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from the have-you-tried-not-putting-it-in-in-the-first-place dept.
Ocean Cleanup Device Shows It Can Remove Plastic From the Pacific:
It's been nearly a decade since Boyan Slat announced at age 18 that he had a plan to rid the world's oceans of plastic.
Slat, now 27, is a Dutch inventor and the founder of the Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit that aims to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.
That goal has often seemed unattainable. The Ocean Cleanup launched its first attempt at a plastic-catching device in 2018, but the prototype broke in the water. A newer model, released in 2019, did a better job of collecting plastic, but the organization estimated that it would need hundreds of those devices to clean the world's oceans.
Scientists and engineers began to question whether the group could deliver on the tens of millions of dollars it had acquired in funding.
But over the summer, the organization pinned its hopes on a new device, which it nicknamed Jenny. The installation is essentially an artificial floating coastline that catches plastic in its fold like a giant arm, then funnels the garbage into a woven funnel-shaped net. Two vessels tow it through the water at about 1.5 knots (slower than normal walking speed), and the ocean current pushes floating garbage toward the giant net.
In early August, the team launched Jenny in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a trash-filled vortex between Hawaii and California. The garbage patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world, encompassing more than 1.8 trillion pieces, according to the Ocean Cleanup's estimates.
Last week, Jenny faced its final test as the organization sought to determine whether it could bring large amounts of plastic to shore without breaking or malfunctioning. The Ocean Cleanup said the device hauled 9,000 kilograms, or nearly 20,000 pounds, of trash out of the Pacific Ocean — proof that the garbage patch could eventually be cleaned up.
"Holy mother of god," Slat tweeted that afternoon, adding, "It all worked!!!"
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday October 23 2021, @07:01AM (2 children)
3kg each and every day, for every adult?
Doesn't pass the sniff test.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 23 2021, @07:35AM (1 child)
Perhaps not as individuals. Have you accounted for industrial waste, and flat out illegal dumping? Then there's all that unintentional runoff. An ephemeral stream crosses my property. A heavy rain flushes all sorts of trash from my property, and deposits new trash from upstream. Unless someone is actively collecting that stuff somewhere downstream, it all washes out into the Gulf of Mexico, eventually.
I can't quantify the trash and litter that flows into the oceans. Take the numbers offered with a grain of salt. It's at least a starting point.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 24 2021, @01:12AM
Industrial waste is a likely contributor, but illegal dumping and littering can't increase the amount of garbage produced, only redirect it, so that number still remains highly suspect.
Illegal dumping is still a big problem that needs to be fixed*. There was a scandal a few years ago where Canada's largest recycler was caught dumping in the oceans. Not only were they diverting garbage from landfill** to do it, but they had embezzled millions in federal grants that were supposed to be for recycling technology development.
*I favour jail time for executives and complicit politicians, but I'm kind of a one trick pony.
**Landfill isn't great, but it is less bad than ocean dumping and is much easier to clean up after the fact.