There's an area 1,000 miles off the coast of Hawaii that's considered the largest garbage dump in the world.
Only problem - it's smack-dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The mess is millions of pieces of plastic, an area larger than the size of Texas.
"We found on the big pieces everything from beer crates, drink crates, bottles, chairs, even a stuffed animal," said Douglas Woodring.
It's called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it extends from the west coast of California to Hong Kong.
"It is thousands of square miles in size," said Woodring.
In August, Woodring led a team of researchers with Project Kaisei to examine the plastic they found.
"We tested between our two boats 3,500 miles of water in regular surface sampling with nets only a meter wide. We got plastic in every single sample," said Woodring.
He estimates there's millions of tons of trash in the North Pacific Gyre - brought together by a series of currents.
"When you look down and see these little specks everywhere, you think my gosh, it's all over the place," said Woodring.
Plastic even turned up inside of the fish they caught.
"A whale in California washed up six months ago, sperm whale had 800 pounds of plastic inside of it," said Woodring.
Woodring says there's no escaping our own trash.
"Something you think throw something away and there actually is no away," he said.
Researchers with Project Kaisei are calling for action to prevent and clean up this mess.
"Trying to use this cause and problem to motivate change on land," said Woodring.
And it can start with Hawaii.
"Refusing using stuff if you can or at least reduce intake of stuff packaged in plastic," said Woodring.
Project Kaisei will take another voyage this summer to research ways to turn the plastic trash into a future fuel source.
