What if plastic had been invented a long time ago? What if the pilgrims on the Mayflower had snacks wrapped in plastic? Their trash would still be around today.

Plastic became popular in the 1950s. Since then, we’ve made 9.2 billion tons of plastic. A lot of that plastic has become waste. A lot of it hasn’t been recycled. Will it ever biodegrade, or break down? Maybe. Maybe not.

Plastic waste is a problem in our oceans. One expert thinks as much as 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year.

Henderson Island is small and far away. It is in the Pacific Ocean. No one lives there. Yet, it is filled with trash. It has more than 19 tons of trash on its beaches. Most of it is plastic.

For each piece of plastic you see on the beach, two pieces are buried in the sand. How does so much trash get there?