It's millions of tons a year, not billions.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150212-ocean...

More details on that study here: http://jambeck.engr.uga.edu/landplasticinput (10.1126/science.1260352)

Total worldwide production of plastics looks to be about 250 million tons, and they are estimating that about 8 million tons per year make it into the oceans. From the paper, but not the gloss, is that fact that China is by far the leading offender in this, followed by Indonesia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. India is in 10th place, and the US in 20th. Coastal Europe combined is about the same as the US.

No one is "dumping" plastic on the ocean. It's million of litterers and maritime equipment malfunctions.

Cosmetic companies include microbeads in many products. These end up in the sea. The plastic soaks up some pollutants, and is also eaten by fish. It makes its way into the human food chain. It's a serious problem. Individual consumers didn't really know that they were dumping plastic into the ocean. The manufacturing companies did know, absolutely, that they were dumping hundreds of billions of these microbeads.

Acrylic clothing sheds microfibres. These are too small to be caught by washing machine filters, and they end up in the sea doing the same thing as plastic microbeads.

> Cosmetic companies include microbeads in many products.

Those are now banned, no?

In the US, maybe. About to be banned in the UK. I have no idea what's banned anywhere else.

Is there a way to pull that out of the ocean? Some kind of sifter on the front of a ship? Has anyone tried it?