[maercsrats]

Well, there is already a lot of plastic in the oceans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

This could be useful for helping to break down that island if it was seeded with a slurry of this bacteria.

[Retric]

It's not an island. It's not a visibly dense field of floating debris. The process of disintegration means that the plastic particulate in much of the affected region is too small to be seen The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has one of the highest levels known of plastic particulate suspended in the upper water column. Only the continuous addition of new plastic that keeps the consentrations that high, the plastic actually decomposes fairly quickly.