India is the fastest-growing economy in the world, and home to 1.3 billion people. Approximately 15,342 tonnes of plastic waste are wasted by Indians every single day, and about 60% of that is recycled — far higher than the global average of 14%.

Last year the Chinese government dropped a bombshell on the world recycling business: It cut back almost all imports of trash. And now a lot of that plastic gets shipped to other countries that don't have the capacity to recycle it or dispose of it safely.

"What we found was actually pretty surprising," Van Houtan says. "We found that most of the plastic is below the surface." More, he says, than in the giant floating patches.