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Up to 35,000 tons of plastic junk might be floating widely on the world's oceans, according to a new study. 

The study based its results from data obtained from an around-the-world cruise that towed a mesh net at 141 sites. Researchers estimated the total amount of floating plastic debris in open ocean at 7,000 to 35,000 tons. 

The study is the estimation of only floating debris, not plastic that may reside beneath the surface or on the ocean floor. 

"We are putting, certainly by any estimate, a large amount of a synthetic material into a natural environment," said Kara Lavender Law, who didn't participate in the new work and is a student of plastic pollution at the Sea Education Association in Massachusetts, according to Huff Post. "We're fundamentally changing the composition of the ocean."

Researchers added that the plastic debris from land reaches to ocean mostly through storm water runoff. 

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.