Floating between Hawaii and California lies the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
a region that covers an estimated 1.6 million square kilometers,
roughly three times the size of France.
This region is home to a massive collection of floating trash,
and most of the trash
in the Great Pacific garbage patch isn't just one lump sum of floating trash.
Rather, it is a collection of tiny pieces of plastic suspended in seawater.
For decades, scientists have been at sea over how to stop the influx of trash
into the region, or how to get rid of the growing pile of trash in the ocean.
But recently, a nonprofit organization called the Ocean Cleanup
made a successful breakthrough when they managed to pull out
an astounding 20,000 pounds of plastic trash from the Pacific Ocean.
How exactly did they manage to pull it off?
and what other measures as the ocean cleanup putting in place to bring
a permanent solution to the Great Pacific garbage patch menace?
Let's find out, shall we?
The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization led by Boyan Slat.
His vision for the ocean cleanup is simple Get rid of the Great Pacific
garbage patch.
To do this, slat and his team designed an ocean cleanup system
called Wilson or simply system 001.
The idea behind System 001 was to develop an autonomous
cleanup system that would be driven by the ocean's current,
while its enormous trash net traps suspended plastic trash on its way.
The idea was brilliant.
It meant that the cleanup system won't require a crew staff
and that it could work 24 hours a day, seven days a week
, nonstop cleaning the garbage patch as it went along.
But there was one design flaw that rendered System 001 inefficient.
Although the autonomous system worked quite all right.
Depending on the ocean, currents
for mobility meant that system 001 moved too slowly.
The result suspended plastic trash moving faster than the system
in escaping from the system altogether.
To correct this design flaw, the ocean cleanup design team had to put aside
the autonomous cleanup system for a while to rethink their design.
This yielded System two or Jini, as it is
fondly called named after the character from Forrest Gump.
Unlike System 001, System 002 is towed through the garbage patch
by two large vessels, moving at a very slow speed of about 1.5 knots.
The clean up system comes with a large net barrier that extends about three meters
below the ocean's surface catching plastic garbage as it travels across the ocean.
The barrier is designed with a collection area called the retention zone.
This is where all the trash from the ocean is collected
as the ocean currents drive the trash toward the retention zone.
When the cleanup process for the day is over,
the two ends of the barrier are connected to one of the vessels,
while the other vessel maneuvers to the retention zone,
where all the trash from the cleanup is collected.
Here, the trash is sorted by the crew, and afterwards the sorted trash is
taken ashore, where it is processed to pellets plastics.
And this is one of the coolest parts of what the ocean cleanup does.
These pellets plastics can be sold to manufacturing companies, who
in turn use the recycled plastic to manufacture new goods.
To prove that this concept works, Boyan Slat teamed up
with California designer Garvey's baker and leading Italian eyewear designer
Sophie Lowe to create the ocean cleanups high-end sunglasses.
The frames of the sunglasses were created from recycled plastic
collected by System one, and the proceeds from the sale of
the sunglasses were used to raise funds for future cleanups .
But more importantly, the design and sale of the sunglasses proved a future.
Investors that they can make high end goods
from recycled plastic collected from the garbage patch
slat has made it clear that the ocean cleanup won't be focusing
on creating products from the recycled trash taken out of the garbage patch.
He explained that the sunglasses were only a proof of concept
that this plastic trash could be converted into valuable items.
However, the ocean cleanup team
will continue to research and develop various ways to convert plastic waste
from the ocean into high quality goods to proffer solutions to companies
who might be interested in buying pellets plastics from the nonprofit organization.
With the success of System 002, the Ocean Cleanup is looking to perfect
its cleanup technology by launching System 003,
which will become the blueprint for other cleanup systems going forward.
Slat and his team plan to deploy ten cleanup systems every five years
to greatly reduce the enormous trash floating in the garbage patch.
Considering how much trash lies in the garbage patch,
the ocean cleanup team is only making baby steps at this point.
Slat believes that the team may have to oversee over 3000 cleanups
before they can completely remove all the trash lying in the garbage patch.
But to completely clean up the garbage patch slat recognizes
that the problem of trash flow must be nipped in the bud,
and that will mean cleaning up the rivers were these
plastic trash are dumped before they make their way into the seas.
The process begins when it rains runoff.
Water carries plastic trash from the streets into creeks and into rivers,
which finally carry all the trash into the ocean to cut off this progression.
The ocean cleanup has developed a couple of solutions.
first, the team has deployed state of the art river interceptors
all over the world,
helping to rid rivers of plastic waste before they find their way to the ocean.
But to completely put an end to the ocean pollution crisis we are currently facing.
We must also educate people on waste disposal practices
and change our behavior towards recycling plastic products.
Yes, this will take a lot of collective effort over and beyond
what ocean cleanup can offer.
However, the nonprofit is putting its best foot forward, doing its best
to educate people on the need to adopt climate saving plastic disposal methods.
That said, the ocean cleanup still has some work to do
to perfect its technology, for instance, to utilize System two.
The team has to burn fossil fuels, which means that there is an environmental
cost to the cleanup process.
For now, at least going forward, Slat and his team are looking to go carbon
neutral by experimenting with low carbon emission fuels for their support vessels.
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So why is the carbon cleanups project such a big deal?
Well, let's give you some numbers.
Researchers have estimated that about 11 million metric
tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean every single year.
And by 2040, that figure could rise to a staggering 29 million metric tons.
According to the Ocean Cleanup, ten system 002 devices will only be able to collect
about 15 to 20,000 metric tons of plastic waste per year.
So while the group is only scratching the surface in terms
of what needs to be done, they are showing the world a way to solve
this nagging problem, and you have to say they are doing a great job at it.