling in our ocean today.

Three plastic bottles, three beach parties, three decades later

#1 Goa, India

Goa India beach palm trees

Goa, Raja Sen on Unsplash

In 1997, I went to a few full moon parties in Goa. There was a DJ and people twirling fire sticks. If I remember correctly, a strong bang lassi or two was involved.

I remember little after that.

If I bought a plastic water bottle (I would have), and I left it at the beach (I hope not), where did it go after it swept into the ocean?

On a journey of 138,566 kms, that’s where.

Author own.

The plastic waste travels from Goa on the western side of India, down to Sri Lanka and up to the Bay of Bengal. It then travels along the coast of Indonesia and out across the Indian Ocean down to South Africa until it lands on the western side of Madagascar at the Indian Ocean Garbage patch.

#2 Tulum, Mexico

Photo by Darren Lawrence on Unsplash

In 2010, I went to a wedding in Tulum in Mexico. The bridesmaid went to a bed early, and we stayed on the beach until the sunrise. We consumed many margaritas. I’m sure there must have been lots of water, and plastic water bottles, too, the next day.

My headache was no bueno.

Here’s where my hypothetical lost plastic water bottle travels after the waves take it from the beach.

It’s not like me to leave rubbish on the beach, at all. Again, I hope this did not happen. What I can say about plastic water bottles I can say about one too many tequila shots — oh my days, never again…

#3 Sydney, Australia

Photo by Jay Wennington on Unsplash

I am in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics. There is a New Year’s Eve party on the sand at Bondi Beach. There were thousands of travelers on the beach. (The locals hate the rubbish after these parties. I don’t blame them.)

What happened to the plastic swept out to sea from 22 years ago? Let’s see where it could have gone.

Author’s own.

Don’t pass go. Straight out into the Pacific ocean to the South Pacific Garbage patch. From here, there is a “high probability of plastic to reach the ocean.”

Final thoughts

water bottle on wave

Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

This was an eye-opening exercise.

It hurts me to think I may have damaged these beautiful beaches, even if not intentionally. I don’t want to virtue signal, but I don’t buy water plastic bottles anymore.

Have you ever thought about all the plastic waste you may have consumed in the past two decades?

When I add it up with the carbon emissions, I don’t want to leave the house again. Not that I can keep away from plastic, even if I tried.

The local people in Cornwall have seen firsthand how plastic remains intact even after decades in the ocean.

It will not change until we stop using plastic (which is everywhere).

Understanding the problem is the first step to solving the problem.

This interactive tool has inspired me to pick up more plastic litter at the beach. Although it’s a small thing in the scheme of things, these garbage patches show that they add up.

Here is the tool for you to try for yourself.

Did you find any particularly alarming routes for plastic pollution using this tool? Do you regret the plastic you have used in the past? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

While you are here, you may also like to read —

How You Eat One Credit Card of Plastic Every Week — And What You Can Do About It

The Hydration Hustle: How Marketers Sold Us on Bottled Water