Have you ever heard of the North Pacific Gyre? AKA the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” it’s a rotating pinwheel of pollution that stretches over a gigantic area of the Pacific, bracketing Hawaii.

Cesarharada.com/Flickr

Some say it’s as big as Texas; others say it’s as big as the continental U.S. But nobody really knows because most of it is invisible (the photo above notwithstanding). That’s because the plastic pollutants that make up a large portion of it are no longer intact: they’ve broken down into tiny particles that permeate the ocean – Franken-plankton, you could call it.

And that’s just how it’s treated by the fish that eat it – sharks and whales that take in huge gulps of plastic laced soup every time they feed. But the bodies of all marine animals are host to the plastic particles, which concentrate ever more as they move up the food chain. Humans, who eat the fish, become part of the toxic chain, as well.

Plastic (which acts like an artificial estrogen) does nasty things to our endocrine systems, promoting reproductive cancers in men and women and causing penile defects in infant boys. Some scientists link it to the epidemic of obesity, as well as to learning disabilities and behavioral disorders in children. And it may be one reason fertility rates are plunging around the planet.

It’s estimated that 100 million metric tons of plastic debris contaminates the North Pacific Gyre – with 600 billion metric tons floating in the world’s oceans overall.

How does so much plastic end up in the ocean? Because 1) so much is being used and 2) so little is being recycled. In the U.S. 93% of plastics never get to a recycling center; they go straight into the landfill. Even redeeming PET bottles for cash leads only to 38% recovery. So many water bottles are thrown away every week; you could wrap a line of them around the earth five times!

What can we do to slash our plastic footprint? Reduce the amount of plastic products you buy. Reuse containers and bottles (the average refillable bottle can be re-used 25 times). And, of course, recycle.

But we can do much more than that. We can support efforts to pass laws mandating recycled content in plastic, oppose repeal of existing deposit programs, support expanding them to include more types of bottles, and promote banning the disposal of certain plastic bottles in landfills. We should also let our retailers and manufacturers know that we want less plastic packaging.

Slashing our plastic footprint is no longer just about trash. It’s about preserving the web and waters of life that sustain us.