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posted by chromas on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the garbage-patch-kid dept.

Forbes:

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.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:00PM (13 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:00PM (#730792) Journal

    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.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:45PM (9 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:45PM (#730805) Homepage Journal

    Oh sure, take the side of the multi-cellular critters over the microbes, you horrible sizeist, you!

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:41PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:41PM (#730839)

      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)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:02PM (#730859) Homepage Journal

        I'm always for the little guy, yo. And it don't get much littler than microbes.

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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @09:36PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @09:36PM (#730969)

          So you're pro-virii and bacteria? To your own demise?

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:18AM

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:18AM (#731034) Homepage Journal

            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.

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    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:47PM (4 children)

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:47PM (#730946)

      Oh sure, take the side of the multi-cellular critters over the microbes

      I certainly do, on a regular basis. It's called soap.

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      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:02PM (3 children)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:02PM (#730975) Journal

        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.

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        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:25PM (2 children)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:25PM (#730990) Journal

          For real? Even good ol' Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap is bad?

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          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:33PM (1 child)

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:33PM (#731321) Journal

            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.

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            • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 06 2018, @06:09PM

              by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday September 06 2018, @06:09PM (#731431) Journal

              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)

    by driverless (4770) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @07:43PM (#730917)

    a 600-meter (almost 2,000-foot) long floater

    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

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:14PM (#730934)

      what sort of unholy beast would produce a 2,000-foot floater?

      Could be a Zorah Magdaros [wikia.com].

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:09AM (#731095)

    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.