The Challenge. Due to its geographic position, Henderson Island is home to the world's most plastic-polluted beach. The South Pacific Gyre washes ocean plastic onto the island's shores, and no one is around to pick it up.
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The ChallengeDue to its geographic position, Henderson Island is home to the world's most plastic-polluted beach. The South Pacific Gyre washes ocean plastic onto the island's shores, and no one is around to pick it up.
A study of Henderson Island in the South Pacific and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a remote territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean, found that plastic pollution acts as an insulator, increasing the temperature of the underlying sand.
South Pacific currents dump as many as 40 million items of plastic and rubbish on the shores of Henderson Island each year, earning it the name of the most polluted island in the world.
The team estimates 37.7 million pieces of plastic debris litter Henderson Island, exposing the extent to which the Earth's nooks and crannies have become sinks for the 311 million tons of plastic waste created annually by humans.
Henderson was colonised by Polynesians between the 12th and 15th centuries, but since then the island has remained uninhabited. The inhospitable nature of the island, together with its remoteness and inaccessibility, has so far effectively ensured its conservation.