Over the past few years, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been getting a lot of attention. It just floats out there in the ocean, polluting an area that may be up to 5,800,000 square miles, made up of 100 million tons of crap, mostly tiny pieces of plastic floating just under the surface. As far as refuse goes, the Pacific garbage patch is some impressive stuff.

But it's not the only contender out there. There's a new kid on the block -- the Atlantic garbage patch -- and he's making a name for himself in the realm of disgusting piles of trash. Which patch is the most disgusting? Let's check the figures ...

Research suggests the Pacific patch could be twice as big as the continental United States, but could be as small as 270,000 square miles (which, of course, is still huge for a floating trash heap). The Atlantic patch is likely of comparable size. In a boxing match, there would be no odds-on favorite.

The Pacific patch may have existed all the way back in 1988, and its first sighting was during a boat race in 1997. Just recently, after two decades of research, the Sea Education Society finished their work in the Atlantic and published results on the existence of that patch. In 6,100 tows with nets around the Caribbean and North Atlantic, more than half contained plastic particles. Arguably, then, both patches are relatively the same age.

Evidence in both patches shows that wildlife -- especially sea birds -- has a habit of eating the plastic. We're no zoologists, but we'll go out on a limb and suggest that eating plastic from either the Pacific or Atlantic has to cause at the very least some severe gut rot. Again, both patches are equally matched in their destructive force.

In the end, the Pacific patch has garnered all the fame and notoriety, making it the Alec Baldwin to the Atlantic's Stephen. But it's worth noting that these patches exist due to something called gyres, rotating ocean currents that keep swirling the trash in one place. The Pacific and the Atlantic are only two of the five major ocean gyres, meaning somewhere out there lie the Daniel and Billy patches. And we guess an Adam too, or some such.