Ocean Cleanup Beginning!
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| Picture of the Great Pacific Gyre by Wikimedia Commons |
This article by Trevor Nace titled “The World’s Largest Ocean Cleanup Has Officially Begun” was posted on Forbes and discussed the most recent attempt to rid the ocean of plastic. We have talked a lot in class about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and how much plastic is polluting our oceans. This article talks about the 20-million-dollar system that was designed by the non-profit group Ocean Cleanup. This non-profit was founded by an 18-year-old Dutch inventor named Boyan Slat in 2013. This system is being called a floating bloom and essentially it will be dragged out into the ocean and then as it drifts along with local currents, a U shape will form. This U formation will collect the plastic trash floating along the surface of the ocean. There is also a net connected to the floating bloom that extends 10 feet below the surface enabling it to collect even more plastic trash. Once the bloom is full, a transport vessel will meet it out at sea, empty the trash, and bring the trash to land to be sorted and recycled. The article states that the net is not deep enough where fish and other wildlife can’t swim below it. Overall I thought this was a super interesting article and I’m curious to see what the results of this floating bloom are.
This is such a great idea and, sadly, it is probably not going to work.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of problems with the concept, many of which are spelled out here: https://www.kcet.org/redefine/6-reasons-that-floating-ocean-plastic-cleanup-gizmo-is-a-horrible-idea .
And, as predicted ("The collectors will break really, really quickly"): the collectors did break, really really quickly. They also were not collecting the plastic; it was washing over the top of the booms.
You can more read here about the boom breaking apart: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/01/06/pacific-ocean-garbage-patch-cleanup-boom-breaks-apart/
This one also talks about the boom breaking apart and that it was not catching plastic: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ocean-cleanup-device-breaks-down-well-ridding-pacific-plastics-n954446 .