Toxic Garbage Island
There exists a patch of floating garbage, several 10s of thousands of square kilometers, floating in the middle of the north Pacific ocean, approximately 3000 miles west of L.A.
Any garbage (namely, plastics) that makes its way into the ocean, be it in South/North Asia, or North America, floats with the ocean currents (sometimes for several years) to be concentrated at this one area, due to the clockwise motion of the ocean currents, in an area referred to as the North Pacific Gyre.
How does it matter? It all adds up in the food we eat.
Check out the series of 12 videos (each approximately 5-6 minute) at
http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308505
[The 1st of video summarizes the whole series]