We all are aware of how plastic is killing our oceans. Recently, on Earth Day, the social media was buzzing with the sounds of sustainable practices like ‘reducing the use of plastics’, ‘recycling the plastic’ etc. but what about the plastic that’s already out there drifting away in the oceans? The plastic would not clear up on its own. Here comes The Ocean Cleanup to the rescue!
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit Dutch organization dedicated to clearing the seas from plastic. Boyan Slat, the 18-year-old aerospace engineering student, dropped out of university to establish the company. Through crowdfunding and investor’s money, the company is all set to start working on the ambitious project.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Most of the ocean plastic is concentrated in five areas in the world due to ocean currents – the subtropical gyres also known as the world’s “ocean garbage patches”. The largest one aka the Great Pacific Garbage patch lies between California and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
The patch contains vast amounts of fishing nets, plastic bags, bottles and other plastic debris a total of 79,000 tons of plastic, an area three times the size of France and it’s growing rapidly.
The debris entangles and chokes all sorts of marine animals, eventually killing them. Many birds mistake the floating pieces of plastic with food and die by choking on it. The plastic also breaks down into microplastics consumed by fishes which may end up on our plates too. Similar patches, or gyres, can be found in the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean and two in the Atlantic.
The Technology of The Ocean Cleanup
The idea is no rocket science. In fact, it’s quite simple. Most of the debris is found floating around the surface of the water. Floating screens, the 40 feet long floating pipes are fitted together and suspended in the ocean. They have nylon screens hanging down which is capable of catching debris as small as one centimeter in diameter.
The system uses ocean currents as its driving force. A large sea anchor connected to the screen is suspended in the slow moving water layer which in turn, slows down the speed of the floating screens and allows the fast moving plastic to get accumulated against the screen. Eureka!
The screen is U shaped so that the plastic is funneled towards the center. The buoyancy of the system is maintained by air-filled floaters. The system will float on the gyres autonomously and can be monitored through real-time telemetry which would allow the system to learn and improve.
No external energy source would be required for the system to catch plastic. Lights and AIS will be powered by solar energy.
Fish will be able to escape the screens by swimming underneath them. After few months, the debris will be collected by passing boats and ships.
Estimated Impact
The organization claims that the system could clean up half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years. Although the system is not of any use for cleaning up microplastics but by removing plastics, it can prevent it from breaking down into microplastics. After three years of research, feasibility study and testing, the system would be deployed by mid-2018.
For more details, visit https://www.theoceancleanup.com/
Images – The Ocean Cleanup