Checked on our garbage patch lately? The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic, covering an area of around 1.6 million square kilometers, roughly three times the size of Texas. The numbers : An estimated 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year. At this rate, there could be more plastic in the ocean by weight than fish by 2050. Within the GPGP, there are approximately 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic weighing around 80,000 tons. The culprit : There are a lot of different types of plastic, but the most common is polyethylene (PE) and it’s found in single-use plastics like water bottles and bags. Fungi to the rescue : Researchers collected fungi samples from floating plastic fragments and isolated a fungus called Parengyodontium album, which has a penchant for degrading sun-soaked plastics. It has a special appetite for PE, which it broke down at a rate of 0.05% per day. Read more.