Of course the big issue isn't just how long it takes till it's gone, but what it does while it's not gone. Like some kind of psychotic torturer, pretty much every piece of garbage in the ocean has specific specialities in maiming, killing and sickening marine life. Many pieces of marine garbage don't stop at their first victim. Ingested soft plastic kills and as the dead animal decomposes, the plastic survives and goes on to find a new victim. 6 pack rings become a noose, fishing lines entangle and drown and all plastic breaks down to micro plastics which enter the food chain, attach to sea-life and salt and end up in us.It's more important than ever for each of us to protect our oceans and find one of the many alternatives to plastic that suit our lifestyles, to waste less, minimise recycling - not by putting it in landfill, but by not buying the products that are plastic or packaged in plastic of any kind in the first place, unless it's absolutely necessary.