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A massive cleanup of plastic in the seas will begin in the Pacific Ocean, by way of Alameda, California. The Ocean Cleanup, an effort that's been five years in the making, plans to launch its beta cleanup system, a 600-meter (almost 2,000-foot) long floater that can collect about five tons of ocean plastic per month.
It's a start. The launch date is September 8, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch being targeted is more than 1,000 nautical miles from the launch point and on the move.
The Ocean Cleanup plans to monitor the performance of the beta, called System 001, and have an improved fleet of 60 more units skimming the ocean for plastics in about a year a half. The ultimate goal of the project, founded by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat when he was 18, is to clean up 50% of the patch in five years, with a 90% reduction by 2040.
[...] The total cost of System 001 is about 21 million euros ($24.6 million U.S.), according to a rep for startup. That includes design, development, production, assembly and monitoring during the first year of operation.
Once the scale-up is complete and the fleet of 60 is in place, the organization plans to continue operations with help from the proceeds of recycled plastic. Plans are to make products using ocean plastic, so people can support the cleanup that way.
[...] The system takes advantage of natural oceanic forces to catch and concentrate the plastic.
You might liken it to one of those self-directing pool cleaners, on a larger scale. Or a big Roomba cleaning robot.
(Score: 2) by YeaWhatevs on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:51PM (16 children)
You can't just remove the plastics without also disturbing the ecosystem. I saw on one of those nature shows that floating seaweed, garbage, etc is a sanctuary for smaller fish and a reason many of the fish exist in an area around it. Maybe they should also add some floating sanctuaries in order to offset the cleanup they are doing. Perhaps they could melt the plastics together into floating clumps to offset the cost.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:58PM
Sargasso sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargasso_Sea [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:00PM (13 children)
Cleaned, decommissioned ships could make for a good reef. Plastic bits floating at the top of the ocean aren't a good habitat, and can accumulate in the stomachs of fish, whales, dolphins, and sharks, causing them to die.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:45PM (9 children)
Oh sure, take the side of the multi-cellular critters over the microbes, you horrible sizeist, you!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:41PM (3 children)
Take a good look buzzy my boy, you have sunk lower than i thought possible. You in bed with Big Pepsi now?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:02PM (2 children)
I'm always for the little guy, yo. And it don't get much littler than microbes.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @09:36PM (1 child)
So you're pro-virii and bacteria? To your own demise?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:18AM
You can't be an admin and be pro-virus. I'm a big fan of bacteria though. The good ones make me poop good and the bad ones make my immune system outstanding. Yeast is probably my favorite microorganism though, for obvious reasons.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:47PM (4 children)
I certainly do, on a regular basis. It's called soap.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:02PM (3 children)
Soap is bad. It makes your microbiome angry, and the little critters take it out on your body in various ways. Take care of your microbiome instead, and your microbiome will take care of you.
Hot water, and some kind of implement to exfoliate (scrubby cloth, pumice, sandstone, etc) is all you need. You'll smell better, and feel better. Honest.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:25PM (2 children)
For real? Even good ol' Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap is bad?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:33PM (1 child)
Haha, yeah, I chuckle when I think of how New-Agey and hippy-dippy it is of me, because I'm not like that. But my working theory is soap causes a general state of inflammation in your body. Your skin is an ecosystem, and exposing it to soap destabilizes it. It's the same idea they have begun to research in recent years about how anti-biotics don't just kill all the harmful bacteria in your body, but all the beneficial bacteria as well.
For normal hygiene, water is a remarkably effective cleaning agent. Hot water is even better. Combine it with exfoliation, as vigorous or gentle as you wish, and you'll be squeaky clean. As a bonus, when you don't use soap your skin doesn't dry out and you don't have to then slather yourself with a lotion or some other suite of chemicals to try to repair the damage.
No, I haven't run a double-blind study on it. I am in no way qualified as a medical professional or anything else of the kind; even if I were nobody in the world would fund such a study because there's no profit in it.
But I can say I have been doing it for two years now, and have experienced several benefits. First, all my seasonal allergies have disappeared. No more sneezing and coughing and itchy eyes in the spring, or in the fall. Second, my skin and hair are in better condition than they've ever been. Women compliment me on my skin regularly, and that's unusual because I'm a heterosexual man who uses no products of any kind. I used to have dry, brittle hair, and now it's lustrous. Third, I smell better. My wife is the olfactory equivalent of a super taster, and now reports I smell better than our nine-year old daughter.
Now, I don't know how it would work if you had long hair. Mine's short, so it's easy to wash. People with long hair might have trouble. Also, if you are exposed to extraordinary dirt (say, if you're replacing a septic tank or something) or chemicals, I would still use soap. I still wash my hands with soap when cooking, after using the facilities, or after riding the NYC subway. But for ordinary hygiene I don't use it at all anymore.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 06 2018, @06:09PM
Yeah mine is waaaaaay long, like "haven't cut it in a quarter century, just get it cleaned up every couple months" long. Like, "down to my knees" long. So it gets a wash every 3 days in winter, every 2 days in summer, or any time i work up a serious sweat. Drying it is way more of a PITA than washing.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday September 05 2018, @07:43PM (1 child)
Holy shit, literally! The biggest floater I've ever squeezed out was maybe 8-10 inches, what sort of unholy beast would produce a 2,000-foot floater?
ObMod suggestion: -9000 Tasteless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:14PM
Could be a Zorah Magdaros [wikia.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:09AM
Sunken ships do make excellent reefs, but they make for terrible flotsam. The difference is that floating trash has some benefits (and drawbacks of course) to surface fish who are evolved to use flotsam, while reefs don't help those fish at all.
(Score: 3, Funny) by linkdude64 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:28PM
"But the children are having so much fun playing in the radioactive waste..."
Not worth it, not even close.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:24PM (2 children)
I wonder if anyone will clean up the junk in orbit.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:37PM (1 child)
Sure, when it gets as bad as the stuff in the ocean.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:01PM
Maybe the junk in orbit could sink the stuff in the ocean.
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:27PM (1 child)
A lot of sea food is contaminated with decomposed microscopic plastic particles including the sea salt.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:04PM
I betcha we inhale more microscopic plastic particles as dust created by mechanical reduction than we ever ingest.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:32PM (1 child)
Hm, I was curious about their numbers.
Looks like these guys are the only group that's made an actual estimate of the amount of garbage in the pacific garbage patch. They say there's 80,000 tonnes to clean up. That's actually way less than I expected.
Anyway, assuming the 80,000 tonne number is real and the vessel performs as well as expected a fleet of 60 ships is about right to achieve their goal. Cool.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:34AM
I too was intrigued by the numbers -- as the Garbage Patch is generally portrayed as floating islands of plastic.
The number of 80,000 tonnes is valid: however, global plastic production per year now stands at 335 million ton [statista.com]. If only 1 percent of that ends in rivers and seas, annually, you're looking at a 3 million ton problem -- as plastic generally floats, the question is where that all ends up.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:39PM
Global warming is bullshit, damn hippies throwing a fit over some garbage in the ocean. You know how big the ocean is? We are becoming a third world shithole populated by pussies. MAGA MAGA MAGA you suckers!
There is a non zero chance this comment is stupid.
(Score: 1) by CheesyMoo on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:02PM (2 children)
Glad to see this happening, of course its not just ugly and bad for the fish, the microplastics severely effect the ocean's plankton, the basis of the entire planets food web (and producers of 50-70% (figure under debate) of the Earth's oxygen)
Indeed you can't really remove the plastic without also grabbing some sea-life. It makes me think of getting your teeth cleaned at the dentist, leaving the plaque/tartar on your teeth is worse than taking the hit and getting a few scrapes (but thats what the dentist tells me, just like the barber thinks I need a haircut). But to continue the argument with myself, the plastic gyre in the ocean is a problem looking for a solution, not the other way around...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:06PM (1 child)
If somebody can figure out a good use for the plastic, like plastic lumber or something, we could look at it like resource extraction.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:21AM
We already can. The average US household would have to replace the majority of the items contained in the house if plastics suddenly disappeared. They're absolutely essential for anything approaching a modern western lifestyle.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.