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posted by martyb on Tuesday December 18 2018, @11:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaCHH5D74Fs dept.

Phys.org:

A floating device sent to corral a swirling island of trash between California and Hawaii has not swept up any plastic waste—but the young innovator behind the project said Monday that a fix was in the works.

Boyan Slat, 24, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, said the speed of the solar-powered barrier isn't allowing it to hold on to the plastic it catches.

"Sometimes the system actually moves slightly slower than the plastic, which of course you don't want because then you have a chance of losing the plastic again," Slat said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A crew of engineers will reach the U-shaped boom Tuesday and will work for the next few weeks to widen its span so that it catches more wind and waves to help it go faster, he said.

The plastic barrier with a tapered 10-foot-deep (3-meter-deep) screen is intended to act like a coastline, trapping some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that scientists estimate are swirling in the patch while allowing marine life to safely swim beneath it.

They should try hiring dolphins.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:02AM (7 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:02AM (#776117)

    There will no doubt be lots of teething problems with something fairly ambitious like this.

    I can see them scooping up quite a lot of sea life despite not intending to. I can't see many jellyfish swimming under a 3 metre deep boom.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:51AM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:51AM (#776128)

      It's a millennial's project... release it now based on in-depth engineering done on the back of a cocktail napkin, then worry about the dead jellyfish and dolphins later.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:02AM (3 children)

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:02AM (#776130)

        It's gonna take a lot of iterations to clean a moving area the size of Texas with a 600m barrier using solar propulsion.
        I admire the ambition of whoever funded that idea. Hope it collects at least more trash than building and servicing it requires.

        Related question: Since less than 15 rivers reject the vast majority of the plastic, shouldn't you put the barrier at the sources, rather than undertake the Sisyphean task of trying to clean after dilution ?

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:38AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:38AM (#776139)

          Put these in place at those locations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Trash_Wheel [wikipedia.org] You could literally clean up the world.

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:24AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:24AM (#776217)

          I admire the ambition of whoever funded that idea.

          Maersk, Deloitte, Boskalis, AkzoNobel, Microsoft, Sabic, DSM, various universities, KLM, Dropbox, Intel... just to name a few.

          https://www.theoceancleanup.com/partners/ [theoceancleanup.com] for a full list.

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday December 19 2018, @09:49AM

          by Rivenaleem (3400) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @09:49AM (#776236)

          I got the impression that this is a single unit. Maybe when they get it working satisfactorily they will produce more of them?

      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday December 19 2018, @06:19PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @06:19PM (#776411) Journal

        Better than the Baby Boomers who are busy sitting on their asses doing nothing.

    • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:38AM

      by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:38AM (#776147) Journal

      I can't see many jellyfish swimming under a 3 metre deep boom.

      Wait... we *DON'T* want to exterminate jellyfish in bulk??

      --
      В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:20AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:20AM (#776120)

    > They should try hiring dolphins.

    So long and thanks for all the plastic?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:29AM (4 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:29AM (#776121) Journal

      The microplastic contamination of the oceans proves that homo sapiens are superior to dolphins.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:38AM

        by edIII (791) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:38AM (#776125)

        Until they laugh their asses off that we couldn't be bothered to review the hyperspace bypass construction plans that put it right through the Earth.....

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:56AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @12:56AM (#776129)

        Or we are busy making them into super dolphins with all them chemicals.

        • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:46AM (1 child)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:46AM (#776225) Journal

          into super dolphins with all them chemicals.

          That would have been the tentacle, who had its day, not the dolphins

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by snufu on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:54AM (2 children)

    by snufu (5855) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:54AM (#776140)

    or is it just a virtue signaling boondoggle by an amateur?

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:39AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:39AM (#776149) Journal

      Someone should have experimented at home first. Fill a bathtub, then dump in some neutrally bouyant thingies. Try catching them. It isn't easy. This plastic doesn't all float at the surface, nor is there any reason to think that it all floats within 10, or 20, or even 50 feet of the surface. Sure, every bit helps, but there are probably more bits that you can't see, than you can see.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:31AM (#776219)

      TU Delft is one of the major academic partners, you might know them from their hyperloop pod system (2nd place if I remember correctly), and solar challenge cars (various times 1st place).

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:13AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:13AM (#776216)

    Independent if this works or not, I always wondered what they do with the collected plastics. Here in the Netherlands we collect plastics for recycling... but not everything and if there are plastics in the bag that can't be recycled (which happens a lot) the whole bag is incinerated. Overall percentage of recycling is pretty low, I remember something like 30-40% is recycled. Plastic recycling seems to me one big mess, due to the various different types of plastics, that are also often combined in the same packaging.

    Even if their collection device works, what then... processing is hard even before it ends up in the water in the first place.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:51AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:51AM (#776228) Journal

      Independent if this works or not, I always wondered what they do with the collected plastics.

      Why... public works of art [thenational.ae], of course.

      (grin)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:50AM (2 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:50AM (#776227) Homepage Journal

    You're in bed, the women are getting very very wet. Squirting everywhere. But, it's O. K. It's not a problem -- if you have the Plastic. Or the Rubber Sheets.

    You find a woman that looks incredibly hot. A 10. But you're thinking, "oh, what about the AIDS?" So many people getting the AIDS. If you saw Philadelphia -- the lawyer caught the AIDS. And, my lawyer caught the AIDS. So I had to fire him very quickly. Well, Rubber. You wear the Rubber and it's O. K. It's not a problem. Although, so many of my friends can't wear that one. Because they're allergic to it. And possibly someone will invent the Plastic Rubber. So everybody can have A LOT of fun.

    You meet a woman -- or maybe it's your daughter -- she's very flat chested. And it's the only thing that stops her from being a 10. So you send her to the Doctor, you write him a check, he does his thing. And she comes out looking fabulous -- Plastic.

    Australia, they're very smart. Because they kicked out Malcolm from his seat. And what they do at the beaches. You go to the beach there -- shark nets everywhere. Very hard for a shark to get in. Unlike Cape Cod -- so sad what happened there. When Arthur from Revere was killed in a HORRIFIC Shark Attack (RIP!!!). And the Huge Barrier is a lot like that. They made it for Plastic, it doesn't work for the Plastic, that's O. K. Because, possibly it can catch the Sharks. Every day we send our brave Fishermen out there. My oldest sons and so many guys. With the harpoons -- so dangerous. But the Huge Barrier is out there, floating. And the Sharks can't go through it. It closes in on them, it makes a circle. And they're caught like El Chapo (horrible guy). Brilliant!!!!

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday December 19 2018, @04:23PM (1 child)

      by Freeman (732) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @04:23PM (#776366) Journal

      Hint, there are Latex free Condoms. I.E. Plastic.

      --
      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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @07:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @07:45PM (#776468)

        He calls it a rubber, it must be made of rubber :)

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:35PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:35PM (#776316) Homepage Journal

    A similar Dutch project in the North Sea was successful. The big difference is that the North Sea is shallower than the Pacific, and they could anchor the barrier and let the natural ocean currents bring on the floating current.

    It seems the limit here is their ability to keep the barrier moving relative to the surface water. This may be a solvable problem.

    Using the Dutch anchoring tech across a river might work, too, but unless you're willing to block navigation channels, there will be plenty of room for plastic to bypass the barrier.

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