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> The observation is from 1998 which I believe has relevance that would be curiously missing from the article?

What you're missing is that it's not an article, but an educational resource for kids in grade 3–12.

That only makes me more upset! Why stifle the curiosity of kids that want to investigate the original sources of such information?

It literally says it comes from the Deep-Sea Debris Database, it doesn't spoonfeed it by listing the specific reference, but a search for "mariana trench" and I can see a large variety of debris, including

Plastic bag/sheet (Several), Unidentified debris

Can

Beverage can

Other plastic product (Several)

etc

I feel educational writing would be a better resource by listing their sources.

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