Scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, revealed that there are around five massive garbage patches floating on the earth's oceans, with some of them almost as huge as the state of Texas.

The said study was included in the journal Chaos, published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).

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Garbage patches in the ocean form when rotating ocean currents pool them together. These masses cause great environmental concerns, especially since the majority of the trash are broken plastic, which spread easily and are toxic to marine life.

The massive garbage patches are found in the north and south Pacific, the north and south Atlantic, and the middle of the Indian oceans. 

People think of the masses as huge islands of trash, but researchers correct this notion, saying that they "resemble a thin soup of plastic" because ultraviolet light and the water's current break down the trash into tiny pieces. Unfortunately, the broken down pieces are easily eaten by fish.

The Australian researchers also shared that although it might seem to be a daunting task, they may be able to pinpoint the nations that contribute most to the pollution through computer modelling.

USNW mathematician and co-author Gary Froyland shared that one of the problems in determining the major polluters is the movement of the ocean and the trash in it.

"In some cases, you can have a country far away from a garbage patch that's unexpectedly contributing directly to the patch," he said.

Oceanographer Erik van Sebille, co-author of the study, shared that through computer modelling, they may be able to explore how quickly trash can move, for example, from Australia to the north Pacific.

Researchers aim to understand how the ocean's surface waters mix. The computer model created by the scientists reveal that some parts of the Pacific and Indian oceans are closely coupled to the south Atlantic. The modelling also found that waters once believed to be part of the Indian Ocean, on the other hand, actually belong to the south Pacific.

Van Sebille stated, "The take-home message from our work is that we have redefined the borders of the ocean basins according to how the water moves."

Aside from understanding how trash in the ocean travels, the study could provide a better insight into how oil spills might flow through the ocean, and thus be better managed and remedied.